freeBSD GUI

[Force Flow]

How do I install/boot up into the GUI of FreeBSD. All I get at startup is the command line.

[Karnevil9]

Maybe these folks can help

www.freebsdforums.org.

[mairving]

Umm, startx maybe. I run FreeBSD but no GUI.

[Statica]

The day BSD starts showing me a GUI instead of a console will be the last day I use it on a server. Which happens to be one of the reasons why I went from using Linux for core systems to a corner.
Check out: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...oks/faq/x.html

KDE for freeBSD - http://freebsd.kde.org/
Gnome for freeBSD - http://www.freebsd.org/gnome/

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On an unrelated note, I found this in the FAQ that I found HILARIOUS given that it is 2004, and we speak of system memory in GB ranges You gotta love BSD ...

from: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO...EG-RAM-INSTALL

3.5. I have only 4 MB of RAM. Can I install FreeBSD? FreeBSD 2.1.7 was the last version of FreeBSD that could be installed on a 4MB system. FreeBSD 2.2 and later needs at least 5MB to install on a new system. All versions of FreeBSD will run in 4MB of RAM, they just cannot run the installation program in 4MB. You can add extra memory for the install process, if you like, and then after the system is up and running, go back to 4MB. Or you could swap your disk into a system which has >4MB, install onto the disk and then swap it back. After the installation, if you build a custom kernel, it will run in 4 MB. Someone has even successfully booted with 2 MB, although the system was almost unusable.

[mairving]

Too true there, Statica. FreeBSD can be made to work with a GUI but Fedora or Mandrake are better options if you want to go that route.

I had an old Toshiba notebook with only a 3.1G drive. I tried installing Slack, FreeBSD but they all had problems. Finally I gave up and installed Fedora and it works fine.

As a general rule if you need something to go with the latest and greatest hardware, go with Fedora or Mandrake. If you need something to go on a server with a SCSI drive go with FreeBSD.

[Force Flow]

Thanks guys. I tried a few things they suggested over at those forums, but I still couldn't get it work. I just stuck on Mandrake instead. Not worth the time trying to configure FreeBSD.

Yes, you can run FreeBSD with a GUI. I just couldn't get it to work right.

[AerynSedai]

i had a friend who runs windowmaker or something on freeBSD, but i had a bugger of time getting the mouse to work on that glorified adding machine.

unless you are pretty hardcore unix/linux, i doubt you would notice much, if any, difference in using red hat or mandrake.

AS

[LocoCoyote]

hey force_Flow! I frown upon using the GUI (KDE in this case) on my FreeBSD box, but it wasn't all that difficult to get it set up. The instructions in the FreeBSD handbook (download it at www.freebsd.org) gives good instructions. In a nutshell, you need only make some changes in your xfree config file (xconfig is what I used). You can also rerun the setup routine and do it there. If you have ever done it in linux, the procedures are almost identical!

Good Luck

[Force Flow]

That's what I was following. For some odd reason, the config settings wouldn't take.

And no, the procedure is not the same with the RH or Mandrake flavors.

[jglen490]

I feel your pain. I thought I'd try FreeBSD because of its reputation for a secure environment.

I gave it two shots to install with a reasonable set of apps and the KDE desktop, which runs just fine in my Mandrake installation. Both shots failed miserably. The first was probably my fault as I should have taken a little more time with reading an d following what the installer was saying. The second one should have been better -- it wasn't.

The little daemon logo guy is cute, but I'll stick with the penguin.

[Force Flow]

Heh, I gave it 5 attempts before I finally caved in and went to what I got working flawlessly before: Mandrake

[LocoCoyote]

Sorry about that Force Flow.............What I was trying to say was that the resulting xfee86 config file is for all general purposes the same. The config process in freeBsd is a two step process. first the xfconfig for your server, then the desktop config. I just accessed them both through the sys install program.

heck, like I said before, I don't like using the GUI in FreeBSD any way!

Good Luck to You.


(PS www.freebsd.org has the FreeBSD handbook avail for download. It has a very good section on configuring X)

Happy Bits & Bytes!