Thanks for mentioning this, I am just beginning my FreeBSD journey and wanted to setup a small pre-boot env with mfsBSD[1], didn't know FreeBSD has a tool already to do something like that.
Do the same for X! Well.. a layered addition maybe. I've always felt it's bringing swags of stuff which never gets used. A non accelerated fb or vesa binding would do for a lot of things.
I liked this piece a lot. Nice write up of how you explored the space.
vermaden 9 minutes ago [-]
Thank You :)
> Do the same for X!
I kinda did ... but for RAM usage and not disk space.
In there an “accessible” BSD on the level of live CD Linux distros, like Debian? Hey you can play around but also install it if you want right here right now with a DE
vermaden 3 hours ago [-]
GhostBSD is FreeBSD with GUI installer and MATE by default - it also comes with XFCE flavor.
Highly recommended.
nazgulsenpai 1 hours ago [-]
I haven't checked out GhostBSD's site in a while, and saw they had a version with a DE called "Gershwin" I've never heard of before. It looks really cool for those Apple folk among us https://github.com/gershwin-desktop/gershwin-desktop
Forgeties79 48 minutes ago [-]
Oh wow I love that look! Might have to check this out as well.
haunter 2 hours ago [-]
Thanks exactly what I was looking for
seanw444 3 hours ago [-]
I'd be interested to know too. I haven't seen one, but that's probably because the majority of the BSD demographic is for servers and such, which are mostly all headless.
paulryanrogers 3 hours ago [-]
Ghost BSD?
JPLeRouzic 3 hours ago [-]
I switched from Devuan (Debian without SystemD) to GhostBSD a few weeks ago. Until now it seems a very pleasant travel, even bringing back nice memories of Unix in the 1990 while using all the modern tools.
Zambyte 2 hours ago [-]
I suspect English is not your first language based on your profile and I'd like to give a tip: "until now" implies that what follows is no longer true, due to a recent event that changed it. "So far" is probably closer to what you wanted, which expresses that it's still true, but based on limited time / experience.
3 hours ago [-]
yjftsjthsd-h 4 hours ago [-]
> Also keep in mind that You have entire static FreeBSD Rescue System available under /rescue dir.
If you have ZFS with boot environments, how valuable is that?
vermaden 3 hours ago [-]
I always like to have options - with /rescue you have statically linked bectl(8) and zpool(8) and zfs(8) commands - which help to manage ZFS and ZFS Boot Environments.
cperciva 2 hours ago [-]
You can access /rescue without rebooting, for one thing.
crest 4 hours ago [-]
Wait until you run `pkg upgrade` and it takes several times the 150MiB...
vermaden 3 hours ago [-]
Please read entire article (or at least skim read it) because I also cover that part :)
Rendered at 22:23:18 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time) with Vercel.
[1]: https://github.com/mmatuska/mfsbsd
I liked this piece a lot. Nice write up of how you explored the space.
Details here:
- https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2026/01/18/200-mb-ram-freebsd...
Highly recommended.
If you have ZFS with boot environments, how valuable is that?