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The default ancient fvwm was driving me crazy in openbsd and I don't use CWM because one of my hands is injured so viola !: Lumina desktop on OpenBSD 7.3 with better fonts (hopefully):
Last edited by DracoSentien; 04-19-2023 at 07:59 PM.
Old(ish) Acer ES15 laptop 4GB/Radeon 1366x768. OpenBSD 7.4 with pkg_add tigervnc jpeg (nothing else, other than firmware)
1080 monitor attached via HDMI
vnc into a Linux box VM (on another box) that serves as the application server (office desktop (chrome, libre office ...etc.)). Sound forwarded by that server using sndio.
I have to say, I read your other post about this setup and I don't really see the benefits or why OpenBSD is being used. Any OS could run your vnc viewer client as the "server" is actually the workstation computer where applications are installed. In reality you're using a Linux machine.
In fact if you tunnel port 5901 (or whatever port your vnc is using) over ssh (I'm not sure if you have or not) and only allow port 22 through the firewall, you could theoretically run a very insecure and unsupported OS on the laptop - it's the OS on your box that runs vncserver that has to be secure.
I have to say, I read your other post about this setup and I don't really see the benefits or why OpenBSD is being used. Any OS could run your vnc viewer client as the "server" is actually the workstation computer where applications are installed. In reality you're using a Linux machine.
In fact if you tunnel port 5901 (or whatever port your vnc is using) over ssh (I'm not sure if you have or not) and only allow port 22 through the firewall, you could theoretically run a very insecure and unsupported OS on the laptop - it's the OS on your box that runs vncserver that has to be secure.
The Linux server is secure in the sense its a static pre-configured image, reboots have it back to clean/pristine. Yes in the context you outlined any old OS on the laptop would be OK, so why not OpenBSD - its quick/simple/easy to install/upgrade/use and complete, and I prefer its style/ethics. I do also access other systems from the laptop/Openbsd (ssh servers) for the likes of IRC etc. and vnc also caters for opening up any other 'application server' .. not necessarily Linux. Or boot a iso in a VMM. So as a setup it can do all that Linux does, and/or Windows ...etc. As can Linux and/or Windows. Fundamentally just boils down to personal preferences. At least with OpenBSD the kernel and base system are all combined as one, with Linux they're separate entities. Like buying a car, I'd rather buy a combined body and engine than buying the body from one entity, the engine from another.
I installed OpenBSD 7.4 on my IBM ThinkPad 760XD with 80M of RAM, 3G disk, and 166 Pentium MMX processor. I compiled xf86-video-trident from xorg repository (v1.4.0) and managed to run X after some tweaking with the config file. There are some issues with the laptop (large scratches on the screen as you can see), but it is usable as an ssh terminal via LAN.
For the screenshot purposes, I run for fun xeyes and xcalc, but I do not use them usually. In principle, for my hobby tasks xterm and xpdf running in dwm are enough, and the only thing which bothers me is that clang is _very_ slow, and I would like to switch to tcc.
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