Feed about: coding, BSD and opensource
Posted on June 26, 2026 This is another post in the series “A Personal Multi Installer in Lua” . 3) FreeBSD “Multi” Installer at BSDCan 2026. <- This post 2) Proof of Concept for a “Multi” Installer . 1) Motivations and Ideas for a “Multi” Installer . The previous blog post described the proof-of-concept implementations of the installer subsystems and introduced the first mockups (graphical…
Posted on April 9, 2026 A system call is the mechanism through which user-space software requests services from the kernel. In the FreeBSD operating system, more than 400 system calls are available, forming the core interface between applications and the kernel. These system calls are defined in the syscalls.master file, which serves as the authoritative source. This file is processed by the…
Posted on June 28, 2025 nsysctl project is a utility for FreeBSD built on top of the sysctl system call. It allows users to query and modify kernel parameters at runtime. The release 2.2 is out! The previous version (1.2.1) was released almost two and a half years ago. It just worked, so no changes or improvements were necessary. Recently, WebSysctl was launched, it uses the XML data generated by…
Posted on June 22, 2025 SysctlTUI is a text-based utility that allows users to view and modify the FreeBSD kernel state at runtime via a text user interface built on top of sysctl(3) . This is the manual: SYSCTLTUI(8) FreeBSD System Manager's Manual SYSCTLTUI(8) NAME sysctltui - TUI utility to get or set system state SYNOPSIS sysctltui [-h | -v] sysctltui [-d | -V] [-f] [-e label] [-l label] [-i…
Posted on May 29, 2025 The sysctl() system call can get or set the state of the system, the FreeBSD kernel exposes the parameters for sysctl() as objects of a Management information Base (MIB). sysctltui is a Text User Interface sysctl MIB explorer. It allow to view a parameter’s properties and get or set its value. The first version 0.0.1 is out. Getting Started # pkg install sysctlmibinfo2…
Posted on April 26, 2025 The FreeBSD Operating System provides the sysctl system call and utility to get and set system state at runtime. The kernel exposes available parameters for sysctl as objects in a Management Information Base (MIB). Today, FreeBSD includes thousands of sysctl parameters. Moreover, parameters can be added or removed dynamically. Each computer probably builds a different MIB.…
Posted on March 18, 2025 This is another post in the series: “A Personal Multi Installer in Lua”. 2) Proof of Concept for a “Multi” Installer <- this post 1) Motivations and Ideas for a “Multi” Installer This post describes the current Work in Progress with screenshots and previews. Please refer to the previous post for more background information. The idea is that a client creates an installation…
Posted on 2025-01-27 - Updated on 2025-02-02 This post is a list of “I would like this feature installing the operating system”. Motivations and implementation plan. I spent my “Open Source 2022” working around bsdinstall , the FreeBSD OS installer. Weekly I replaced the Text User Interface (TUI) frontend dialog/libdialog with bsddialog/libbsddialog in a component (an utility in C or a shell…
Posted on February 23, 2024 MixerTUI is an audio mixer with a terminal user interface (TUI) for the FreeBSD sound system. It allow to switch easily between laptop and HDMI, headphones and speakers, and so on. Features include: show the current driver configuration, select an audio device to get information, change the volume, or make the device the default. The version 1.5 is out! To install the…
Posted on November 1, 2023 The FreeBSD 3q2023 status report is online ! My contribution is PortOptsCLI (Port Options CLI), a new utility to select the port options using a Command Line Interface. It is suitable for a speech synthesizer (currently tested with the speech synthesizer of accessibility/orca ), so it is accessible to users with vision impairment. To know more: Port(7) manual . Ports…
Posted on September 3, 2023 The FreeBSD Operating System provides the Ports Collection to give users and administrators a simple way to install applications. It is possible to configure a port before the building and installation. The configuration consists of a set of lists: checklists to enable or disable an option, radiolist to select at the most one option. Some list is mandatory, at least one…
Posted on August 28, 2023 Important: This post is now obsolete. Please refer to the FreeBSD 16 System Calls Table for the latest information. A system call is the “tool” used by a software in the userspace to request a “service” to the kernel. The FreeBSD Operating System provides over 400 system calls. They are defined in syscalls.master , this file is processed by makesyscalls.lua to create:…
Posted on August 20, 2023 The FreeBSD Operating System provides the Ports Collection to give users and administrators a simple way to install applications. It is possible to configure a port before the building and installation. PortOptsCLI (Port Options CLI) is an utility to customize ports options via a command line interface. This is the manual, please refer to the README for Getting Started,…
Posted on August 1, 2023 The bsddialog project provides bsddialog and libbsddialog , an utility and a library to build TUI dialogs and widgets. The version 1.0 is out! % git clone https://gitlab.com/alfix/bsddialog.git % cd bsddialog % make % ./bsddialog --msgbox "`./bsddialog --version`" 0 0 Version 1.0 Highlights New features: dynamic exit codes, new environments variables, generic buttons,…
Posted on July 27, 2023 I’m back! The long medical treatment is over. [End September 2022] I was not able to hear in my right ear. [October 2022] After 3 days the situation worsened: acute vertigo and sensorineural deafness (profound hearing loss) in one ear ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensorineural_hearing_loss#Sudden_sensorineural_hearing_loss ), without an identifiable cause, probably:…