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UbuntuBSD – A combination of FreeBSD and Ubuntu

By sk
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UbuntuBSD - Unix for Human beings

Today, I stumbled upon a great news folks. Yes, meet UbuntuBSD, the power of FreeBSD kernel with familiarity of Ubuntu OS. In layman terms, It is a Unix-like operating system, and has the feel, functionality and look of Ubuntu. It comes for Desktop and as well as Server systems. UbuntuBSD ships with FreeBSD kernel, XFCE desktop environment, Firefox, LibreOffice , and of course Ubuntu software center. Since it is based on FreeBSD kernel, the default filesystem is Z file system, or ZFS, which is developed by Sun Microsystems.

Install UbuntuBSD

UbuntuBSD is hosted in the Sourceforge website now. Go to the following link and download the latest version.

As of writing this guide, UbuntuBSD is currently in beta stage, and It is based on FreeBSD 10.1 and Ubuntu 15.10. So, you might end up with some bugs for sure.

After downloading UbuntuBSD ISO, burn it on DVD or USB drive and create a bootable media. Check the following guide to know how to make bootable USB media using dd command.

Then, boot up with system with installation media. You should see the following screen. UbuntuBSD provides a Debian text-based installer.

Select the language to be used for installation process and press ENTER to continue.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_001

Select your Country and press ENTER.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_002

The installer will automatically try to configure Network interface card if you have DHCP server enabled on your network. If you don't have DHCP server, you need to select your Network interface and enter the IP address, netmask , gateway, and DNS details manually.

Then, Enter the hostname for your system.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_003

Next, you'll asked to create a new user account. Enter the full name for the user.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_004

Enter the username for the new user.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_005

Enter password for the new user.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_006

Re-enter the password.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_007

Check the selected current time zone is correct.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_008

Now, it is important step. Select your partitioning method and press ENTER.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_009

Select the disk to partition.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_010

Review the partitions. If everything is ok, select YES and press ENTER to continue.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_012

Now, UbuntuBSD installation will start.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_013

Enter the hostname of the mirror from which Ubuntu will be downloaded. Just leave the default values and press ENTER.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_014

Enter the directory in which the mirror of the Ubuntu archive is located. Leave the default value and press ENTER.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_015

Enter proxy server details if you have any or just leave empty and press ENTER.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_016

The installer will start to download Ubuntu. This will take some time depending upon your Internet connection.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_017

Select the list of software to install. You can either install UbuntuBSD server or desktop. I am going to install UbuntuBSD desktop version, so I selected Xubuntu desktop.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_019

Select the model of your Keyboard.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_020

Next, Choose Country or origin for the keyboard.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_021

Select Keyboard layout.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_022

Now, the installer will start to download Xubuntu Desktop environment. It will take some time. Sit back and grab a cup of coffee.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_023

We have come to the final stage. Select YES and press ENTER to install bootloader.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_024

Press ENTER to set system clock to UTC.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_025

Congratulations! UbuntuBSD has been installed. Remove the installation media and reboot your system.

UbuntuBSD [Running] - Oracle VM VirtualBox_026

Log in to the newly installed UbuntuBSD desktop.

UbuntuBSD login

Here it is how my UbuntuBSD desktop looks like.

UbuntuBSD dekstop

UbuntuBSD desktop edition ships with some day-to-day usage applications including audio/video players, Libreoffice, Firefox, and many.

UbuntuBSD browser

UbuntuBSD office

You can install, update, upgrade, and remove applications as the way you do in the normal Ubuntu desktop.

For example, to install shutter application, just run:

$ sudo apt-get install  shutter

Also, UbuntuBSD ships with graphical package manager 'Ubuntu software center', so you can install applications easily.

UbuntuBSD software

As I mentioned above, the latest UbuntuBSD version is based on FreeBSd 10.1 and Ubuntu 15.10.

$ uname -a

Sample output:

GNU/kFreeBSD ubuntubsd 10.1-0-amd64 #0 Thu, 17 Dec 2015 15:42:16 +0000 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/kFreeBSD
$ cat /etc/*-release

Sample output:

DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=15.10
DISTRIB_CODENAME=wily
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 15.10"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="15.10 (Wily Werewolf)"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 15.10"
VERSION_ID="15.10"
HOME_URL="http://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="http://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="http://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"

UbuntuBSd developers have tried their best to bring FreeBSD kernel into Ubuntu linux, and of course they have succeeded. But, It is still in beta stages of development, and probably has many bugs. So, it is not recommended to use for production environments.

If you found a bug, submit a report here - https://sourceforge.net/p/ubuntubsd/tickets/

Conclusion

So, If you need a more lightweight, secure, fast, robust and reliable desktop or server operating system with simplicity in usage, UbuntuBSD is pretty much perfect. Ubuntu is linux for human beings, whereas UbuntuBSD is Unix for human beings. Give it a try and let me what do you think about this Unix operating system.

That's all for now folks. I will be here soon with another interesting article. Until then, stay tuned with OSTechNix, and support our site by sharing this article on your social networks.

Cheers!

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1 comment

Anders Jackson March 23, 2016 - 8:38 am

Well, I was bound to happen, as Debian has had this combo running for a while now. 😉

Reply

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