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 $