From owner-freebsd-newbies Wed Jun 10 09:08:07 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA04418 for freebsd-newbies-outgoing; Wed, 10 Jun 1998 09:08:07 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from mail.honk.org (mpoulin@honk.org [206.191.48.225]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA04318 for ; Wed, 10 Jun 1998 09:07:44 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from mpoulin@honk.org) Received: from localhost (mpoulin@localhost) by mail.honk.org (8.8.4/8.7.3) with SMTP id LAA18617; Wed, 10 Jun 1998 11:12:45 -0400 Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 11:12:45 -0400 (EDT) From: Marty Poulin Reply-To: Marty Poulin To: Sue Blake cc: newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Installing X In-Reply-To: <19980606074507.47760@welearn.com.au> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Sat, 6 Jun 1998, Sue Blake wrote: > The first steps are basically: install X, Ok - what would be *really* helpful would be some sort of instructions on how to install X. Is it available as a package or a port, what is needed in preparation, where to get it... - a complete break down of the steps required. > make sure your path includes X > (you'll probably see how to change it if you edit your ~/.profile and log > in again), run xf86config as root (very carefully! a wrong answer can fry > your monitor so run it again if you made a mistake), and then as a humble > user type 'startx' and see if it works. Use Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to get out > of X if you can't see another way. If the screen seems happy, use > Ctrl-Alt-+ (that's the plus on the numeric keypad) a few times slowly to > see how easy it is to cycle through the available resolutions. That helps too. I assume by including "X" in my path you mean "/usr/X11R6"? > Next: you need to install and configure a 'window manager' to make it work > nicely. Out of the box it has an old plain window manager called twm but > you're sure to want something better. The one called fvwm2 is good to > start with (install from the FreeBSD packages collection) and experiment > with other ones after the basics are a bit more familiar. Hint: click on > the background with different mouse buttons to get menus, including one > that'll let you exit gracefully. By now you'll be interested in colour > depth as well as resolution, so try changing to something like > 'startx -- -bpp 16' to get more colours That's really helpful too. I would recommend just pasting the above instructions directly into the FAQ or handbook. > Would it help much to have a brief summary like this in the > Handbook or FAQ? Raise enough hands and it'll happen. I think it would definitely help. A brief overview, with a few specifics to point people in the right direction would be a great help. (BTW - I still have yet to successfully install X. Now that I have the above info, I will try again this weekend. Just for fun, I'll let you know how I make out) ===================== Quote(c) 1997 Martin Poulin ===================== I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. - Confucius > > > > There's a couple of good chapters on setting up X in Greg Lehey's book > The Complete FreeBSD, and that's the only place you'll find every detail > from installing to making X shine. Get this book if you can. > > Our Newbies Resources web page (http://www.freebsd.org/newbies.html) has > just had a little section on X added. It gets updated every couple of > weeks, mostly by *guessing* what info newbies need to find (hint). Please > post any feedback on that page to this mailing list. > > For problems and specific questions, ask freebsd-questions@freebsd.org. > There's another web page at http://www.welearn.com.au/freebsd/newbies > that explains how to deal with problems that don't solve themselves. > > > I don't have too much invested in my system right now, so it won't be > > too much of a loss to start over. > > Aaaarrggghh! That's what I said too :-( I reinstalled about six times in > the first week trying to get things right. WRONG! Once it's installed and > booting you're fine. Even the silliest goofs can be fixed from there, > with a little help from the FAQ, Handbook, man pages if you're desperate, > and freebsd-questions to solve any nagging mysteries that remain. > > If you're totally new at everything, remember that you'll be learning > about several distinct subjects at once: UNIX commands; X; how to use > particular applications; running FreeBSD. Try to distinguish between > these areas of knowledge from the start. Most of the help you'll get from > FreeBSD people (e.g. in freebsd-questions) is on FreeBSD itself, though > they'll stray to other areas a little bit to help out. > > On the other hand, here as newbies we can discuss the process we've been > through to learn FreeBSD and all of the other things we've needed to know > about. We all have different backgrounds and different learning styles. > Sharing our experiences is valuable, even when our experiences are very > different. > > Please let us know what helps you most, in case it helps us too. > > > -- > > Regards, > -*Sue*- > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message