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FreeBSD Installation and Upgrading Installing and upgrading FreeBSD.

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Old 9th September 2008
wellis82 wellis82 is offline
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Default Help needed with installing usable GUI

So a little preface. I was a windows user, then swapped to linux (Red Hate 9, then Suse, Then Ubuntu), and the latest endeavor was Mac. I like my mac but I wanted two computers to use at all times (one for the wife and one for me).

I would really like to move away from linux, so I chose to try out freebsd. I tried installing, the first time it didn't work. So I tried PC-Bsd, but I didn't like it. So here I am again trying to get a dual boot system with Xubuntu and FreeBsd.

I downloaded and burned the install discs, and followed the setup instructions in the install guide. After the install was complete, I rebooted and first thing noticed was that ubuntu was not an option to select in the boot manager.

Then got the command line log in. I thought no prob i'll just startx and be good to go. X started all right into this horrible looking graphical interface from hell. TWM I believe it is called. Okay search the internet. Google pops up with startkde. No go. Can't access the monitor or screen or something.

Another google search turns up this .xintric file that supposedly exists in my home directory. Ls -a turns up no .xintric.

I can't start any usable graphical environment. Please help me. Teach me the unix-fu that you all have. I will be utterly grateful to any willing soul able to get me into the world of freebsd.

Sincerely,
Wesley
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Old 9th September 2008
J65nko J65nko is offline
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Have you seen the FreeBSD handbook chapter about desktop environments: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ok/x11-wm.html ?
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Last edited by J65nko; 9th September 2008 at 04:51 AM. Reason: typo
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Old 9th September 2008
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graudeejs graudeejs is offline
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Why would you like to move away from linux? (what is the reason)
Not that i'm against, it, just curious.

Last edited by graudeejs; 9th September 2008 at 05:24 AM.
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Old 9th September 2008
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anemos anemos is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by J65nko View Post
Have you seen the FreeBSD handbook chapter about desktop environments: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ok/x11-wm.html ?
I think he should start from the beginning of the chapter
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...dbook/x11.html

Wellis82, go through these pages and you'll find solution sooner than you think.
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Old 10th September 2008
J65nko J65nko is offline
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Anemos, he already got X and the standard TWM very minimalistic GUI working.
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Old 10th September 2008
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graudeejs graudeejs is offline
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wellis82, install fluxbox.... read documentation and configure it....
Fluxbox, is easy to configure, good looking, small, fast and lightweight...

If you want more flexible, complex window manager install fvwm2-devel.
However you will need to read loads of info, to configure it.... and it'll defiantly few days to few months to configure it... However your effort will be rewarded with WM, that works exactly as you like.

If you need Graphical Environment install KDE or Gnome. These will take long time to build.... will load longer etc.... however you almost don't need to do any config... and you'll have most programs installed by default.

There are many other.... you have to pick for your self....
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Old 16th September 2008
tano tano is offline
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Give XFCE4 a try... It's lightweight and customizable

You will then need to set up some devfs rules for automounting, play a bit with HAL and PolicyKit, etc.

Happy reading! Lots of learning...
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Old 16th September 2008
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graudeejs graudeejs is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tano View Post
Give XFCE4 a try... It's lightweight and customizable

You will then need to set up some devfs rules for automounting, play a bit with HAL and PolicyKit, etc.

Happy reading! Lots of learning...
not as much reading as for FVWM
Nothing comes close to it
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Old 21st September 2008
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After you log-in as root you could try:

# pkg_add -r kde

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...ok/x11-wm.html

I've found that KDE 3.5.8 needed no set-up on my Plll 667. KDE 3.5.8 runs very well indeed on FreeBSD 7.0.
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Old 22nd September 2008
jb_daefo jb_daefo is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by killasmurf86 View Post
install fvwm2-devel.
However you will need to read loads of info, to configure it.

There are many other.... you have to pick for your self....
find and test several ".fvwmrc" from the web. You can be
surprised at what someone else has already accomplished. When
I ran fvwm2-devel, the .fvwmrc I settled with had email-notification,
a clock etc already in it.
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Old 22nd September 2008
DrJ DrJ is offline
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I'll add a quick two bits. You did not mention exactly what ports you installed from the FreeBSD installation disk. It is likely that you have no window manager at the moment other than TWM, which is not really that useful. So you have to decide which one you want to use. Some of the lighter-weight ones have been mentioned; larger desktop environments (like KDE and Gnome) also are available. PC-BSD comes with KDE, so if you didn't like that interface, you probably won't like KDE.

As to which of the others you might like, well, that is a question of religion. Many here like fluxbox and XFCE; I use Gnome. Others use KDE. There is no *right* answer, only one that you find comfortable. There really is no way to know other than trying a few and seeing how they fit with how you wish to work on a computer.

Reading the sections of the handbook that were mentioned is a good idea.
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