OpenBSD 5.8 on an HP 6560b laptop
---------------------------------
Last edited: $Date: 2015/12/12 11:32:44 $
## HP 6560b
The HP 6560b is a laptop running an i5 processor with 4Gb RAM.
It is heavy and not very pretty. It has a big 15.6" screen with a
not so big resolution - 1366x768 (WXGA Wide).
The laptop has the sex appeal of a brick wall, However, it has a
very sturdy housing and the specs are great - besides the screen
that is. Because I am a great fan of text mode applications this
screen is something I can easely live with, so I am happy with it.
I got it from an acquitance, for which I am very thankfull. It was
already some years old and had become obsolete. For me it is a great
piece of hardware which probable will be able to run Debian or
OpenBSD for many years to come.
## OpenBSD 5.8
As I am using OpenBSD more and more I decided to replace FreeBSD on
this laptop with OpenBSD. As OpenBSD 5.8 is the current release of
OpenBSD I installed this version.
## Install from very tiny USB image
I downloaded the file miniroot58.fs from the Amd64 tree and dd-ed
this image to an old 128 Mb USB-drive.
This is truly a very tiny image, about 3.5 Mb small.
## Get the appropriate files
I downloaded the following files to a local webserver.
* SHA256
* SHA256.sig
* base58.tgz
* bsd
* bsd.mp
* bsd.rd
* comp58.tgz
* game58.tgz
* man58.tgz
* xbase58.tgz
* xfont58.tgz
* xserv58.tgz
* xshare58.tgz
## Install from USB
After booting the 3.5 Mb image from the USB pen the installation can
start.
This OpenBSD install sits alongside a Debian install on this laptop,
with Grub2 to boot either one of the operating systems.
Before the start of the installation, I used fdisk in Debian to set
the appropriate type on the partition that I had reserved for
OpenBSD.
## Everything works out of the box
I just followed the defaults during the installation process.
After the installation was finished I rebooted and started using the
system.
Without any additional package installation, just a simple "startx"
was enough to get X running. Default OpenBSD comes with the FVWM
window manager, which is fine by me.
Probably I will install the ratpoison window manager later, but for
now this is OK.
The wireless network interface works out of the box. I just had to
add an hostname.iwn0 file to the /etc directory.
nwid <ssid name>
wpakey <my key>
dhcp
In order to get some work done, I added Firefox, gv and mupdf.
For this, I used binary packages, nothing to compile.
As root, I added the following line to .profile:
export PKG_PATH=
http://ftp.eu.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/`uname -r`/packages/`uname -m`/
Afther this, pkg_add firefox will do the trick.
## Sound works
When playing some songs from youtube through Firefox the music comes
out of the speakers. A bit more volume would be nice, but I am sure
this can be solved.
So after less then an hour I am quite happy with my OpenBSD laptop. In
the coming weeks I will find out what else I need to install.
$Id: openbsdhp6560.txt,v 1.1 2015/12/12 11:32:44 matto Exp $
