Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
I wiped Centos 7.0 off my HP laptop. I knew from previous experiences that a BSD-variant OS are difficult to install. I opted using a GhostBSD live media USB thumb drive. The ISO image is GhostBSD 18.12. I followed the instructions burning the image to my laptop.
To write an ISO to a USB stick:
On BSD dd if=GhostBSD18.12.iso of=/dev/da0 bs=4m
On Linux dd if=GhostBSD18.12.iso of=/dev/sdc bs=4M
On Mac dd if=GhostBSD18.12.iso of=/dev/disk2 bs=10240
I burned the image, plugged in the thumb drive, and booted the computer. After booting, the live image populated the screen. I found the installer icon, and went all in on the re-imaging a BSD back on to this little laptop. It is a humble 4GB RAM,500 GB HD with the standard AMD, Radeon, and Realtek integrated circuits. The process was finished within 30 minutes. I plugged my ethernet cable directly into the laptop, so I can begin the package update process.
The pkg updater had over 300 file updates. After a 45 minute process, my system was up to date. The usual mix of programs are installed: LibreOffice,Xine, and the standard Firefox. I started installing kdenlive and gimp. The software center is slow, it replaces octopkg in a previous iteration of GhostBSD. Yet it does offer the ability to find software on graphical side. The only option for GhostBSD 18.12 is the MATE DE. Under the 19.03 iso XFCE is an additional DE option.
I personally found the command line with fish to be a more reliable source for installing, removing, and upgrading the software. I found the command line software tool is called pkg. It predates dnf and apt. I found it was easier to use. Fish is the terminal that runs with the ZFS file system. The system is incredibly solid and no panic kernels within the first few days. BSD overall is little bit slow to load from the PXE screen, however it is extremely solid.
Yet I spent 3 weeks trying to get my Wifi connection working. I knew BSD was selective on hardware support. I spent a lot of time reviewing the FreeBSD 12.0 manual on trying to resolve the problem. And after a lot of reviewing and help from the GhostBSD staff I came to the conclusion my Realtek network card was not recognized. I installed 4 or 5 different kernel modules with no change in my wireless connectivity. Using a Panda Wireless Paug4 I reestablished my wireless capability. The Paug4 uses a Ralink chip. Luckily this Ralink chip is supported in the BSD kernel. I am now happy with the rig.
The GhostBSD Project has numerous avenues of support: IRC, forums, and Telegram. Using Telegram I contacted Eric, the lead developer of GhostBSD. Eric suggested that I install Telegram. This is where the fastest support occurs.
Telegram is not installed by default. I find the community on Telegram to be kind and charitable to new users. The community has French, German, and English speakers users available for help. I find new users there everyday. However I would discourage new GhostBSD users from contacting FreeBSD centric sources to fixing the laptop.
Apparently a new iso is now available, GhostBSD 19.03. Under the project guidelines, there are enough changes that I should backup the laptop and reinstall. I will be doing this soon with a bit of anxiety following the directions.
Next month I will report on that upgrade process.