FreeBSD 15.0 Installation Guide: From ISO to Desktop

Back in December ’25, FreeBSD released FreeBSD 15.0. I didn’t get the chance to try it then, but today I will. FreeBSD 15.0 has some significant upgrades over version 14, such as shipping with OpenZFS 2.4, enabling WiFi 6 with iwx, dropping most 32-bit support, and changing into two options for installation.

During installation, bsdinstall(8) prompts the user to choose between two installation methods:

1. Distribution Sets (Traditional Method): This is the method used in previous FreeBSD releases. Systems installed this way continue to use the freebsd-update(8) utility for updates. Support for distribution sets is planned for removal in FreeBSD 16, but will continue (along with freebsd-update support) for the lifetime of the FreeBSD 15 stable branch.
2. Packages (pkgbase / New Method): The base system is installed as a set of packages from the “FreeBSD-base” repository. Systems installed this way are managed entirely using the pkg(8) tool. This method is used by default for all VM images and images published in public clouds. In FreeBSD 15.0, pkgbase is offered as a technology preview, but it is expected to become the standard method for managing base system installations and upgrades in future releases.

Future base systems will use the new “pkgbase” system, so we will use that today. I’m going to download the “FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso” and install it onto a VM.

I have always dug the FreeBSD logo, and here in ASCII it looks great too.

Next, after being asked about a hostname and keyboard layout, we’re asked next for a network or offline install.

Additionally, the partition and disk setup was quick and easy and managed by the installer. Right after that, the installer took over, right until I was asked for a root password. Followed by asking to create a user.

Then a quick restart; booting was quick, and I was in a shell. I logged in as root as I forgot to install sudo for my new user, but that is easy enough with:

pkg install sudo nano

After editing /etc/sudoers, I should be good to go. I could have used visudo, but I find it easier to just issue the following command:

echo "osiou ALL=(ALL) ALL" >> /usr/local/etc/sudoers.d/users

Next, installing a desktop environment. I decide I want to go with Plasma, as it’s my go-to for almost all Linux installs. It should be simple enough with this command:

sudo pkg install kde

It tells me that it is going to add 6 GB to my install. This is because on top of installing KDE, it is also going to install some basic KDE applications, as found on the docs page.

I always appreciate when these KDE applications are bundled together in one package and not called individually; however, they have a minimal option for those looking for it. The minimal version can be installed with:

sudo pkg install plasma6-plasma konsole

Next, we’re going to need a login manager; the docs recommend SDDM, so that is what I will use.

sudo sysrc dbus_enable="YES"

sudo pkg install sddm

sudo sysrc sddm_enable="YES"

sudo reboot

I’ll reboot at this point to see SDDM in action on boot.

There we go, a quick restart and everything works. Logging in, I see a standard KDE desktop; it includes some basic software like Konsole, Discover, Dolphin, and even Konqueror.

Overall, I like it! It is quick, snappy, easy to configure, and looks good. The pkg installer works great. Though I didn’t try any other desktop environments, anything not based on Linux is always interesting to me. Soon I would like to challenge myself and install it on a PC and use it exclusively for a few weeks and see how everything works out that way.