As regular It’s FOSS readers should know, I like diving into the world of BSDs. Recently, I came across an interesting BSD that is designed to live on a thumb drive. Let’s take a look at NomadBSD.
What is NomadBSD?
NomadBSD is different than most available BSDs. NomadBSD is a live system based on FreeBSD. It comes with automatic hardware detection and an initial config tool. NomadBSD is designed to “be used as a desktop system that works out of the box, but can also be used for data recovery, for educational purposes, or to test FreeBSD’s hardware compatibility.”
This German BSD comes with an OpenBox-based desktop with the Plank application dock. NomadBSD makes use of the DSB project. DSB stands for “Desktop Suite (for) (Free)BSD” and consists of a collection of programs designed to create a simple and working environment without needing a ton of dependencies to use one tool. DSB is created by Marcel Kaiser one of the lead devs of NomadBSD.
Just like the original BSD projects, you can contact the NomadBSD developers via a mailing list.
Included Applications
NomadBSD comes with the following software installed:
- Thunar file manager
- Asunder CD ripper
- Bash 5.0
- Filezilla FTP client
- Firefox web browser
- Fish Command line
- Gimp
- Qpdfview
- Git
- Hexchat IRC client
- Leafpad text editor
- Midnight Commander file manager
- PaleMoon web browser
- PCManFM file manager
- Pidgin messaging client
- Transmission BitTorrent client
- Redshift
- Sakura terminal emulator
- Slim login manager
- Thunderbird email client
- VLC media player
- Plank application dock
- Z Shell
You can see a complete of the pre-installed applications in the MANIFEST file.
Version 1.2 Released
NomadBSD recently released version 1.2 on April 21, 2019. This means that NomadBSD is now based on FreeBSD 12.0-p3. TRIM is now enabled by default. One of the biggest changes is that the initial command-line setup was replaced with a Qt graphical interface. They also added a Qt5 tool to install NomadBSD to your hard drive. A number of fixes were included to improve graphics support. They also added support for creating 32-bit images.
Installing NomadBSD
Since NomadBSD is designed to be a live system, we will need to add the BSD to a USB drive. First, you will need to download it. There are several options to choose from: 64-bit, 32-bit, or 64-bit Mac.
You will be a USB drive that has at least 4GB. The system that you are installing to should have a 1.2 GHz processor and 1GB of RAM to run NomadBSD comfortably. Both BIOS and UEFI are supported.
All of the images available for download are compressed as a .lzma file. So, once you have downloaded the file, you will need to extract the .img file. On Linux, you can use either of these commands: lzma -d nomadbsd-x.y.z.img.lzma or xzcat nomadbsd-x.y.z.img.lzma. (Be sure to replace x.y.z with the correct file name you just downloaded.)
Before we proceed, we need to find out the id of your USB drive. (Hopefully, you have inserted it by now.) I use the lsblk command to find my USB drive, which in my case is sdb. To write the image file, use this command sudo dd if=nomadbsd-x.y.z.img of=/dev/sdb bs=1M conv=sync. (Again, don’t forget to correct the file name.) If you are uncomfortable using dd, you can use Etcher. If you have Windows, you will need to use 7-zip to extract the image file and Etcher or Rufus to write the image to the USB drive.
When you boot from the USB drive, you will encounter a simple config tool. Once you answer the required questions, you will be greeted with a simple Openbox desktop.
Thoughts on NomadBSD
I first discovered NomadBSD back in January when they released 1.2-RC1. At the time, I had been unable to install Project Trident on my laptop and was very frustrated with BSDs. I downloaded NomadBSD and tried it out. I initially ran into issues reaching the desktop, but RC2 fixed that issue. However, I was unable to get on the internet, even though I had an Ethernet cable plugged in. Luckily, I found the wifi manager in the menu and was able to connect to my wifi.
Overall, my experience with NomadBSD was pleasant. Once I figured out a few things, I was good to go. I hope that NomadBSD is the first of a new generation of BSDs that focus on mobility and ease of use. BSD has conquered the server world, it’s about time they figured out how to be more user-friendly.
Have you ever used NomadBSD? What is your BSD? Please let us know in the comments below.
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stable and solid usb stick…. very useful for educ projects in the far-flung mountains and island
very fun addition to termux solutions suite
I wish their documentation included how to install it to hard disk after having rebooted it several times on the USB. Now I can get to the NomadBSD Installer but what is the root password? It’s not anything I set.
I am a linux enthusiast. I recently spent ridiculous amounts of time installing freeBSD. Initially it was difficult to get a network connection, when that was done the next difficulty was getting a desktop environment. I spent many months in getting a functional desktop, but was unsuccessful, when I tried Ghost BSD, I wasn’t even able to get the installer open, so gav up that. Im gonna make a try with NomadBSD now. If this is up unsuccessful, I may give it up there indefinitely..
You probably already have but if not check out Unbuntu, PopOS, Mint, all user friendly.
I really like Manjaro, it’s a user friendly Arch distro, comes with KDE, XFCE, Gnome plus there’s an architect release that lets you pick and choose kernels, DE’s etc if you want a more advanced install experience and they all work with most hardware out of the box. I have three Lenovo laptops running those distros without any problems.
Id rather spend my time using the OS than trying to figure out how to install it
Very very nice distro, I tried to use it but I had some problems: fuse don’t work and I can’t browse windows partition and USB stick or external hard disk, and more: in a Lenovo ideapad 110-17ISK laptop wifi card Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 (don’t work) is without driver and system hang configuring network. If have solution, after tested a lot of system I will use it as my default system because finally I found the system I looking for, it is strong speed friendly and secure
Thanks for yours effort
Luigi,
I would recommend contacting the developers (http://nomadbsd.org/contact.html). They are very quick to respond.
I tried a few but they all failed. Here is a portion of my notes…
Tried GhostBSD19.04.iso… Fail! First time around I let it autoload (Multi-User option (Default)) and got a screen with two panels (one top, one bottom). However I could do nothing. Clicking on Applications, or Places, or System did nothing. Right clicking anywhere did nothing. The only thing that did work was pushing the Power button. It shut down the laptop. The second time around I tried the Single User option in the boot screen, but got the same result. So… not exactly out-of-box.
Also tried FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso… another fail. At least this once loaded on, but on reboot I got a full screen terminal that sent my to some manual page and that was it. Nothing else. No place to type in another command and any other key I hit let out this loud ‘blip’ on the speakers. Not out-of-box.
TrueOS, halfway through, the download failed – “Dowmload Failed.” On the second attempt it failed at 99%. On the third attempt it failed near the beginning.
MidnightBSD, both the regular ISO version and the UEFI ISO version appeared to be unreadable from the usb drive as the testing laptop booted to the OS on the hard-drive.
OpenBSD, same as MidnightBSD, laptop booted to OS on hard-drive.
NomadBSD, doesn’t provide an ISO image. In order to download/install it to a flash drive you have to do this involved dance with a terminal – no thanks.
Project Trident, well, I got all the way past reboot. BUT, that’s where thing got hung up. First I got all kinds of FAILS. Three that I caught were ‘dhcpcd.nfe0 and dhcpcd.wlan0’ failed; something about a ‘dumpon’ fail; and a ‘can’t find host 0.freebsd.pool.ntp.org’, and finally it deplayed ‘ath0: ath_legacy_rx_tasklet: sc_inreset_cnt > 0: skipping’ over and over and over (maybe twenty or thirty times) before I hit the power button. So, BSD is definitely not something you can just install and go to work with. It appears BSD is to Linux, what Linux was seen to be to Windows many years ago.
Unfortunately, BSD can be picky about hardware.
“Also tried FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso… another fail. At least this once loaded on, but on reboot I got a full screen terminal that sent my to some manual page and that was it.”
—–
All I hear from this is some baby whining too lazy to read the FreeBSD documentation and realize that it’s not an out of the box type of thing. After it installs or boots from cd or usb that is all that it is. A terminal interface. To get graphics up you have to MANUALLY configure everything yourself following the handbook. You sound like a whiny little girl whose been spoiled having everything done for her.
No baby whining. Just saying BSD failed the test. As for not installing out of box – we’re in the 21 century here, my friend. If you can’t install an OS and go right to work then the OS is useless, weather it’s BSD, Linux, Windows, or whatever.
I think you’re the kind of guy that should stick to Windows and MacOS. They have big corporations behind them and there’s no problem with that. They are there for those that want their computer to ‘just work’ so you don’t have to get into any computer techy things. If that’s icky to you leave Linux and BSD alone. You’ll just get butt-hurt all over again.
I think you have no idea that Linux and especially BSD is a niche thing for the masses who are interested in trying out techy stuff and that because there is no large corporation behind them it’s all done with volunteer work for the most part and the communities work together to solve problems.
If you want on Facebook and Twitter like I said Windows, MacOS.
I, like other users of BSD, love trying configuring it because I learn how computers and software work together. I don’t expect it to be perfect. BTW, Your Netflix… It’s BSD as well as your Playstation. Out of the Box!
Says the guy who was stopped from an HD install by … not knowing the password.
Maybe the answer was on one of those social media groups you were so whiny about ;)
As much as you might love configuring every little thing just to get an OS working, most people don’t.
Truth is, more people will use an OS that is user friendly. That doesn’t mean everyone’s “spoiled”….
Computers were made to make life easier and save time, not more difficult and waste it. Who wants to spend all their time reading how to install and get and OS running instead of actually using it, get their work done and move on.
There’s nothing wrong with making an OS user friendly but also having the ability to tweak and adjust everything as well.
Try helping people instead of trying to make them feel inferior
NomadBSD is the easiest operating system that I’ve ever installed. I go back to the days of OS/2 and I loved that OS.