From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Mon Dec  1 19:42:19 2014
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Delivered-To: questions@FreeBSD.org
Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org
 [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1])
 (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits))
 (No client certificate requested)
 by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id BFBD07A6
 for <questions@FreeBSD.org>; Mon,  1 Dec 2014 19:42:19 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from be-well.ilk.org (be-well.ilk.org [23.30.133.173])
 by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9768CD7E
 for <questions@FreeBSD.org>; Mon,  1 Dec 2014 19:42:19 +0000 (UTC)
Received: from lowell-desk.lan (lowell-desk.lan [172.30.250.41])
 by be-well.ilk.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7764C33C24;
 Mon,  1 Dec 2014 14:42:13 -0500 (EST)
Received: by lowell-desk.lan (Postfix, from userid 1147)
 id 710FF39813; Mon,  1 Dec 2014 14:42:11 -0500 (EST)
From: Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org>
To: Paul Cartwright <pbcartwright@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: $DISPLAY not set
References: <547CB283.1030405@gmail.com> <44wq6bkyag.fsf@lowell-desk.lan>
 <547CBDEF.70002@gmail.com>
Reply-To: questions@FreeBSD.org
Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 14:42:11 -0500
In-Reply-To: <547CBDEF.70002@gmail.com> (Paul Cartwright's message of "Mon, 01
 Dec 2014 14:13:51 -0500")
Message-ID: <44lhmrw418.fsf@lowell-desk.lan>
User-Agent: Gnus/5.13 (Gnus v5.13) Emacs/24.4 (berkeley-unix)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
Cc: questions@FreeBSD.org
X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1
Precedence: list
List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org>
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/options/freebsd-questions>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/>
List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, 
 <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe>
X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 19:42:19 -0000

Paul Cartwright <pbcartwright@gmail.com> writes:

> On 12/01/2014 01:41 PM, Lowell Gilbert wrote:
>>> > am I missing something?
>> Well, you're missing the FreeBSD documentation, which is a lot better
>> than a random Google result.
>>
>> https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11.html
> right, I should have followed that first..
>>
>> Or you might want to try PCBSD (www.pcbsd.org) which will require a lot
>> less understanding of what is going on (at the cost, as usual, of giving
>> you a lot less choice, at least initially).
> no,no, I've used UNIX in the past, but it has been linux for the last 10
> years.. just a little rusty..

starting an X server (in all of the massive variety of way you can do
that) is pretty much *exactly* the same on Linux as on FreeBSD.

>> The "exec startkde" is supposed to go in your .xinitrc file, in which
>> case you would start X with the "startx" command.
> right, I understand the .xinitrc, but I wanted it to work first..

You don't understand the .xinitrc, then. It isn't going to start an X
server for you -- it's supposed to be run *under* the X server.