From owner-freebsd-newbies Fri Jun 12 20:05:03 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id UAA15522 for freebsd-newbies-outgoing; Fri, 12 Jun 1998 20:05:03 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from colossus.dyn.ml.org (dburr@206-18-113-199.la.inreach.net [206.18.113.199]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id UAA15509 for ; Fri, 12 Jun 1998 20:04:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dburr@colossus.dyn.ml.org) Received: (from dburr@localhost) by colossus.dyn.ml.org (8.8.8/8.8.7) id UAA10525; Fri, 12 Jun 1998 20:02:12 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dburr) Message-ID: X-Mailer: XFMail 1.2 [p0] on FreeBSD X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: <3581B36E.C76B5891@mci2000.COM> Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1998 20:02:12 -0700 (PDT) Organization: Computer Help From: Donald Burr To: DrAcO Subject: RE: Installing X-Windows Cc: newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org My secret spy satellite informs me that on 12-Jun-98, DrAcO wrote: > I am new to the FreeBSD "enviroment", and am only 15 at the time so > forgive me if I sound kind of "out of it" right now. I recently > installed FreeBSD 2.2.6 on my laptop (Toshiba 430CDS) and am having > trouble running X-Windows. When X-Windows comes up, it seems like an > older version. When I ran RedHat Linux 4.2, my X-Windows background was > green and it had a start menu, etc., etc. However, my FreeBSD X-Windows > is grey, has no start menu, and the colors are different. The X-Term > windows is actually white! In X-Windows configuration, I have selected > the right graphics card, screen resolution, and everything is correct, > but when I startx it looks the same. I installed FreeBSD from a > CD-ROM. I was wondering if someone could help me figure out what the > problem is? The problem's not with FreeBSD: the problem is that RedHat Linux did way too much for you. You see, RedHat comes with its own special set of custom window environments, called TheNextLevel. But FreeBSD doesn't -- it just comes with the "default" window manager, called TWM, which, as you've seen, is rather primitive. But the good news is, there is a solution!! FreeBSD comes with many alternate window managers in the ports collection. These can easily be installed in place of the default, with only a few fairly easy commands. Here are some particular favorites of mine: * KDE -- this is my favorite, and the one I use daily. /usr/ports/x11/kde * AfterStep -- a lot of people like this. It's a NeXTstep look-alike. (NeXTstep is the windowing system used on the NeXT workstation) /usr/ports/x11/afterstep * WindowMaker -- another NeXTstep clone. Has its own devoted following. /usr/ports/x11/windowmaker * Enlightenement -- not a clone of anything, but a really cool looking WM. It, too, has its own set of devoted followers. /usr/ports/x11/enlightenment The probem that you mentioned is, unfortunately, a very well-known deficiency in FreeBSD. But it's one that we're trying to fix! For example, as mentioned earlier, we have tons of window managers/environments available in hte ports collection. But, We are also sponsoring a contest for people to actually DESIGN a windowing environment/theme that's appropriate to FreeBSD. We hope to be able to distribute the "winner" as the "default" windowing theme (or, an easily installable "alternate default"). Please see http://www.freebsd.org/~jkh/xcontest/ for more details. --- Donald Burr - Ask me for my PGP key | PGP: Your WWW HomePage: http://DonaldBurr.base.org/ ICQ #1347455 | right to Address: P.O. Box 91212, Santa Barbara, CA 93190-1212 | 'Net privacy. Phone: (805) 957-9666 FAX: (800) 492-5954 | USE IT. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- FreeBSD - Turning PCs into Workstations - http://www.freebsd.org/ (NOTE: POBoxes.com appears to be working again -- fire away!) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message