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Old 11th November 2010
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jggimi jggimi is offline
More noise than signal
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: USA
Posts: 7,977
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You can be helped. Things might even be recoverable/correctable, without too much trouble.

Step 1 is damage assessment.

First, let us figure out if your built-in tool chain has been damaged. If not, you may be able to recover.

Start with this command:
sysctl kern.version
You will get a two line response, telling you who, when, where built your kernel. If you are running -release, and have not updated your kernel (and since you've just started reading the FAQ today, probably not), carefully note the date that kernel was built. When releases are built, the first thing that is executed is a kernel build.

Now jump through the following critical directories, one at a time, and issue this command, which lists the contents of the directory, most recent updates at the bottom: ls -ltr
  • /bin
  • /sbin
  • /usr/bin
  • /usr/sbin
  • /usr/lib
The userland is built just after the kernel. The date may be the same, or the day after, but will not be later. Anything newer than a day or two from the kernel means you have damaged your base system, and a reinstall is recommended rather than damage control.

If you've mucked about in /usr/local, we can recover that.

I ask you to check this because you mentioned apachectl, which in a standard OpenBSD system is the management command for the built-in Apache web server. Yet you also mentioned building Apache. Those who absolutely require Apache2 can of course use the =packaged= version, where that command is called apachectl2, to avoid confusion and to allow simultaneous use with the audited, chrooted, built-in Apache server.

Your use of the same name sent us both down the wrong path, I think. But what's most important, recovery-wise, is if the built-in Apache and other executables have been overlaid.

----

As far as a nice graphical systems go... I have to grin. Not that you already probably don't feel sheepish enough, having designed your own kit cars to do something while the rest of us have been taking jet flights (as installing php and mysql packages can be done in a single command, no building needed), but Unix has had a graphical system since 1984, called the X Windows System, which BSDs inherited. Not only that, it was always networked graphics, from day one, meaning the display computer and the execution computer need not be the same. X Windows is a graphical infrastructure, you typically install a window manager and a tool set, though OpenBSD has a few simple ones built-in. I don't like any of those, and install one or another on workstations; choosing the environment based on the workstation's intended use.

The last time I checked the package lists for window managers and window management systems for OpenBSD was about six years ago, and there were more than 40 different ones to choose from then. I haven't looked since, but I'm sure the number is closer to 100 now. Hell, you can even try five common ones from my Live Media downloads, link in my .sig below.

There's an active thread on window managers here with some recent updates, even today: http://www.daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=3547

There was an old thread on "OpenBSD screenshots" also, but to be honest, the underlying OS doesn't matter to what you see, whatever you choose: http://www.daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=1525

Hint: Yes, there's a FAQ on using the X Windows System. You may want to read it, before delving into installing it (once your system is repaired or reinstalled).
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