OpenBSD Blog #15: OpenBSD as a desktop daily driver!

Page started: 2026-04-15
Draft!
 This page is a draft and may be incomplete, incorrect, or just a stub or outline. I've decided to allow myself to put draft pages on my website as an experiment. I'm hoping they will:
  • Help me address my backlog of article ideas.
  • Serve as a "living" TODO list of things to work on.
  • Be useful to myself or others in their incomplete forms.
As always, I'm happy to accept feedback on anything I publish including draft content.

Go back to my OpenBSD page for more entries.

Hello! You are reading my raw notes as I compile this page. :-)

(screenshot goes here with neofetch because that’s what you do, right?)

Open To-Dos:

basics, networking

installed offline, so fw_update no go, so chicken-and-egg with iwm wireless driver

plugged in to ethernet, ifconfig re0 autoconf, fw_update

now iwm works! /etc/hostname.iwm

xenodm and X11

note that .Xresources not used apparently, using .Xdefaults instead

xbacklight - where has that been all this time? i was writing values to proc stuff.

At night, as low as 10% works great and somewhere around 60% for indoors in the day:

$ xbacklight -set 10 # night
$ xbacklight -set 60 # day

fvwm

this is the default wm

spent some quality time with it and the website is excellent

https://www.fvwm.org/

if you wanna stick with fvwm, I found the v3 update more pleasant right out of the box with much more intuitive controls and shortcuts ready to go without customization (and a nice clock in the corner and more complete pop-up menu)

doas pkg_add fvwm3

cwm

this looks like the right choice for me…​

need to edit .xsession and put exec cwm as last line oh, and make it executable if not already, chmod +x

to try:

M-v tiles side-side M-h tiles top-bottom M-m toggle fullscreen C-M-Enter open terminal C-M-x command search C-M-x close?????

M-? "application" search M-tab switch windows?? C-M-S-q quit C-M-S-r restart

Re-bind to use super key instead, make a .cwmrc:

# .cwmrc, restart cwm with C-M-S-r, nice!
# Tile super+h, super+v
bind-key 4-h htiled
bind-key 4-v vtiled

to try, can also add this to .xsession (xsetroot also works in dwm)

xsetroot -solid steelblue &

This page looks all kinds of helpful (and great website!)

https://antonyfb.com/blog/my-cwm-config.html

laptop shit

trackpad shit - not 100% solved (see notes.txt) but mostly works

battery

suspend upon closing lid seems to work fine!

website development

look, let’s be real, 90% of what i do is with a terminal on one half of my screen and a browser on the other half. For $DAYJOB it’s multi-monitor with a ton of panels, but the principle is pretty much the same.

xterm

hideous initial appearance relatively easy to fix

dillo browser

note that ratfactor.com, to my surprise and joy, renders perfectly in dillo. i really wasn’t expecting that. other websites that look like a box of turds really don’t have an excuse!

(maybe this is where i put that screenshot showing two-panel webdev setup)