+++ Saturday 24 May 2025 +++


OpenBSD 7.7 on Acer Aspire ES 15
================================

The Acer Aspire ES 15 is a laptop from about 2020.

Some specs:

* CPU: Intel Celeron N3050
* Display: Glossy 15.6 inch, with a resolution of 1366x768
* RAM: 4GB

This laptop has a 'normal' keyboard and a numerical keyboard side
by side. The 'normal' keyboard and the touch pad are off-center.
Also, the keyboard is a bit wider than those of my ThinkPads.
Touch typing is a bit difficult because of this.

It is not a fast laptop.

Gift
----
This laptop belonged to a member of the family of a friend, who
wanted to get rid of it. It is always sad when a working laptop
goes to the garbage disposal, and I choose to take it under my
care.

Hard disk replacement
---------------------
It came with a 1Tb 5400 RPM hard disk, which I replaced with a
cheap 240 Gb SSD.

To replace the hard disk:

* Unscrew all 18 screws at the bottom of the laptop. After that
 carefully lift the lid with the keyboard and touch pad, just
 enough to access the two flat cables, one for the keyboard and
 one for the touch pad.
* Carefully unlock the flat cables and remove the lid. Disconnect
 the battery. Now the hard disk can be replaced. This requires
 two small screws to be unscrewed.
* Put everything back in reverse order.

Installing OpenBSD without wired network
----------------------------------------
I dd-ed the brilliant OpenBSD installer to an USB memory-stick
and installed OpenBSD.

Make sure that the laptop is not in "secure boot" mode.
Disabling secure boot will disable UEFI, but that is no problem,
OpenBSD will install fine.

The WiFi chip of the Acer Aspire ES 15 is not supported by the
installer.

The installer image comes with all the sets. Just select `disk',
and say that the storage containing the sets is not yet mounted.
It prompts for the disk (sd1) and the path to the sets.

After the installation is finished and the system has rebooted,
use an USB memory-stick with the firmware. For this I used
another laptop running FreeBSD. Create a partition with a
FAT32LBA partition, and create a new file system on it.

From firmware.openbsd.org/firmware/7.7/ download the files:

* SHA256.sig
* iwm-firmware-20240410.tgz

and write these to the USB memory-stick.

Mount the stick in OpenBSD, go to the directory, and run
fw_update on the local path:

   cd /mnt
   fw_update -p .

Check that the wifi now works:

   ifconfig iwm0 up
   ifconfig iwm0 scan

Create the file /etc/hostname.iwm0 with the SSID and password:

   nwid <SSID> wpaykey <password>
   dhcp

Make sure that /etc/resolv.conf is set with the appropriate DNS
address and that /etc/mygate has the right gateway address and
start the network.

   sh /etc/netstart

When the network connection works, complete the installation of
the firmware.

   fw_update

Installurl
----------
Set a mirror close by in your /etc/installurl file, f.e.:

   https://ftp.nluug.nl/pub/os/OpenBSD

Check it works by running:

   pkg_add -u

Fvwm2
-----
During the install I declined the start of the display manager.
The laptop boots in text mode, and I start X manually with
startx.

This starts the Fvwm2 window manager with the default OpenBSD
configuration. See the screenshot [1].

xinitrc
--------
Copy /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc to ~/.xinitrc

Now we can add some configuration, like the use of Capslock as
extra control key:

   setxkbmap -option caps:ctrl_modifier

and add some programs:

   unclutter &

.Xresources
------------
Add a file ~/.Xresources to configure some settings.

   XTerm*metaSendEscape: true
   XTerm*eightBitInput: false
   XTerm*scrollBar: false
   XTerm*foreground: white
   XTerm*background: black
   XTerm*termName: xterm-256-color

Adding items to the Fvwm menu
-----------------------------
An easy way to add some items to the Fvwm menu, is to copy the
OpenBSD configuration file to your home directory, and edit it.

   cp /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fvwm/.fwvmrc ~/
   chmod +w ~/.fvwmrc
   vi ~/.fvwmrc

Search for the line with Exec exec xterm, and add a new item below it:

   +       "Emacs" Exec exec emacs

Doas
----
OpenBSD uses doas, which is a bit comparable to sudo.

Copy the example doas.conf to /etc is enough to get you going.

   cp /etc/examples/doas.conf /etc

When this is done, you can make your user member of the staff
group and class:

   doas usermod -G staff <user-name>
   doas usermod -L staff <user-name>

Running virtual machines
------------------------
Believe it or not, this laptop is capable of running virtual mahines.
For this we use the OpenBSD hypervisor vmm.

See https://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq16.html

Having only 4 GB RAM, the possibilities are limited. For testing
purposes, and for playing around, a virtual machine still is
useful.

Add a line to /etc/sysctl.conf:

   net.inet.ip.forwarding=1

Add pf configuration to allow the virtual machines to get
network access and to get NAT working.

   pass quick on tap0
   match out on iwm0 from 100.64.0.0/10 to any nat-to (iwm0)

Activate this setting with

   pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf

Download the install77.iso, create a disk image, and install
OpenBSD on it:

   doas vmctl create -s 10G disk.qcow2
   doas vmctl start -m 512M -L -i 1 -r install77.iso -d disk.qcow2 mymachine
   doas vmctl console 1

With the above pf setting activated, the virtual machine has internet
connection.

After the installation is finished, make sure you have the right
DNS in /etc/resolv.conf, the right contents in /etc/installurl
and run syspatch.

Leave the console with: ~.

Happy OpenBSD-ing on the Acer Aspire ES 15


[1]: gopher://box.matto.nl/9/openbsd-77-fvwm2.png


Last edited: $Date: 2025/05/25 13:26:31 $

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