Some notes on using FreeBSD

Login as root to complete most of the tasks below.

Wifi

Restart wifi:

service netif restart

Add wifi credentials to: /etc/wpa_supplicant.conf

Install security patches

freebsd-update fetch
freebsd-update install

Update packages

pkg update
pkg upgrade
pkg autoremove
pkg clean

Update the FreeBSD version

For example, to upgrade from 14.0-RELEASE to the 14.1-RELEASE (get info on release numbers from freebsd.org):

freebsd-update -r 14.1-RELEASE upgrade
freebsd-update install

Reboot:

shutdown -r now

Login as root and run the install command again:

freebsd-update install

Installing the Sway window manager

After installing Wayland and Sway per the FreeBSD Handbook, install the graphics driver:

pkg install drm-kmod
sysrc -f /etc/rc.conf kld_list+=i915kms

Ensure that $USER is in the video group and reboot.

Starting Sway

Do this as $USER and not as root.

sway

Misc commands:

Use vidfont to change console font and size. Add font selection to /etc/rc.conf to make permanent: e.g., allscreens_flags="-f spleen-8x16".