From owner-freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org Fri May 27 14:42:09 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-sysinstall@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F2645B4B7E7 for ; Fri, 27 May 2016 14:42:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from allanjude@freebsd.org) Received: from mx1.scaleengine.net (mx1.scaleengine.net [209.51.186.6]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8DFB7167F; Fri, 27 May 2016 14:42:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from allanjude@freebsd.org) Received: from [10.1.1.2] (unknown [10.1.1.2]) (Authenticated sender: allanjude.freebsd@scaleengine.com) by mx1.scaleengine.net (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 8C266D76B; Fri, 27 May 2016 14:42:03 +0000 (UTC) From: Allan Jude Subject: Re: Fwd: Add option to sysinstall to install an X desktop, similar to Debian? To: Craig Rodrigues , freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org References: Cc: Alfred Perlstein Message-ID: <43826ffc-baef-a625-596a-71585e33b35d@freebsd.org> Date: Fri, 27 May 2016 10:42:03 -0400 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/45.1.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.22 X-BeenThere: freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.22 Precedence: list List-Id: Sysinstall Work List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 27 May 2016 14:42:10 -0000 On 2016-05-27 05:28, Craig Rodrigues wrote: > [Resending due to message size restriction of > freebsd-sysinstall@freebsd.org ] > > > Hi, > > I recently had to install Debian Linux 8.4.0 in a VM to test some things > I was working on. I was pleasantly surprised by how easy it was > to use Debian's text-based installer and get a usable desktop system up > and running very quickly. > > I really liked the menu option that allows you select a desktop environment > (one of GNOME, Xfce, KDE, Cinnamon, MATE, or LXDE). > I have a > screenshot: https://people.freebsd.org/~rodrigc/debian_desktop_installer.png > > Allan, do you think it would be possible to copy a subset of this Debian > screen to the > FreeBSD installer, with the option to install a desktop set to OFF by > default? > I'm sure that there are lots of opinions about which desktop to choose, > but having a menu with 6 options to choose from seems quite reasonable > to start with. > > Thanks. > > -- > Craig > I started building something like this after our interview with Alfred. It has gnome3, MATE, KDE4, and xfce4. I ran into a few problems with things not working out-of-the-box. If you install mate and gdm, it defaults to logging you in to a very very stripped down gnome-shell that is pulled in as a dependency of gdm. If you actually install the gnome3 metapackage, it adds like 300 more packages, and then the gnome-shell actually has applications in it. KDE4 works ok. xfce doesn't have a login manager. xdm doesn't have a startup script, you'd have to edit /etc/ttys to make it start at boot. kdm4 can't be installed as a separate package. gdm will default to starting gnome instead of xfce, even if the gnome package is not installed. I tried 'slim', but it always launches: 'exec /bin/sh - ~/.xinitrc %session' and files if that file does not exist in the user's home directory. So I got a little stalled out on it. -- Allan Jude