Updated: January 29, 2026

A centralized resource page for new FreeBSD users

New to FreeBSD? This page brings together commonly used resources to help you get started.

Whether you’re installing FreeBSD for the first time, exploring it in a virtual machine, or looking for ways to get involved, these links reflect tools and guides frequently recommended by the FreeBSD community.

This page is intended as a starting point and will continue to grow over time.

If you are looking for an introduction to the FreeBSD Project and ways to get involved, the FreeBSD Project maintains a dedicated Newbies page. The resources below complement that page with additional Foundation guides, installation resources, and community learning materials.

Start Here: Core Documentation

If you’re new to FreeBSD, these official resources are the best place to begin.

FreeBSD Handbook (Official)

The FreeBSD Handbook is the primary reference for FreeBSD users. It covers everything from initial installation to system administration.

Topics include:

• Installation and setup

• System configuration

• Networking, storage, and security

• Desktop environments

FreeBSD Handbook – Introduction

https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/parti/

FreeBSD Handbook – Installation

https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/bsdinstall/

Installing FreeBSD (Desktop & Virtual Machines)

FreeBSD can be installed on physical hardware or explored safely in a virtual environment.

Desktop Environments

If you’re interested in using FreeBSD as a desktop system, this Foundation resource walks through common setup options:

Installing a Desktop Environment on FreeBSD

https://freebsdfoundation.org/resource/installing-a-desktop-environment-on-freebsd/

In addition to written guides, several FreeBSD contributors have shared walkthroughs demonstrating desktop setup and usability, including videos referenced in the FreeBSD Foundation Executive Director’s laptop installation series.

Virtual Machines (Recommended for Beginners)

Running FreeBSD in a virtual machine is one of the easiest ways to get started.

If you’re using VirtualBox or another VM tool, this resource is a helpful entry point:

Installing FreeBSD with VirtualBox | FreeBSD Foundation

https://freebsdfoundation.org/resource/installing-freebsd-with-virtualbox/

Learn with the Community

FreeBSD has an active, long-standing community. Participation is welcome at every experience level.

Community spaces include:

• FreeBSD Forums: https://forums.freebsd.org/

• FreeBSD Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/freebsd/

• FreeBSD Discord: https://discord.gg/freebsd

• FreeBSD LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/freebsd-foundation

Additional community resources commonly recommended by contributors include:

• BSD Now (news and discussion): https://www.bsdnow.tv/

• Mailing lists Mailing Lists | The FreeBSD Project 

• Community | The FreeBSD Project

These spaces are useful for asking questions, sharing knowledge, and learning from real-world use cases. 

Books Recommended by the Community

Some users prefer learning with a book alongside hands-on practice.

• Absolute FreeBSD — by Michael W. Lucas 
  
  A system-administration focused guide that explains how and why FreeBSD works.  (Amazon, Kobo, BookShop.org, Google Books)

• The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System – by Marshall McKusick, George Neville-Neil, Robert Watson 
  
  A deeper look at FreeBSD internals and operating system design. (Amazon, Kobo, BookShop.org, Google Books)

These are optional resources but commonly recommended once you’re comfortable with the basics.

Videos & Talks

If you prefer video-based learning, the FreeBSD Foundation publishes talks and walkthroughs covering topics such as:

• Installation guides

• FreeBSD on laptops and desktops

• System internals and tooling

FreeBSD YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/@FreeBSDProject

The FreeBSD Foundation’s Executive Director, Deb Goodkin, has also been documenting her experience running FreeBSD on a laptop as part of an ongoing series. The posts share practical insights from installing FreeBSD, configuring a desktop environment, and using the system for everyday work, including references to documentation, videos, and community resources that may be helpful to new users.

Want to Contribute?

There are many ways to contribute to FreeBSD, and writing code is only one of them.

Common contribution paths include:

• Testing and reporting bugs

• Improving documentation

• Helping other users

• Advocacy and community support

How to Contribute to FreeBSD

Contributing to FreeBSD | FreeBSD Documentation Portal

FreeBSD is a large project, and everyone starts somewhere. Take your time, explore what interests you, and use the resources that fit your learning style.

Interested in more resources? Visit our Resources page to explore additional FreeBSD Foundation and Project materials.

The post Getting Started with FreeBSD first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

 1. Installing VMware Fusion:

VMware’s desktop products, recently made available by Broadcom as a free download for personal use, run on a wide range of systems; VMware Fusion is designed for Mac systems and can run on M-Series Apple Silicon systems, whereas VMware Workstation is a similar hypervisor that runs on Windows and Linux.

Users must first register on the Broadcom support portal to install VMware Fusion or VMware Workstation. This signup process includes being included in Broadcom’s marketing lists, and free access to the hypervisors is granted for personal use.

Once registered, follow the install links on VMware’s website, log in using your Broadcom sign-in, and install the correct hypervisor for your system. 

2. Getting the latest FreeBSD release:

Visit the official FreeBSD releases page. The disk images are listed in order of release date, so the most recent release can be found at the top of the page as highlighted.

• Newer m1/m2 Apple chips will require aarch64 images

• 64-bit Windows machines will require amd64 images

After clicking the link, you will be redirected to a file directory containing multiple formats and versions of the FreeBSD installer.

Identifying the Correct Disk Image

For VMware, the correct format will be the image ending in -disc.iso, as shown above. Click this file and start downloading the image

3. Creating a FreeBSD Virtual Machine:

3.1 VMware Fusion (Mac):

In VMware Fusion, click the ‘+’ symbol in the top left or center of the client, then click ‘New’ to create a new virtual machine. On Mac, choose ‘Create a custom virtual machine,’ select ‘Other’ as the Operating System, and ‘FreeBSD 14 64-bit’ as the firmware.

Select ‘Create a new virtual disk’ and ‘Continue.’ Then, finish and save the VM using your own naming convention.

Before booting, the new virtual machine must be given a CD drive to boot from, or it will fail to boot. Open it to see this message, and do not suspend it; it must be running to attach a drive.

Press command+E to open virtual machine settings and click CD/DVD. Choose the FreeBSD ISO image, the “FreeBSD … disc1.iso” image downloaded earlier. Then, check the box to connect a CD/DVD drive.

Right-click “virtual machine” in the top menu, and select “restart.”

3.2 VMware Workstation (Windows/Linux:

In the center of the client, click ‘Create a New Virtual Machine’ and choose the ‘Typical’ virtual machine option. Choose the FreeBSD ISO image, the “FreeBSD … disc1.iso” image downloaded earlier.

Name the virtual machine using your own naming convention, and ‘Finish’ to create the VM. 

4. Booting into FreeBSD:

The FreeBSD booting system will automatically start once VirtualBox starts the virtual machine. Follow the FreeBSD Handbook’s installation guide to configure and set up your system. When in doubt, use the default options provided, which can be reconfigured later.

Once installation is complete, use the FreeBSD Handbook’s post-installation guide.

5. Finishing Up:

On a bare-metal system, you would now be able to boot directly into FreeBSD with no further configuration. However, since we’re using a virtual machine, a few more steps are required.

Open settings. Click on CD/DVD, and then Un-check the box that says “connect CD/DVD Drive” or “connect on boot”. Exit out of this screen.

Next, click on Processors and Memory and select more RAM and cores. The default options are quite low for a dedicated virtual machine.

Use the Start button to boot the virtual machine, and log in to the root user (or use ‘su’ if the guest user was given admin control)

To ensure full VMware support, install the open-vm-tools package with:

pkg install -y open-vm-tools

If this is the first time pkg has been run, respond to the prompt with y to bootstrap pkg. The open-vm-tools package contains the core user space utilities, application programs, and libraries, including vmtoolsd, to help effectively manage communication between your host and guest OSs.

The post How to Install FreeBSD on VMware first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

Note: Check the file locations where VS Code is configured to find them. rust-analyzer, for instance, will give an error because the VS Code extension searches a different file than where it is stored on FreeBSD. To quickly fix this issue:

$ whereis rust-analyzer 
rust-analyzer: /usr/local/bin/rust-analyzer

Navigate to the VSCode settings gear in the bottom left and open the .json settings file.


Add the correct path to the rust binary:
“rust-analyzer.server.path”: “/usr/local/bin/rust-analyzer”

The post How to use VS Code on FreeBSD first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

To start, all necessary modules will need to be loaded with:

# kldload dtraceall

The DTrace Toolkit has several utilities written in ksh, so support for the Korn shell to fully utilize the system will be needed. 

# pkg install ksh93

Probes can be enabled with the dtrace command, omitting the -l option from the previous section. For enabled probes, DTrace will perform the default action, indicating that the probe has been fired, but not collecting any further event data. 

You can use the dtrace:::BEGIN probe to fire when DTrace starts:

# dtrace -n dtrace:::BEGIN

Additionally, an action can be assigned to each probe. Actions enable DTrace to interact with the system outside of the DTrace framework. These actions range from recording data, stopping a current process, raising signals on a process, or stop tracing.

# dtrace -n 'dtrace:::BEGIN { printf("Hello FreeBSD!\n"); }'

Use the Ctrl+C key combination to stop the process.

This modification on the previous command includes a specified action to display “Hello FreeBSD!” when DTrace starts.

An action can be assigned to each probe, allowing a massive amount of customization on what is monitored and the specific action DTrace executes when it is fired. Another possible use would be to set an action to the syscall::open*:entry to trace file opens as they happen.

Using DTrace Scripts

# cd /usr/local/share/dtrace-toolkit
# ./hotkernel
Sampling... Hit Ctrl-C to end.

kernel`_thread_lock_flags                                   2   0.0%
0xc1097063                                                  2   0.0%
kernel`sched_userret                                        2   0.0%
kernel`kern_select                                          2   0.0%
kernel`generic_copyin                                       3   0.0%
kernel`_mtx_assert                                          3   0.0%
kernel`vm_fault                                             3   0.0%
kernel`sopoll_generic                                       3   0.0%
kernel`fixup_filename                                       4   0.0%
kernel`_isitmyx                                             4   0.0%
kernel`find_instance                                        4   0.0%
kernel`_mtx_unlock_flags                                    5   0.0%
kernel`syscall                                              5   0.0%
kernel`DELAY                                                5   0.0%
0xc108a253                                                  6   0.0%
kernel`witness_lock                                         7   0.0%
kernel`read_aux_data_no_wait                                7   0.0%
kernel`Xint0x80_syscall                                     7   0.0%
kernel`witness_checkorder                                   7   0.0%
kernel`sse2_pagezero                                        8   0.0%
kernel`strncmp                                              9   0.0%
kernel`spinlock_exit                                       10   0.0%
kernel`_mtx_lock_flags                                     11   0.0%
kernel`witness_unlock                                      15   0.0%
kernel`sched_idletd                                       137   0.3%
0xc10981a5                                              42139  99.3%

# ./hotkernel -m

The post An Introduction to Dynamic Tracing first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

Packet Filter, also known as PF or pf, is a BSD-licensed stateful packet filter used to filter TCP/IP traffic and perform Network Address Translation (NAT.) Originally created by OpenBSD, PF has been ported to FreeBSD since 5.3-RELEASE.

PF can identify where a packet should be directed or if it should even be allowed through; this can be decided based on the source and destination of that individual packet. PF can detect and block traffic you want to keep out of or in the local network. The firewall is highly flexible and even offers bandwidth management and packet priority.

1 . Enabling PF

PF relies on its kernel module, this must be enabled through /etc/rc.conf to start PF:

# sysrc pf_enable=yes

Additional options can be enabled when PF is started, this can be done by adding the following line to /etc/rc.conf. Required flags can later be specified between the two quotes(“”):

pf_flags="" # additional flags for pfctl startup

To start, PF will need to find its ruleset configuration file. FreeBSD does not ship with a ruleset or /etc/pf.conf. Custom rulesets can be used by specifying the path in /etc/rc.conf

pf_rules="/path/to/pf.conf"

Logging support for PF is provided by pflog(4). To enable logging support, add pflog_enable=yes to /etc/rc.conf:

# sysrc pflog_enable=yes

The following lines can also be added to change the default location of the log file or to specify any additional flags to pass to pflog(4) when it is started:

pflog_logfile="/var/log/pflog" # where pflogd should store the logfile
pflog_flags="" # additional flags for pflogd startup

The following option will enable NAT if there is a LAN behind the firewall:

gateway_enable="YES"

PF can now be started with logging support:

# service pf start
# service pflog start

2. Using pfctl

PF can be controlled using pfctl, refer to pfctl(8) for a description of all available options. Here are some of the more common pfctl options:

3. Creating a Base PF Ruleset

PF depends on a ruleset, which can be customized to best serve any system. Creating a base ruleset is the first step in customizing your firewall that can be further augmented and specified. Create the ruleset in

Start by creating a simple ruleset that applies to only a single machine, relies on one network, and does not run services:

tcp_services = "{ ssh, smtp, domain, www, pop3, auth, pop3s }"
udp_services = "{ domain }"
block all pass out proto tcp to any port $tcp_services keep state
pass proto udp to any port $udp_services keep state

set skip on lo0
tcp_services = "{ ssh, smtp, domain, www, pop3, auth, pop3s }"
udp_services = "{ domain }"
block all
pass out proto tcp to any port $tcp_services keep state
pass proto udp to any port $udp_services keep state
pass out inet proto icmp icmp-type { echoreq }

4. Testing Your Base Ruleset

Testing your ruleset between major edits is crucial to ensure that PF functions properly. 

First test for internet connectivity and DNS service:

# ping -c 3 google.com

Check that the pkgs repository can be reached: 

# pkg upgrade

And finally, reboot:

# reboot

Give your server a few minutes to reboot. Next, you will expand the ruleset with more advanced features to see some possible applications of the PF ruleset.

5. Example Rulesets and Their Application

Now that you have created a base ruleset, the base ruleset can be built upon for more advanced PF functions. While this guide won’t cover every possible function or customization, these basic rulesets may be helpful for your system, or offer insight into how PF may be used. After each example, make sure to test the base ruleset.

5.1 Blocking Spoofed Packets

Address spoofing is a method where an outside user forges the source IP of sent packets to conceal the actual address, essentially impersonating another internet node. This opens the door for a network attack that does not disclose where it’s originating.

The antispoof PF keyword can help protect against spoof packets:

antispoof [log] [quick] for interface [af]

log: Specifies that packets matching the criteria should be reported by pflogd (8).
quick: This ensured that if a packet meets this rules, examination of the ruleset will cease.
interface: Specify the specific network where spoofing protection will be activated.
af: Address family (i.e., inet or inet6 for IPv4 and IPv6)

The most basic way to weed out spoofed traffic coming in from external sources, as well as any spoofed packets that originate in the local network:

antispoof for $ext_if
antispoof for $int_if

5.2 Protecting SSH Ports

A typical exploit is to target SSH ports, which are open to the public. This is often done with brute force attacks and can succeed if the server has weak passwords. PF has built-in features that help deal with brute-force attacks. PF can limit the simultaneous connection attempts a single host allows. Once a host exceeds this number, the connection will be dropped, and they will be banned from the server. PF’s overload mechanism has a table of banned IP addresses.

Modify your previous base ruleset to limit simultaneous connections from a single host:

pass in on $vtnet0 proto tcp to port { 22 } \

keep state (max-src-conn 15, max-src-conn-rate 3/1, \

overload <bruteforce> flush global)

keep state: Allows you to define the state criteria for the overload table.
max-src-conn: Specifies the number of simultaneous connections allowed from a single host per second.
max-src-conn-rate: Specifies the number of new connections allowed from a single host per second.

If any host exceeds the specified limits, the PF overload mechanism will add the source IP to the <bruteforce> table. If a host exceeds these limits, the overload mechanism adds the source IP to the <bruteforce> table, which bans them from the server. The connection will immediately be dropped due to the flush global parameter. 

Before this ruleset can be loaded, the table you defined needs to be declared in the ruleset: 

Specify the <bruteforce> table underneath the previous icmp_types macro

icmp_types = "{ echoreq }"

table <bruteforce> persist

The persist keyword allows an empty table to exist in the ruleset. Without it, PF will complain that there are no IP addresses in the table.

5.3 Handling Non-Routable Addresses

As much as you can properly configure your system to be precise, some configuration may be needed to compensate for other people’s misconfigurations. One common mistake is to let traffic with non-routable addresses out to the Internet. Since non-routable addresses can be used in DoS attacks, consider blocking this traffic from entering the network.

Define a macro containing non-routable addresses, then use it in blocking rules. Traffic to and from these addresses is dropped on the gateway’s external interface.

external = "{ 127.0.0.0/8, 192.168.0.0/16, 172.16.0.0/12, \
      10.0.0.0/8, 169.254.0.0/16, 192.0.2.0/24, \
    0.0.0.0/8, 240.0.0.0/4 }"

block drop in quick on $ext_if from $external to any
block drop out quick on $ext_if from any to $external

6. Viewing PF Logs

To view PF logs:

tcpdump -n -e -ttt -r /var/log/pflog

To view logs in real-time from the pflog0 interface, run the following command:

tcpdump -n -e -ttt -i pflog0

The pftop utility is a tool for quickly viewing firewall activity in real-time; it can be installed and started with:

pkg install pftop

pftop

The post An Introduction to Packet Filter (PF) first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

Note: To run VirtualBox, an Xorg session is needed. Refer to the handbook’s section on the X Window System to install and configure Xorg.

# pkg install virtualbox-ose

# kldload vboxdrv

vboxdrv_load="YES"

vboxnet_enable="YES"

# pw groupmod vboxusers -m yourusername

own     vboxnetctl root:vboxusers
perm    vboxnetctl 0660

# VirtualBox

VirtualBox USB Support

Users will need to be members of the operator group For VirtualBox to be aware of USB devices.

# pw groupmod operator -m yourusername

Then, add the following to /etc/devfs.rules, or create this file if it does not exist yet:

[system=10]
add path 'usb/*' mode 0660 group operator

To load these new rules, add the following to /etc/rc.conf:

devfs_system_ruleset="system"

Then, restart devfs:

# service devfs restart

Both the login session and VirtualBox will need to be restarted for any changed to take effect.

hald_enable="YES"

# service hald start

perm cd* 0660
perm xpt0 0660
perm pass* 0660

The post Using FreeBSD as a Virtual Host – Quick Guide first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

zfs_enable="YES"

# service zfs start

# egrep 'da[0-9]|cd[0-9]' /var/run/dmesg.boot

# zpool create example /dev/da0

# cd /example
# ls
# touch testfile

# ls -al

# zfs create example/compressed
# zfs set compression=on example/compressed

# zfs set compression=off example/compressed

# zfs umount example/compressed
# df

# zfs mount example/compressed
# df

example/compressed 17547008 0 17547008 0% /example/compressed

# zfs create example/data

# df
                                 . . . 
example/compressed  17547008       0 17547008     0%    /example/compressed
example/data        17547008       0 17547008     0%    /example/data

# zfs destroy example/compressed
# zfs destroy example/data
# zpool destroy example

# zpool create storage raidz da0 da1 da2

# zfs create storage/home

# zfs set copies=2 storage/home
# zfs set compression=gzip storage/home

# cp -rp /home/* /storage/home
# rm -rf /home /usr/home
# ln -s /storage/home /home
# ln -s /storage/home /usr/home

# zfs snapshot storage/home@11-01-22

# zfs rollback storage/home@11-01-22

# zfs list -t snapshot storage/home

# zpool status -x

all pools are healthy

  pool: storage
 state: DEGRADED
status: One or more devices has been taken offline by the administrator.
	Sufficient replicas exist for the pool to continue functioning in a
	degraded state.
action: Online the device using 'zpool online' or replace the device with
	'zpool replace'.
 scrub: none requested
config:

	NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
	storage     DEGRADED     0     0     0
	  raidz1    DEGRADED     0     0     0
	    da0     ONLINE       0     0     0
	    da1     OFFLINE      0     0     0
	    da2     ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

# zpool offline storage da1

# zpool replace storage da1

# zpool status storage
 pool: storage
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: resilver completed with 0 errors on Fri Nov 4 11:12:03 2022
config:

	NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
	storage     ONLINE       0     0     0
	  raidz1    ONLINE       0     0     0
	    da0     ONLINE       0     0     0
	    da1     ONLINE       0     0     0
	    da2     ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

# zpool scrub storage

# zpool status storage
 pool: storage
 state: ONLINE
 scrub: scrub completed with 0 errors on Fri Nov 4 11:19:52 2022
config:

	NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
	storage     ONLINE       0     0     0
	  raidz1    ONLINE       0     0     0
	    da0     ONLINE       0     0     0
	    da1     ONLINE       0     0     0
	    da2     ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

The post An Introduction to ZFS first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

The simplest way to install and manage applications and system tools on FreeBSD is through the pkg package management tool, which makes dealing with binary packages fast and easy. Binary packages are pre-compiled and require no in-depth understanding of compiling software on FreeBSD, making them the ideal method to install software for new users.

# /usr/sbin/pkg

# man pkg

# pkg help install # man pkg-install

# pkg install packagename

# pkg info
ca_root_nss-3.15.1_1	The root certificate bundle from the Mozilla Project
curl-7.31.0_1	Non-interactive tool to get files from FTP, GOPHER, HTTP(S) servers
pkg-1.1.4_6	New generation package manager

# pkg delete curl

# pkg upgrade

The post Binary Package Management on FreeBSD first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

# ln -sf /dev/cd0 /dev/dvd

link cd0 dvd

# pkg install -y xorg

# startx

xvinfo

X-Video Extension version 2.2
  screen #0
  Adaptor #0: "Example Engine"
    number of ports: 1
    port base: 43
     
       .   .    .

X-Video Extension version 2.2
screen #0
no adaptors present

# pkg install -y xine

# xine

# xine -g -p mymovie.avi

The post Video Playback on FreeBSD – Quick Guide first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.

The post Installing a Port on FreeBSD – Video Guide first appeared on FreeBSD Foundation.