Corey Stephan, Ph.D.

*BSD, ThinkPad, Workflow

OpenBSD 7.3 on a ThinkPad X270 (plus my Theological Dotfiles) for Scholarly Work

April 20, 2023
Corey Stephan

The wallpaper shown in the photograph above is from github.com/linuxdotexe/nordic-wallpapers

Changelog

May 12, 2023: Updated headset information
May 11, 2023: Fixed msttcorefonts
May 4, 2023: Updated docking section
May 3, 2023: Added note on acceptance of textproc/sword and started section on docking

Table of Contents

Tutorial or Personal Notes for Public Consumption?

This tutorial (for lack of a better name) is an expanded and polished form of my personal notes on how to install OpenBSD and configure my Theological Dotfiles on a Lenovo ThinkPad X270. I hope that these notes will help at least one other person configure OpenBSD for mobile research and writing.

Although these notes probably would be helpful (to varying degrees) for persons using a variety of laptop computers for mobile research and writing, they will be the most relevant for other persons using ThinkPads from circa 2015-2019, especially models with hardware specifications that are similar to those of the X270. Examples include the X260, X280, T460/T560, T470/T570, T480/T580, T490/T590, and the various X1 Carbons from the same model years.

I do not intend for these notes to be comprehensive, nor do I guarantee the accuracy and/or utility of anything contained within them. For one example of a complication, my dotfiles currently require manual interventions that vary from hardware setup to hardware setup. (In the future, I might explore automation options with scripting and/or the creation of separate git branches for different operating systems and/or hardware configurations.)

Accordingly, instead of recommending that the reader put full faith in what I have written here, I humbly point him/her to the following sources. I have used all of these to prepare my own setup notes:

Finally, I share two other helpful blogs. First, the longtime OpenBSD developer Joshua Stein’s (jcs) “OpenBSD on Laptops” series inspired the format and style of this post. Second, I used Patrick Bucher’s “OpenBSD on the Desktop (Part I)” blog post, which is specifically about installing OpenBSD on a ThinkPad X270, as my initial source to make sure that OpenBSD and the X270 would pair well before purchasing the X270.

If you happen to find anything that I should change or improve, please let me know by leaving a comment.

Why did I choose this X270 and OpenBSD?

In March 2023, I purchased a Lenovo ThinkPad X270 for mobile academic research and writing. For at least six months before actually making the purchase (I have no choice but to be patient while waiting for Wife Approval), I had kept an eBay search saved in hope of finding one with both a 7th generation Intel Core processor (rather than 6th generation, since the 7th generation includes USB-C docking and some other key niceties) and (more importantly for my purposes) the 1080P IPS display, i.e. the best panel ever shipped with this particular chassis. Finally, one appeared from FreeGeek Portland, a non-profit that specializes in refurbishing older computers (among other delightful things).

For my intended use case of truly mobile research and writing, the X270 has a huge range of advantages over other small laptops from the past 5-10 years, including:

OpenBSD on X270 Hardware Compatibility Checklist (imitating jcs’s style)

I have copied this table’s basic format from the one that Joshua Stein (jcs) uses in his “OpenBSD on Laptops” blog series, basing this checklist specifically on his “OpenBSD on the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon (5th Gen)” post (since that device is from the same model year as the X270 and contains overlapping hardware):

ComponentWorks?Notes
AudioYesIntel audio output and input are supported by the built-in azalia(4) driver.

Speaker output works by default.

OpenBSD’s audio system defaults to an incorrect sound input selection that was difficult for me to correct as a newcomer to tinkering with sound server settings. Presumably, this has something to do with Lenovo not quite using a standard internal microphone configuration. In any event, by reading various Web posts and the mixerctl(8) man page, I was (eventually) able to get the built-in microphone to work flawlessly only by changing the default recording device to the real one. (If you should have a similar problem, be sure to start by reading the mixerctl man page.) To have the internal microphone work permanently on my machine, all that I need is 1 line in mixerctl.conf(5):

record.adc-0:1_source=mic

After making that change, both speaker output and microphone input levels can be controlled easily with the third-party terminal user interface (TUI) utility cmixer (pkg_add cmixer).

For security, microphone input may be disabled in the BIOS.

Also, I submitted a report about the incorrect microphone defaulting to bugs@openbsd.org.
Battery statusYesTotal battery charge may be shown with the command apm (for apm[4]). Both the internal and external battery are supported by acpibat(4), so showing detailed information about both (together with a few other key system hardware sensor readings, such as CPU temperature) is as simple as typing sysctl hw.sensors (see sysctl[2]).
BluetoothNoThe Bluetooth chip appears as a ugen(4) device, but OpenBSD does not have any Bluetooth support.

For security, the Bluetooth chip may be disabled in the BIOS. With OpenBSD, which does not have a Bluetooth stack, anyway, it makes sense to disable the Bluetooth chip entirely.
EthernetYesThe RJ-45 jack is supported out-of-the-box by the built-in em(4) driver.
Fingerprint sensorNoThe fingerprint sensor is presumably Synaptics via USB. Yet, OpenBSD does not support fingerprint sensors.

For security, the fingerprint sensor may be disabled in the BIOS. With OpenBSD, which does not have any support for fingerprint sensors, anyway, it makes sense to disable the fingerprint sensor entirely.
Keyboard backlightYesThe keyboard backlight works properly out-of-the-box. It can be toggled with Fn+Space and/or wsconsctl(8) with the wsconsctl keyboard.backlight values of 0, 50, and 100.
HibernationYesHibernation works out-of-the-box with ZZZ(8), which is a shortcut for apm -H (see apm[4]).
Suspend / resumeYesSuspend and resume work out-of-the-box.
TouchpadYesThe Synaptics touchpad is supported out-of-the-box by the built-in pms(4) driver.
TrackPointYesThe TrackPoint is supported out-of-the-box by the built-in pms(4) driver.

To enable scrolling with the TrackPoint and the middle Touchpad button, I use the following three lines in my simple start-openbsd.sh script that I have set to open automatically in .config/spectrwm/spectrwm.conf (depending on when I have cloned my repository, I might simply have to change start-*.sh to start-openbsd.sh specifically — also, I almost always have to do a simple chmod +x on the autostart shell script to make it executable during initial setup):
xinput set-prop "/dev/wsmouse" "WS Pointer Wheel Emulation" 1 &
xinput set-prop "/dev/wsmouse" "WS Pointer Wheel Emulation Button" 2 &
xinput set-prop "/dev/wsmouse" "WS Pointer Wheel Emulation Axes" 6 7 4 5 &

To increase the TrackPoint’s speed to an acceptable level, I include the following line in the same place:
xinput set-prop "/dev/wsmouse" "Device Accel Constant Deceleration" 0.25 &

The most commonly recommended value for the deceleration constant seems to be 0.3, but that is a tad too slow for me. 0.2 is too swift. 0.25 is my sweet spot.
USBYesThe USB-A and USB-C ports work.
VideoYesEverything that one would expect to have work with video works out-of-the-box via the automatically installed inteldrm(4) driver, which provides accelerated video, DPMS, gamma control, integrated backlight control (even using the backlight control keys on the keyboard), and proper S3 resume. The onboard HDMI port works for HD video output, too.
WebcamYesAfter enabling video input at the kernel level with the line kern.video.record=1 in /etc/sysctl.conf and granting $USER ownership of the device (both of which I show below), the webcam works as expected via the built-in uvideo(4) driver.

For security, the webcam may be disabled in the BIOS.
WirelessYesThe removable Intel Wi-Fi AC card works out-of-the-box with the automatically installed iwm(4) driver.

Installation from USB Flash Drive

These notes assume that the reader has the official OpenBSD FAQ and OpenBSD manual pages on-hand.

I have a 16GB USB-A 3.0 flash drive on which I have flashed the latest OpenBSD miniroot.img (~5mb flash drive image file for downloading the OS itself during installation), which I have fetched from the OpenBSD download webpage. I have both an A/C adapter and a live STP cable (a.k.a. “ethernet” or “network” cable) plugged into the X270. The network cable is especially important, since Wi-Fi only will become accessible after the Wi-Fi driver has been installed automatically during the first boot after installation, and having WAN (“Internet”) access during installation is necessary when using the miniroot image.

After booting from the flash drive with UEFI, I am greeted with the following options:

(I)install, (U)pgrade, (A)utoinstall, or (S)hell
The correct option is “(I)nstall” for a standard, straightforward installation (not “[A]utoinstall,” since that is for work environments with scripted installations).

Next, I make the following choices, most of which simply involve tapping ‘Enter’ to continue with the default and/or automatic choice made by the OpenBSD installer:

At first boot, OpenBSD runs the sophisticated fw_update(8) utility and installs uvideo, intel, inteldrm, and iwm without me needing to perform any interventions. It also prompts me to run syspatch(8) to install binary patches. To that end, I login as root and execute the following commands, which are generally recommended after any first boot:

syspatch      # patches the system
pkg_add -u    # updates the packages 
sysmerge -d   # merges any configuration file changes

Next, I type ‘mail’ to see what Mr. Theo de Raadt has sent to me to read on my new OpenBSD installation. I like the welcome email, and I probably will not use the default mail utility for anything other than to skim this and other system announcements (OpenBSD sends many), so I type ‘x’ to save it. Then, I type ‘reboot’ again to be greeted with my fully up-to-date OpenBSD installation.

Since almost every step above simply involved tapping the Enter key to accept a default, the whole installation, including downloading all of OpenBSD during the installation itself, took 5 minutes — 10, if I ought to include downloading the ~5mb miniroot image and burning it to a flash drive. Overall, actually installing OpenBSD onto an old(er) ThinkPad is the easiest process that I have experienced with any operating system, beating everything from Microsoft Windows and Apple MacOS to every major GNU/Linux distribution and even my beloved FreeBSD. With OpenBSD on an old(er) ThinkPad, everything needed for a default sensible installation happens in a brilliantly minimalist and secure-by-default automatic way.

Initial Setup

After the first boot with a fully up-to-date OpenBSD installation, I login as root in order to perform a few key system configuration steps.

Power Management

By default, OpenBSD expects the system’s BIOS to manage CPU frequencies and thermals — even with OpenBSD’s built-in power management daemon, apmd(8), enabled. Immediately after receiving the laptop, I used geteltorito to prepare Lenovo’s BIOS file for writing to a bootable USB flash drive and updated to the latest BIOS. (I happened to be working in GNU/Linux, but directions for configuring the USB flash drive inside OpenBSD may be found on TuM’Fatig’s blog). Yet, evidently, even the latest BIOS does not manage CPU power adequately, since the processor reaches dangerously high temperatures when doing mundane tasks like installing precompiled binary packages in TTY. The good news is that it is easy to correct the problem:

  1. Install obsdfreqd.
  2. Enable apmd(8) with the -L flag to trigger its manual CPU performance adjustment mode (leaving the responsibility for actual adjustments to obsdfreqd).
    • apmd(8) is still useful, if not necessary, for things like allowing suspend and resume functionality out-of-the-box on ThinkPads.
  3. Enable obsdfreqd.
    • I prefer to use the -T flag to force the low thermal limits of 75 °C on A/C power and 55 °C on battery power (yes, only 55 °C — I have found this to be approximately the lowest maximum temperature at which the more demanding regular tasks that I expect the X270 to handle, such as playing HTML5 videos in Firefox, still work properly, meaning that this achieves my own ideal battery life-to-performance ratio). Yet, the default settings are supposed to perform well for most users on most hardware.

Altogether, the power management configuration process looks like this:

pkg_add obsdfreqd
rcctl enable apmd
rcctl set apmd flags -L
rcctl start apmd
rcctl enable obsdfreqd
rcctl set obsdfreqd flags -T 75,55   # only if not using obsdfreqd's defaults
rcctl start obsdfreqd

These settings may be adjusted at any time, either with rcctl(8) in the terminal or by editing rc.conf.local(8).

Root Access for [user]

In doas.conf(5), I add the following line to enable root command access via doas(1) for [user] (normally me, “corey”):

permit persist [user] as root

doas is dramatically simpler than sudo, but for a single-user desktop setup, it achieves the same result. I appreciate that OpenBSD has unconfigured (harmless) doas in its default installation (ready for easy configuration).

Simple Performance Improvements

Since OpenBSD is meticulously coded and pre-configured to be secure by default, especially in complex server and/or router+firewall configurations with many users, it has a few out-of-box settings that might not quite be practical for single-user desktop work on a system that is unlikely to be a deliberate hacking target. There are many guides on the Web for tinkering with deep system settings to improve OpenBSD’s desktop performance. My opinion, however, is that since OpenBSD is designed with security, stability, and code correctness as top priorities rather than performance, it does not make sense to use OpenBSD rather than another operating system for which performance is a top design priority and then try to tune it to perform tasks with speed that exactly matches that other operating system. Rather, I prefer to try to use a given operating system as it has been designed. With that in mind, then, here are the minimalist performance improvements that I choose to use.

Disclaimer: Each of these changes might (or does) weaken OpenBSD’s security. Use at your own risk.

1. Simultaneous Multi-Threading (smt)

Even with the bsd.mp (multi-core) kernel installed automatically, OpenBSD does not use true simultaneous multi-threading, which contains major security holes (documented many places elsewhere on the Web). In sysctl.conf(5), one line enables this risky functionality (see sysctl[2] for details):

hw.smt=1

I have found enabling SMT to have an immediately noticeable positive impact on overall desktop performance, especially when using resource-intensive applications (such as modern Web browsers and LibreOffice). Indeed, this one line in sysctl.conf seems to make everything as snappy as I expect on this system’s decent hardware. Would that we could trust our CPUs.

2. operator and staff

For a single-user, desktop setup, it also might be useful to add [user] to OpenBSD’s built-in group ‘operator’ and class ‘staff.’ Members of the ‘operator’ group are able to shutdown the system without root access. Members of the ‘staff’ class have elevated access to system resources, which is reported help prevent slowdowns in applications that are hungry for memory:

usermod -G operator [user] # group (for shutdown and other elevated privileges)
usermod -G staff [user]    # group (probably unnecessary for 'staff')
usermod -L staff [user]    # login class (for enhanced resource allocations)

There are mixed reports across the Web as to whether or not manually increasing the system resources available for applications used by members of the ‘staff’ class is a good idea. In the interest of using the system as close to its ‘as-intended’ state as reasonable, I have left them at their default values.

On this exact setup, anyway, I have not found adding [user] to the ‘staff’ class to have any immediately noticeable effects on performance. Enabling SMT (see #1) was the more important change.

Join Wi-Fi Networks Automatically

OpenBSD should call the X270’s Intel Wi-Fi card, which relies on the iwm(4) driver that was configured automatically after first boot (by fw_update),”iwm0″ (but I double check the name quickly by typing “ifconfig” into the terminal). iwm0 may be configured for single sessions via ifconfig(8) or repeated, automatic connections via hostname.if(5) (in the new, user-created file “/etc/hostname.iwm0”). The FAQ’s Wireless Networking section has many practical examples of ifconfig and hostname.if being put to use, including for scenarios in which the security of hostname.if (which stores the WPA passkey in plain text) is insufficient.

Setting the X270 to connect automatically to 2-3 simple Wi-Fi networks is all that I need. Accordingly, I create a new “/etc/hostname.iwm0” file with only a few lines. The quotation marks are only necessary for SSIDs and/or passwords with spaces and/or complex symbols, but, for consistency’s sake, I always use them:

join "SSID1" wpakey "password1"    # home Wi-Fi
join "SSID2" wpakey "password2"    # work Wi-Fi
inet autoconf

Next, I enable iwm0 before starting it for the first time with OpenBSD’s built-in netstart(8) script:

ifconfig iwm0 up
sh /etc/netstart

Enable Audio & Video

OpenBSD has audio and video inputs both disabled by default, since, of course, the system is designed to be secure by default. Yet, I am more likely to need to use my webcam and microphone than to need to avoid someone spying on me, so I enable them.

First, I add the following two lines to sysctl.conf(5):

kern.audio.record=1
kern.video.record=1

Next, I give regular users access to video devices. This command needs to be executed after every system update; I find that it works most reliably with doas as the actual user: 

chown $USER /dev/video*

Although all of these system configuration changes can be applied safely without a reboot (e.g. by using rcctl(8) to enable the sysctl changes instead of manually making them inside sysctl.conf), I choose to reboot now in order to watch the startup log to make sure that everything has applied properly before proceeding to install the software that I need. As root, the command is reboot. As I predicted, however, all of those changes show after a reboot. The system is even already connected to my home Wi-Fi network; I check the connection status with ifconfig and WAN access status with ping coreystephan.com, and everything is right.

Follow OpenBSD -current (optional)

I am always focused on stability. Yet, OpenBSD’s -current branch, its rolling release track, has a reputation for being at least as stable as Ubuntu LTS. While such popular anecdotes are hard to verify, I do trust the pragmatism of OpenBSD’s developers. A high percentage of them use ThinkPads with OpenBSD for their own work and, therefore, take care that -current helps rather than hinders the experience of using OpenBSD on this type of hardware. Beside, at the time of writing, I am looking ahead to presenting at BSDCan 2023 in about four weeks time, and running -current will make sure that I am matching most (if not all) of the folks who will be using and discussing OpenBSD there.

Once a fresh OpenBSD installation has been updated and had its basic settings adjusted, switching to -current is as easy as using the -s (snapshot) flag with sysupgrade(8), which triggers a system reboot and automatic full upgrade of sets, and then updating packages before (optionally) forcibly merging any configuration file changes:

sysupgrade -s
pkg_add -u
sysmerge -d    # optional merger of configuration file changes

When following -current during beta periods (normally, the last few weeks before a new OpenBSD -release), pkg_add(1) will require the -Dsnap flag (which forcibly draws packages meant for the latest snapshot) for all commands. For example, to install Firefox ESR at such a time, I would need to type:

pkg_add -Dsnap firefox-esr

During beta periods, reminders about the need for -Dsnap for folks who are following -current are posted in all the major OpenBSD communication zones.

Fetch the Ports Tree (optional)

As a rule, OpenBSD’s developers strongly recommend installing all software as pre-compiled binaries with pkg_add(1). Fetching the Ports Tree is necessary, however, for installing Microsoft True Type Fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, etc.) and other items that cannot legally be pre-packaged. For up-to-date information about fetching the Ports Tree and working with ports, see the Working with Ports section of the OpenBSD FAQ. Here, I simply duplicate (from the FAQ) the commands for fetching the ports tree, verifying its signature, and unpacking it:

cd /tmp
ftp https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/$(uname -r)/{ports.tar.gz,SHA256.sig}
signify -Cp /etc/signify/openbsd-$(uname -r | cut -c 1,3)-base.pub -x SHA256.sig ports.tar.gz
cd /usr
tar xzf /tmp/ports.tar.gz

When following -current, I replace $(uname -r)with snapshots to download the most up-to-date Ports Tree, and I make sure to rerun these steps after every sysupgrade(8) to a new snapshot so that the Ports Tree is always in alignment with my system. Running these steps does not override any custom ports that I might have in ports/mystuff (see below).

Software: Dotfiles Prerequisites

This is the core set of software applications upon which my Theological Dotfiles rely.

Pre-built Packages

On a fresh OpenBSD 7.3 installation (with all sets except game[##].tgz, I can run the following command as root to install most of what I need for my Theological Dotfiles (arranged alphabetically):

pkg_add alacritty bash cmixer conky fff firefox-esr fish git hack-fonts libreoffice lxappearance micro mupdf nitrogen pcmanfm-qt picom ranger qt5ct rclone rclone-browser redshift rofi spectrwm unzip

Other Key Applications: yadm, Kvantum, etc.

1. Yet Another Dotfiles Manager (yadm)

Yet Another Dotfiles Manager (yadm) is the shell script that I use to manage my dotfiles. It is not currently in OpenBSD’s Ports, but it is easy to install in OpenBSD (requiring only curl and bash):

curl -fLo /usr/local/bin/yadm https://github.com/TheLocehiliosan/yadm/raw/master/yadm
chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/yadm

2. Kvantum

My Theological Dotfiles rely on consistent Qt5 theming, and Kvantum is what I use to achieve that theming. Surprisingly, this widely popular tool is not yet in OpenBSD Ports, but as with yadm, installation is still easy in OpenBSD. The build requirements for Kvantum in OpenBSD are gcc, qt5, kwindowsystem, and CMake. Here is the full installation process:

pkg_add gcc qt5 kwindowsystem cmake
git clone https://github.com/tsujan/Kvantum
cd Kvantum/Kvantum
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=/usr/local/lib/qt5/cmake/ ../
make
make install

Fonts

1. Hack Nerd Font

Hack Nerd is the backbone of my Theological Dotfiles; I use it with fanatical consistency. To install it, I download the latest Hack.zip from nerd-fonts GitHub Releases, unzip the directory, copy the fonts to /usr/local/share/fonts, and update the system’s font cache.

[Download Hack.Zip & cd to containing directory]
unzip Hack.zip
cp /Hack/*.ttf /usr/local/share/fonts/
fc-cache

2. Microsoft True Type Fonts

With the Ports Tree fetched and prepared, these three two commands are all that I need to type in order to install Microsoft’s True Type Fonts (Times New Roman, Arial, etc.):

pkg_add cabextract     # massive build unless installed as package
cd /usr/ports/fonts/msttcorefonts
make install

Theological Dotfiles Setup

With everything above installed, it is time to switch from root to [user] and run yadm in /home/[user]:

cd
yadm clone https://github.com/historical-theology/theological-dots

The yadm script is helpful, but it is not perfect. I have to perform several manual interventions, notably:

  1. This step is prone to hang on “Resolving deltas: 100% …” If that should happen, tap CTRL+C to terminate the process. Then, type yadm checkout master to forcibly finish the cloning process.
  2. There is a tendency for the cloning to fail to retrieve everything inside the very large .icons and .themes folders. Accordingly, I make a habit of manually downloading the whole repository to its own folder and copying .icons and .themes to the locations where they belong. This allows kvantum and lxappearance to do their jobs, applying consistent Nord theming across both Qt and GTK GUI applications, respectively.
  3. Odds and ends such as DPI (90 is best for me on the X270 with the 1080p display) and the exact conky settings (see .conkyrc-openbsd in my repository for a sample that works well in OpenBSD on a ThinkPad), are impossible to have be truly portable. I am considering dividing the repository into separate branches — one for OpenBSD on my ThinkPad, another for a desktop with a 4K monitor, and so on. Without that division, however, spending a short while making manual interventions with such pieces is an annoying necessity.

Additional Software

SWORD and BibleTime (Qt) or Xiphos (GTK) Bible Study Tools

The team behind Aprendiendo de Jesús (adJ), “A Distribution of OpenBSD to Promote the Construction of the Kingdom of God from Education and Respect for Human Dignity” (translated from Spanish) has made solid ports of the CrossWire Bible Society’s SWORD utility, as well as the popular BibleTime (Qt) and Xiphos (GTK) graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for it. In April, I duplicated these entries from adJ’s repository into a new historical-theology/ports-mystuff repository to prepare them for submission upstream to the official OpenBSD Ports Tree. Thus far (as of May 3), thanks not only to the loving labors of the adJ team but also the careful attention of Stuart Henderson (sthen@) and Omar Polo (op@) in the ports@openbsd.org mailing list thread that I opened, I have succeeded in having textproc/sword imported into the official OpenBSD Ports Tree.

Accordingly, I may install SWORD this simply:

pkg_add sword

Next, at least for now, I may install BibleTime like so (making sure to wait 10 minutes or longer to let the build run its course on the X270’s i7-7600u):

git clone https://github.com/historical-theology/ports-mystuff
cd ports-mystuff/ && cp -r mystuff/ /usr/ports/mystuff
cd /usr/ports/mystuff/textproc/bibletime
make install

Then, I may type “bibletime” to open the tidy GUI.

KBibTeX and Kile or Lyx for Academic Writing

When I first started the process of installing OpenBSD on this ThinkPad, I was disappointed to find that there was not a modern, fully featured citation (reference) manager available in the official OpenBSD package collection (or Ports Tree). I took to the misc@openbsd.org mailing list with this post, which received several replies. Initially, however, those replies did not take me any closer to a viable GUI writing environment. Zotero and JabRef, the two main options, are both non-compilable in OpenBSD (Zotero relies on xul, and JabRef relies on OpenJFX, but OpenBSD has neither).

Yet, following some private correspondence between the OpenBSD project’s KDE guru Rafael Sadowski and me, Sadowski most generously added KBibTeX, the KDE project’s citation manager, to the large set of KDE applications that he has ported to OpenBSD (with this post to ports@openbsd.org). KBibTeX officially supports the LaTeX editors Kile (also of the KDE project) and Lyx (which is popular on many platforms). Further, as a longtime Zotero user, I am pleased that KBibTeX allows importing Zotero bibliographies. (Granted, the Zotero syncing feature does not work in OpenBSD, since it requires having Zotero installed on the local system — a frustrating chicken and egg situation).

Installing all 3 applications in OpenBSD -current is as simple as this:

pkg_add kbibtex kile lyx

0 A.D.

As of the time of writing this tutorial, I have multiple formal academic matters in the works (a conference presentation, a peer reviewed journal piece, and various classroom activities in the Greek class that I am teaching) about the world-class open source historical multiplayer real-time strategy warfare game 0 A.D. Aside from needing 0 A.D. for my work, I also rely on it for relaxation.

In OpenBSD -current, installation of the most recent version of 0 A.D. is this easy:

pkg_add 0ad

In OpenBSD – release or -stable, sometimes the pre-compiled binary will be up-to-date, whereas other times it will be outdated (normally, no more than one version behind the most recent).

pfetch

Finally, it is time for a silly, little system fetch tool, namely, pfetch. For OpenBSD, installation is a breeze:

git clone https://github.com/dylanaraps/pfetch
cd pfetch
chmod +x pfetch
cp pfetch /usr/local/bin/pfetch

Now that I have pfetch installed, I add the word “pfetch” to the end of the “Prompt” section that I have demarcated in ~/.config/fish/config.fish inside my Theological Dots for a clean pfetch to remind me that I am running OpenBSD every time that I open my terminal emulator.

USB-C Docking

I have an official Lenovo ThinkPad Universal USB-C Dock (40-AY) that I have used for many months to connect my other ThinkPad, a T590, to a wired STP (“ethernet”) connection, 27″ 4K IPS monitor, Ducky One mechanical keyboard, nice Logitech mouse, Logitech G933 USB headset, Logitech Brio 4K webcam, and Blue Yeti microphone — all with only one cable plugged into the laptop while using a standard GNU/Linux distribution (EndeavourOS at the time of writing).

I am happy to report that with OpenBSD 7.3 on the ThinkPad X270, nearly everything either works by default or with an easy system toggle.

To switch audio output between the built-in speakers and my wireless USB headset, all that I need to do is toggle the correct sndioctl(1) setting:

sndioctl server.device=0          # built-in speaker
sndioctl server.device=1          # USB headset

Then, I may adjust the volume levels with cmixer or either device’s own physical volume adjustment mechanisms (F2 and F3 on the ThinkPad or the volume wheel on the headset).

To accept audio input from the same headset, I switch the entire mixer device to the headset and unmute its microphone like so (see mixerctl[8]):

mixerctl -f /dev/audioctl1 inputs.record_mute=off

To use the Logitech Brio 4K webcam, I first make sure that [user] has control of it (see “Enable Audio and Video” above):

doas CHOWN $USER /dev/video*

Per the FAQ sub-section “Using a Webcam,” I must give permission to Firefox and/or ungoogled-chromium to use the external webcam. This is in accordance with OpenBSD’s unveil(2) security feature by which applications only have access to explicitly allowed directories. I have found that both Web browsers sometimes become confused about whether to use the internal webcam or the external one, so (for lack of a cleaner solution) it is easiest to disable access to the internal one while docked temporarily (with a simple “#” to exclude). Altogether, inside etc/firefox/unveil.main and/or /etc/ungoogled-chromium/unveil.main, I make sure to have the following set while docked:

# /dev/video rw    # disallowed system default
# /dev/video0 rw   # disallowed internal webcam
/dev/video1 rw     # allowed Logitech Brio

All that I have to do is uncomment /dev/video and /dev/video0 when undocked.

What I do not have working, as of the May 12 update that I am making to this tutorial, is the Blue Yeti microphone. Admittedly, I only have spent a few minutes looking at the situation. I hope to update this tutorial with fixes in the (near) future.

Here is a tidy Lenovo ThinkPad Universal USB-C Dock (40AY) compatibility checklist for OpenBSD 7.3 on the X270:

ComponentWorks?Notes
STP / EthernetYesAutomatic
KeyboardYesAutomatic
MouseYesAutomatic
MonitorYesConcurrent 4K output to external display and 1080p output on built-in display
USB Headset OutputYessndioctl server.device=1 (see above)
USB Headset InputYesmixerctl -f /dev/audioctl1 inputs.record_mute=off (see above) (*tested in T590 rather than X270)
Logitech 4K Brio WebcamYes/dev/video1 (see above)
Blue Yeti MicrophoneNo*(*More exploring required)

Not being able to use the Blue Yeti microphone in OpenBSD would prohibit me from using OpenBSD as the operating system at my stationary (desk) setup, which I use, among other things, for recording class video lectures. Yet, knowing that OpenBSD handles docking well overall might prove useful for the future, such as by providing me with reason to invest in a dock for my underused work office as a way to make the most of this X270.

How well does it all fit together?

It is easy to cherish the partnership of a slightly older ThinkPad and OpenBSD. The ThinkPad X270 and OpenBSD are both minimalist, robust, and customizable. Specifically, the ThinkPad is minimalist with regard to features, robust with regard to physical durability, and customizable with regard to hardware repairability and replaceability. OpenBSD is minimalist with regard to code, robust with regard to security, and customizable with regard to every aspect of the system. Further, since a healthy number of OpenBSD’s developers long have used ThinkPads (to the point that I have read some jokes come out of members of their ranks like ‘I may use any kind of laptop that I may like, as long as it is a ThinkPad’), the operating system works brilliantly on the laptop.

Overall, installing and configuring OpenBSD -current on the ThinkPad X270 was the simplest minimalist installation of any operating system on any hardware that I ever have done, even simpler than Debian GNU/Linux or my beloved FreeBSD (and much simpler than a proprietary, dysfunctional operating system such as Windows or MacOS). Was the total setup process easier than, say, that of a GNU/Linux distribution that uses the Calamares installer and comes preconfigured with a huge array of GNU/Linux drivers? Well, no, it was not, but that is not the point. OpenBSD is secure, nimble, and customizable in an elegantly simple way that interoperates smoothly with this small ThinkPad for my mobile academic research and writing. Even in this topsy-turvy era in which other popular desktop operating systems have many design choices for form over function, OpenBSD comes as a serious, professional product that is ready to let me focus on my work.

Deus vos benedicat,
Corey Stephan

Comments

  1. Thank you for this post. It’s helped me try updating OpenBSD 7.3 (freshly installed), on an ODroid H3+, to OpenBSD-current. This machine is basically laptop electronics on a 10cm by 10cm square motherboard. with a huge heatsink (fan is optional). It works great with OpenBSD.

    Also, I’d never done an upgrade of OpenBSD before, so when I saw this post, I figured, “this is an experiment, so why not try it?” It worked perfectly, and I might now be able to use OpenBSD as a “daily driver” desktop. I had been using Kubuntu before, and I’ve been using OpenBSD as a firewall for years and even giving courses on this (I’m a network engineer) before my clients started moving to the Cloud.

    The one missing piece for OpenBSD as a daily driver was the rather arduous (by comparison) upgrade process compared to the GNU/Linux distributions. Even Slackware (my favorite) was much easier…until “sysupgrade” came along. Man…it is now about a 70% chance that I may be using OpenBSD as a daily desktop video-editing operating system!

    And all thanks to what you posted here. If you should ever doubt the value of stuff like this, hopefully you read this note when that happens.

    Thanks!

    Reply

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