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Samuel Venable
Posts: 2
Joined: Fri Jul 03, 2020 2:44 pm

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Post by Samuel Venable »

Edit:

I've decided I'm actually not interested in this investment, but I will keep this topic up as a reference to how much nicer the MATE desktop environment can look with some tweaks, and if you ask me, the default wallpaper and layout of the panels and icons themes are not the greatest in GhostBSD, a lot like many other BSD and Linux distro's for some reason there is the decision being made where "let's make the OS look as simplistic and unappealing as possible to encourage users to spend hours customizing and making it their own" when it could be avoided if OS develpers just made it look nicer to begin with. The screenshots I have at the bottom show it is not that difficult to make a simplistic DE like MATE and Xfce look ok.

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I know this sounds a bit odd, but I have tried for almost a month or two now trying to make my own custom FreeBSD "distro" (using that term very loosely) where it is just a generic "owner" username, with an empty/no password needed for login, sudo, and su. I wanted it to be persistent storage live system for usb devices, and for it to just be plugged in to any computer and be ready to use out of the box. I would prefer an installer if it were to be installed to a partition, one that is identical to the GhostBSD installer, to make it easier to do, with selectable username, password and all that.

I'm ready to pull my hair out at this point, and I feel like I've spent enough time on this.

I would be willing to pay someone a one-off $100-$200 (or more) USD donation to the developers of GhostBSD (or whoever does it) if they made such a thing a reality for me, in a way that fits my specifc preferences, depending on how much work it is.

ARM64 support for a PINEBOOK Pro would be ideal, but due to the amount of work already involved, I'm not sure if that would be worth it for the person who does this for me. In which case the default architecture that GhostBSD has is good enough.

Requirements include:
- Based on the latest GhostBSD MATE at the time of writing this.
- Default Shell (if persistent, no installer): bash
- Panel Layout: Element
- Customized to have the "La Capitaine" Icon and cursor themes. Icon Theme: https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1148695/ Cursors: https://www.gnome-look.org/p/1148692/
- uses the dark theme of GhostBSD where everything is dark themed, border and client area
- has the exact plank applications and icons pinned in order from left to right (Caja, MATE Terminal, Firefox, Thunderbird, VLC Media Player, RythmBox, Shotwell, Pluma, "Default" LibreOffice, LibreOffice Writer, LibreOffice Impress, LibreOffice Calc, LibreOffice Base, LibreOffice Draw, LibreOffice Math, Control Center, Trash).
- ARM64 (or AMD64) either one will be perfectly fine, though I'll pay more for ARM64, relative to the amount of work involved within reason.
- persistent storage (although optional, if it's easier to make it an ISO which installs to a partition like by default) One of the two, but it needs an installer if it isn't persistent. The installer doesn't need to look or behave any different than it already does, only it will need to have the desktop and panel layout I mentioned.
- Using Contemporary window buttons (top-left side of window)
- This wallpaper for login, lock, and desktop https://store.kde.org/p/1399073
- The only package I'd like installed that isn't already shipped with GhostBSD is a Wifi Manager App, which is nice to have when you accidentally close the default Wifi/Network Manager menu which won't come back in any way unless you reboot or I believe at least logout and back in. Here's the app I'm talking about: http://opal.com/freebsd/ports/net-mgmt/wifimgr/
- Cursor size: one size bigger than the default which is the smallest.
- plank settings: Theme: Matte, Position: Bottom, On Primary Display: Yes, Alighment: Center, Icon Size 50, Icon Zoom: Yes (150), Hide Dock: No, Pressure Reveal: No, Lock Icons: No, Show Unpinned: Yes, Resict to Workspace: No, Docklets: Trash (like mentioned previously).
- I can pay significantly more for this when the whiplash of this corona pandemic is over, which means if we agree to it don't start until I am able to pay.

I don't know anyone here, so I'd like to get the ISO or IMG file and then pay, but the person doing it for me may feel the same way about me, so I am willing to take a risk if I need to, and pay before receiving the file. I am wanting to redistribute this file for others who may want it, so I'll need permission from GhostBSD authors. I'll throw in a readme where I share it stating this is not an official version of GhostBSD, and it will eventually be unsupported, go stale, use at your own risk, etc. and proper credit will be given to the GhostBSD authors as well as the people who made this possible if it involves anyone else.

Alternatively, I could pay for an in depth, but easy to follow tutorial where I could replicate what I want from the instructions given, minus the stuff I already know how to do obviously.

This is going to be my new daily driver, so I'm more then willing to pay for it, just like I'd pay for a new Windows or Mac machine, or Windows OS update.

When it is all said and done, it will look like this:
- https://i.imgur.com/YphOwGU.png
- https://i.imgur.com/i891rQ6.png
- https://i.imgur.com/DILGYkF.png

I doubt anyone is interested in doing me this huge favor, much less for the small donation I have to offer, but I don't know without trying.
Samuel
grahamperrin
Posts: 105
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2016 6:06 am

Re: Custom IMG

Post by grahamperrin »

Greetings, fellow KDE user (should I say that, here?) :-)
Samuel Venable wrote: Fri Jul 03, 2020 4:48 pm Edit:

I've decided I'm actually not interested in this investment, but I will keep this topic up as a reference … The screenshots I have at the bottom show it is not that difficult to make a simplistic DE like MATE and Xfce look ok.

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… willing to pay for it, just like I'd pay for a new Windows or Mac machine, or Windows OS update.

When it is all said and done, it will look like this:
- https://i.imgur.com/YphOwGU.png
- https://i.imgur.com/i891rQ6.png
- https://i.imgur.com/DILGYkF.png

As much as I like what's in those three images, I do prefer to see Applications | Places | System in the menu bar.

My ideal would be a global menu bar, akin to Mac OS X.

I use the global menu bar options that are integral to KDE, however my most-used application is Firefox and from https://discord.com/channels/7270237523 ... 6618316830 in the #desktop channel for FreeBSD I'm quite certain that we'll not gain www/firefox compatibility with the global menu bar.

As a side note, https://github.com/helloSystem/hello/#what the full control is not quite as full as a person might expect, but that's a story for another day …

Graham
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