I am considering switching to OpenBSD. It has its own issues, but it is improving. Its performance should be good enough for me by 7.9.

Video Acceleration

OpenBSD is slower than GNU/Linux and FreeBSD. It got VA-API support just last year. Chromium and ungoogled-chromium recently got VA-API support in -current. I upgraded a throwaway OpenBSD installation to -current to test this. Video acceleration worked well under Chromium, even with 1080p60 YouTube videos. Playback of some videos in mpv also worked with hardware acceleration with hwdec set to auto and profile set to fast. Even unaccelerated 4K video playback seemed to work better under -current than under 7.8.

Hardware Compatibility

My Joey Jr V2++ Game Boy/Game Boy Color/Game Boy Advance cartridge dumper works under OpenBSD despite it not being officially supported. (It did not work under FreeBSD when I tried it.) My Hauppauge USB-Live2 video capture device does not, but I can probably install Alpine Linux on a USB flash drive or something for that. Network printing and scanning with a Brother inkjet network printer worked with some configuration.

Filesystem

That leaves OpenBSD’s filesystem (UFS/FFS2). I have heard horror stories about its reliability, and an OpenBSD developer admitted that UFS/FFS2 was “garbage”. A UPS would help, but I do not have one. Frequent backups (which I should do anyway) should help. (I would store most data on a fileserver running FreeBSD with ZFS if I could, but I have no hardware to use for that.)

[2025-12-09T17:59-0800] Update: The Joey Jr V2++ appears to work under FreeBSD 15.0, according to some bare-minimum testing I did.

I dual-booted between it and an illegitimate Windows XP Professional installation (with a certain infamous volume licensing key), which I was using previously. For the desktop environment, I used the default KDE 3.1. I initially expected it to be difficult to connect to the Internet, but it detected my Ethernet card’s settings automatically. (I initially (falsely) believed it had detected the settings from the Windows XP installation.) Hardware at this time consisted of a 400 MHz Celeron Mendocino (cf Pentium II) and 128 or 256 MB (I forget which) of RAM, the same PC I had been using since circa 2002.

I have run various other GNU/Linux distributions since then, off-and-on with the BSDs (specifically OpenBSD and FreeBSD) starting in 2013. Those distributions included Fedora (then known as Fedora Core), Ubuntu (including Kubuntu and Xubuntu), Gentoo, Arch, and Slackware. I am currently a Debian user, having switched back to GNU/Linux from the BSDs because of hardware and software compatibility issues.

The button developed an issue where a single-click would register as a double-click, and click-and-drag was unreliable. I opened the trackball, determined the model number of the button to be D2FC-F-7N, and obtained replacement buttons of that type.

I removed the old button and then soldered in the new one. A quick check with xev confirmed that the new button worked.

The left button is now reliable again.

• Basic features, such as the display of my current nick, current channel modes, and /LIST, were not implemented.
• The tab completion omitted the colon after the nick, even with circe-completion-suffix set to the default : . It also occasionally gave odd tab completion suggestions based on obscure substrings.
• The currently focused channel(s) still appeared in the tracker regardless of lui-track-behavior’s value.
• Even with circe-lagmon-mode, Circe did not reconnect to my bouncer after losing the network connection.
• circe-lagmon-mode did not work with some servers.
• circe-lagmon-mode would cause Circe to spam “*** User away: <current nick>” when I was set as away, at least with multiple instances of Circe running.
• Circe would set my away message to my nick instead of what I typed as an argument to /[G]AWAY.
• The topic was not always visible à la Irssi, WeeChat, or ERC’s top bar. I would rather not type /TOPIC constantly.
• WHOIS output would appear in random buffers.

Early this month, I switched back to Irssi (with ZNC this time) after getting tired of Circe’s bugs. With multiple clients at least, it is not as good as bare Irssi in a terminal multiplexer, but it works better than Circe did.

Incoming mail → mbsync (MRA) → mu (email indexer) → mu4e (MUA) → msmtp (SMTP client) → Outgoing mail

Summary

• mbsync synchronises the local maildirs via IMAP with the email accounts themselves. I found it to be faster than OfflineIMAP.
• mu indexes messages and makes them easier to search.
• mu4e is the Emacs-based email client included with mu.
• msmtp sends outgoing messages over SMTP.

Setup

Installation

First, install the relevant tools. Under Debian, one would install the following packages:

# apt install isync mu4e msmtp

Preparation

Next, create the directories that will contain your maildirs. Change the path and account names to match your preferences:

$ mkdir -p ~/Mail/{Main,Personal,Work}

I also recommend creating your signature blocks at this point. This tutorial uses files in ~/doc/signatures as an example. See the message-signature-file variables in the below mu4e config for examples.

Configuring mbsync

Write your ~/.mbsyncrc. Here is an example for 3 accounts:

IMAPAccount Main
Host imap.example.net
User foo@example.net
Pass hunter2
SSLType IMAPS
CertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

IMAPStore Main-remote
Account Main

MaildirStore Main-local
Path ~/Mail/Main/
Inbox ~/Mail/Main/inbox

Channel Main-default
Master :Main-remote:
Slave :Main-local:Inbox

Channel Main-sent
Master :Main-remote:"[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
slave :Main-local:Sent

Channel Main-trash
Master :Main-remote:"[Gmail]/Trash"
slave :Main-local:Trash

Channel Main-archive
Master :Main-remote:"[Gmail]/All Mail"
slave :Main-local:All

Channel Main-junk
Master :Main-remote:"[Gmail]/Spam"
slave :Main-local:Junk

Channel Main-drafts
Master :Main-remote:"[Gmail]/Drafts"
slave :Main-local:Drafts

Create Both
Expunge Both
SyncState *

Group Main
Channel Main-default
Channel Main-sent
Channel Main-trash
Channel Main-archive
Channel Main-junk

IMAPAccount Personal
Host imap.example.net
User bar@example.net
Pass hunter2
SSLType IMAPS
CertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

IMAPStore Personal-remote
Account Personal

MaildirStore Personal-local
Path ~/Mail/Personal/
Inbox ~/Mail/Personal/inbox

Channel Personal-default
Master :Personal-remote:
Slave :Personal-local:Inbox

Channel Personal-sent
Master :Personal-remote:"[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
slave :Personal-local:Sent

Channel Personal-trash
Master :Personal-remote:"[Gmail]/Trash"
slave :Personal-local:Trash

Channel Personal-archive
Master :Personal-remote:"[Gmail]/All Mail"
slave :Personal-local:All

Channel Personal-junk
Master :Personal-remote:"[Gmail]/Spam"
slave :Personal-local:Junk

Channel Personal-sent
Master :Personal-remote:"[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
slave :Personal-local:Sent

Create Both
Expunge Both
SyncState *

Group Personal
Channel Personal-default
Channel Personal-sent
Channel Personal-trash
Channel Personal-archive
Channel Personal-junk

IMAPAccount Work
Host imap.example.net
User baz@example.net
Pass hunter2
SSLType IMAPS
CertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

IMAPStore Work-remote
Account Work

MaildirStore Work-local
Path ~/Mail/Work/
Inbox ~/Mail/Work/inbox

Channel Work-default
Master :Work-remote:
Slave :Work-local:Inbox

Channel Work-sent
Master :Work-remote:"[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
slave :Work-local:Sent

Channel Work-trash
Master :Work-remote:"[Gmail]/Trash"
slave :Work-local:Trash

Channel Work-archive
Master :Work-remote:"[Gmail]/All Mail"
slave :Work-local:All

Channel Work-junk
Master :Work-remote:"[Gmail]/Spam"
slave :Work-local:Junk

Channel Work-drafts
Master :Work-remote:"[Gmail]/Drafts"
slave :Work-local:Drafts

Create Both
Expunge Both
SyncState *

Group Work
Channel Work-default
Channel Work-sent
Channel Work-trash
Channel Work-archive
Channel Work-junk

The location of CertificateFile may vary based on your system.

Finally, make ~/.mbsyncrc readable and writable only by the owner, for privacy:

$ chmod 600 ~/.mbsyncrc

Configuring msmtp

~/.msmtprc should look something like this:

defaults
auth on
tls on
tls_trust_file /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
logfile ~/.msmtp.log

# Main
account Main
host smtp.example.net
port 587
from foo@example.net
user foo@example.net
password hunter2

# Personal
account Personal
host smtp.example.net
port 587
from bar@example.net
user bar@example.net
password hunter2

# Work
account Work
host smtp.example.net
port 587
from baz@example.net
user baz@example.net
password hunter2

account default : Main

As with mbsync’s CertificateFile, the location of tls_trust_file may vary based on your system.

As with ~/.mbsyncrc above, you should make ~/.msmtprc readable and writable only by the owner. This is especially important with msmtp, as it will refuse to run otherwise.

$ chmod 600 ~/.msmtprc

msmtpqueue

msmtpqueue is a small collection of scripts to queue outgoing messages and then send them later. Under Debian, it is available in /usr/share/doc/msmtp/examples/msmtpqueue. I copied the scripts to my personal ~/local/bin directory and then edited them for my own use. See /usr/share/doc/msmtp/examples/msmtpqueue/README for more information.

There is also msmtpq, which I have not tried.

Configuring mu4e

mu4e is configured in your Emacs init file. Here is an example:

(require 'mu4e)

;; Make mu4e Emacs's default email client
(setq read-mail-command 'mu4e
      mail-user-agent 'mu4e-user-agent)

;; Where the messages are
(setq mu4e-maildir "~/Mail")

;; How to get mail
(setq mu4e-get-mail-command "mbsync -a"
      mu4e-update-interval 300)

;; How to send mail
;; (Be sure to point sendmail-program to the proper path for msmtp-enqueue.sh!)
(setq message-send-mail-function 'message-send-mail-with-sendmail
      sendmail-program "/home/user/bin/msmtp-enqueue.sh")

;; Gmail needs this
(setq mu4e-sent-messages-behavior 'delete)

;; Display To: header in headers view
(setq mu4e-headers-fields '((:human-date . 12)
                            (:flags . 6)
                            (:from . 15)
                            (:to . 12)
                            (:subject)))

;; Bookmarks
(setq mu4e-bookmarks
      `( ,(make-mu4e-bookmark
           :name "Unread messages"
           :query "flag:unread AND NOT \"maildir:/Main/Junk\" AND NOT \"maildir:/Personal/Junk\" AND NOT \"maildir:/Work/Junk\""
           :key ?u)
         ,(make-mu4e-bookmark
           :name "Today's messages"
           :query "date:today..now AND NOT \"maildir:/Main/Junk\" AND NOT \"maildir:/Personal/Junk\" AND NOT \"maildir:/Work/Junk\""
           :key ?t)
         ,(make-mu4e-bookmark
           :name "Last 7 days"
           :query "date:7d..now AND NOT \"maildir:/Main/Junk\" AND NOT \"maildir:/Personal/Junk\" AND NOT \"maildir:/Work/Junk\""
           :key ?w)
         ,(make-mu4e-bookmark
           :name "Inboxes"
           :query "\"maildir:/Main/INBOX\" OR \"maildir:/Personal/INBOX\" OR \"maildir:/Work/INBOX\""
           :key ?i)
         ,(make-mu4e-bookmark
           :name "Sent messages"
           :query "\"maildir:/Main/Sent\" OR \"maildir:/Personal/Sent\" OR \"maildir:/Work/Sent\""
           :key ?s)
         ,(make-mu4e-bookmark
           :name "Spam"
           :query "\"maildir:/Main/Junk\" OR \"maildir:/Personal/Junk\" OR \"maildir:/Work/Junk\""
           :key ?j)))

For multiple email accounts, we will use contexts. If you publish your Emacs config, e.g., in version control, be aware that this section will contain passwords and other personally identifiable information.

(require 'mu4e-context)

(setq mu4e-contexts
      `( ,(make-mu4e-context
           :name "Main"
           :enter-func (lambda () (mu4e-message "Entering Main context"))
           :leave-func (lambda () (mu4e-message "Leaving Main context"))
           :match-func (lambda (msg)
                         (when msg
                           (mu4e-message-contact-field-matches msg :to "foo@example.net")))
           :vars '((user-email-address . "foo@example.net")
                   (user-mail-address . "foo@example.net")
                   (user-full-name . "Someone")
                   (mu4e-sent-folder . "/Main/Sent")
                   (mu4e-drafts-folder . "/Main/Drafts")
                   (mu4e-trash-folder . "/Main/Trash")
                   (mu4e-refile-folder . "/Main/All")
                   (message-sendmail-extra-arguments . "-a Main")
                   (mail-host-address . "example.net")
                   (mu4e-compose-signature . (with-temp-buffer (insert-file-contents "~/doc/signatures/Main") (buffer-string)))
                   (message-signature-file . "~/doc/signatures/Main")))
         ,(make-mu4e-context
           :name "Personal"
           :enter-func (lambda () (mu4e-message "Switch to the Personal context"))
           :match-func (lambda (msg)
                         (when msg
                           (mu4e-message-contact-field-matches msg :to "bar@example.net")))
           :vars '((user-email-address . "bar@example.net")
                   (user-mail-address . "bar@example.net")
                   (user-full-name . "John Smith")
                   (mu4e-sent-folder . "/Personal/Sent")
                   (mu4e-drafts-folder . "/Personal/Drafts")
                   (mu4e-trash-folder . "/Personal/Trash")
                   (mu4e-refile-folder . "/Personal/All")
                   (message-sendmail-extra-arguments . "-a Personal")
                   (mail-host-address . "example.net")
                   (mu4e-compose-signature . (with-temp-buffer (insert-file-contents "~/doc/signatures/Personal") (buffer-string)))
                   (message-signature-file . "~/doc/signatures/Personal")))
         ,(make-mu4e-context
           :name "Work"
           :enter-func (lambda () (mu4e-message "Switch to the Work context"))
           :match-func (lambda (msg)
                         (when msg
                           (mu4e-message-contact-field-matches msg :to "baz@example.net")))
           :vars '((user-email-address . "baz@example.net")
                   (user-mail-address . "baz@example.net")
                   (user-full-name . "John Smith")
                   (mu4e-sent-folder . "/Work/Sent")
                   (mu4e-drafts-folder . "/Work/Drafts")
                   (mu4e-trash-folder . "/Work/Trash")
                   (mu4e-refile-folder . "/Work/All")
                   (message-sendmail-extra-arguments . "-a Work")
                   (mail-host-address . "example.net")
                   (mu4e-compose-signature . (with-temp-buffer (insert-file-contents "~/doc/signatures/Work") (buffer-string)))
                   (message-signature-file . "~/doc/signatures/Work")))))

(setq mu4e-context-policy 'pick-first
      mu4e-compose-context-policy 'ask)

Initialisation

Synchronise the maildirs and then index the messages:

$ mbsync -a
$ mu index --maildir="$HOME/Mail"

cronjobs

You can have cron synchronise your maildirs and send pending messages automatically. Put this shell script in ~/bin or a similar directory, name it get-send-mail (or similar), and make it executable with chmod +x:

#!/bin/sh

# Check if we are online; replace with something more appropriate for your setup
ping -c 1 -w 2 example.net > /dev/null

if [ "$?" -eq 0 ]; then
	mbsync -aq
	/home/user/bin/msmtp-runqueue.sh > /dev/null
fi

Be sure to point to the proper path for msmtp-runqueue.sh. You can now put something like this in your crontab:

@reboot /home/user/bin/get-send-mail
*/5 * * * * /home/user/bin/get-send-mail

It should run at boot and every 5 minutes.

Usage

Simply restart Emacs, and then start mu4e with M-x mu4e. For more information, see the mu4e manual: (info "(mu4e)")

The good: Unlike under FreeBSD 10.3 a few years earlier, hardware support was better. The Wi-Fi signal strength thing turned out to be i3status not supporting %quality under the BSDs. 5 GHz worked fine. Suspension and hibernation worked well. OpenBSD also does not have the headphone jack switching issue that FreeBSD has.

The bad: Performance was unacceptably slow. If audio and/or video was playing, loading a Web page, even a simple one, in Chromium would cause the audio to stutter. Swapping would occur when memory usage reached roughly 1.5 GB (nomad has 3 GB) despite adding my user account to staff and adjusting staff’s resource limits in /etc/login.conf. It would avoid the rest of the RAM as if it were poison or something. Wi-Fi was about half the speed it was under GNU/Linux for some reason. Also, some Web sites, such as Twitch streams (mpv + youtube-dl worked fine, though) and Internet Archive’s JavaScript implementation of MAME, would not work in either Chromium (with sandboxing) or Firefox.

I have reverted to Debian GNU/Linux in the meantime. OpenBSD mostly worked, and I would have stayed with it, if not for the above issue.

After doing some Web searches, I found someone’s configuration, and copied and then edited the mu4e-bookmarks variable from it. I added some “AND NOT [maildir goes here]” directives, and it worked. I also added bookmarks to /[Gmail].All Mail and /[Gmail].Sent Mail.

I added that to my own config and now it works fine.

The only major thing left to fix: I must open an encrypted message twice to see it…

In early 2017, I replaced it with a 9-cell battery.

Recently, nomad’s battery started behaving oddly.

Yesterday, I noticed that charging would stall at about 80%. Upon recharging it later, acpi told me its “last full capacity” was 69% (down from 87%). This morning, battery life suddenly jumped from the low 20s to 5%.

I may try reconditioning it to see what happens.

FreeBSD

Most things I tried worked. For some reason, Wi-Fi signal strength wasn’t reported, and only 2.4 GHz networks were supported. Some of the various Fn hotkeys (e.g., Fn+F7) didn’t work. Some issues weren’t the fault of FreeBSD itself, but of unportable software, such as Emacs’s display-battery-mode not working. Also, there was a regression starting with FreeBSD 10.x in which QEMU no longer supported KVM, suggesting that users use bhyve or VirtualBox instead.

Suspension barely worked, To get the TrackPoint to work after resuming, I had to switch to a text console and then back to X. Also, sometimes suspension would fail, and would need a reboot to be able to suspend again. I also once left VirtualBox running overnight when suspended, and I awoke to a kernel panic. Hibernation also didn’t work.

Another issue is that the audio couldn’t switch between the internal speaker and the headphone jack. This is not hardware-specific, as a desktop I used to have that ran FreeBSD also had this issue.

Debian

I then installed Debian on another hard drive I had as a test, and I noticed that certain hardware worked better. Wi-Fi signal strength is reported properly, and I can connect to 5 GHz networks. The hotkeys that didn’t work under FreeBSD do work under Debian. Audio switching works properly. Suspension works properly, and appears to be faster than under FreeBSD. Hibernation seems to work. QEMU can use KVM.

The only issues are that the Wi-Fi chip needs the non-free firmware-iwlwifi package, and that systemd occasionally hangs at halt and reboot. The latter appears to be a common issue and not hardware-specific.

Both

The card reader works under both FreeBSD and Debian, at least with the SD card I borrowed from my digital camera.

I have yet to try the fingerprint reader or the ExpressCard slot. It also has a dial-up modem, but it is likely to be a softmodem, and I have no dial-up connection with which to test it, this being the 2010s.

External Links

• X200 category at ThinkWiki
• The scratchiest neckbeard, or FreeBSD on my Thinkpad X200

• Disable smooth scrolling (Preferences → Advanced → General → uncheck Use smooth scrolling).
• Set browser.tabs.closeWindowWithLastTab to false.
• Set browser.newtab.url to about:blank.
• Set browser.urlbar.trimURLs to false.
• Set gfx.color_management_mode to 0 to prevent images from appearing with a purple/indigo tint.

Some issues are bad enough to need extensions to fix:

• Disable Ctrl-Q Shortcut
• Expire history by days
• Open in Browser