From owner-freebsd-newbies Wed Jun 10 09:28:46 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id JAA10015 for freebsd-newbies-outgoing; Wed, 10 Jun 1998 09:28:46 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from phoenix.welearn.com.au (suebla.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.44.81]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id JAA09859 for ; Wed, 10 Jun 1998 09:28:20 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from sue@phoenix.welearn.com.au) Received: (from sue@localhost) by phoenix.welearn.com.au (8.8.5/8.8.5) id CAA18023; Thu, 11 Jun 1998 02:27:57 +1000 (EST) Message-ID: <19980611022753.65391@welearn.com.au> Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 02:27:54 +1000 From: Sue Blake To: Marty Poulin Cc: newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Installing X References: <19980606074507.47760@welearn.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.88e In-Reply-To: ; from Marty Poulin on Wed, Jun 10, 1998 at 11:12:45AM -0400 Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org On Wed, Jun 10, 1998 at 11:12:45AM -0400, Marty Poulin wrote: > 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"? Errr... that sounds like it :-) To tell you the truth, I just look in my ~/.profile (the default one) where there's a comment saying you can include these paths if you want to have X or games. Then I paste them into the line below, counting and distinguishing between colons and semicolons carefully. I think it's really silly that these are not included in the path already, but someone clever must have had a reason for it. > > 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. OK, thanks for the feedback. Anyone else got comments? When it's got some more flesh and polish I'll run it by the -doc people, unless someone else does a better job first. > (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) Please do! I'm not in a position to install X right now. Please pass on any observations that might be too obvious for a non-newbie to see. > I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. > - Confucius I hear and I forget. I see and I forget. I do and I forget. - Confused -- Regards, -*Sue*- To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message