Ghostbsd installation

2026-06-14

messing around on a sunday

+ So now we have Microsoft delivering Linux, and the Arch based AUR + getting wrecked by people who should be locked into a public pillory, + and I have some free time. Well in fact a lot of free time now that + I'm retired. +

+ So. I downloaded the latest #Ghostbsd Mate and cut a usb key, then + plugged it into my Thinkpad X220. +

+ The installation was simple and uneventful, and it booted without + problem. Everything worked out of the box. Mate seems pretty and + unobfuscated, just like me. +

So far I've done just two things:

+ (1) to get some thinkpad function keys to work I've added in + /boot/loader.conf +

+acpi_ibm_load="YES"
+

+ Printscreen works, brightness and volume controls work, vol mute + works, lid led works, but the MICMUTE button doesn't work.
+ For the X220 MICMUTE key, which is F20 or 0xBE (190), unfortunately + Ghostbsd's acpi_ibm doesn't pass on the event, so any script for it in + /etc/devd won't be fired. Checking the source code, acpi_ibm only accepts + a subset of events accepted by Linux's thinkpad_acpi, which appears to + cover them all. It's unfortunate as I'm a bit pedantic about keys but I + guess I'll have to live with it as the code is 20 years old and I + doubt it will change anytime soon. +

+ +

FYI, acpi_ibm accepts only these keyboard events:

+        LCD_BACKLIGHT
+        SUSPEND_TO_RAM
+        BLUETOOTH
+        SCREEN_EXPAND
+        SUSPEND_TO_DISK
+        BRIGHTNESS_UP
+        BRIGHTNESS_DOWN
+        THINKLIGHT
+        ZOOM
+        VOLUME_UP
+        VOLUME_DOWN
+        MUTE
+        ACCESS_IBM_BUTTON
+

(2) to enable the automounting of usb storage media:

+sudo pkg install automount
+

+ I've replaced the default Firefox with Librewolf, and I'm not too sure + about zsh instead of bash, and why not doas instead of sudo? +

+ Ghostbsd is a very nice BSD distribution that's been around since + 2010. +

https://www.ghostbsd.org