From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 26 18:30:45 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-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 D138513A for ; Wed, 26 Nov 2014 18:30:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: from shell0.rawbw.com (shell0.rawbw.com [198.144.192.45]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C225FE6E for ; Wed, 26 Nov 2014 18:30:45 +0000 (UTC) Received: from allegro.localdomain (m208-249.dsl.rawbw.com [198.144.208.249]) by shell0.rawbw.com (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id sAQIUheB062728 for ; Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:30:44 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from m.kupfer@acm.org) From: Mike Kupfer To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: xdm questions X-Mailer: MH-E 8.6; nmh 1.5; GNU Emacs 24.3.94 Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 10:30:43 -0800 Message-ID: <16052.1417026643@allegro.localdomain> X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 26 Nov 2014 18:30:45 -0000 Hi, I'm a FreeBSD newbie but a reasonably experienced Solaris/Linux user. I recently installed FreeBSD-10.0-RELEASE into a VirtualBox guest, upgraded to 10.1-RELEASE, and then installed xorg, xfce, and xdm using "pkg install". I've got a couple questions about my experiences. 1. I tried running xdm without setting ~/.xsession to run Xfce. Upon logging in, I expected to get a simple session with twm and/or an xterm. Instead, I got bounced back to the xdm login screen. The problem was that the Xsession script wanted to run xsm, but that package wasn't installed. Shouldn't the xdm package have a dependency on the xsm package? 2. I had to reboot single-user in order to troubleshoot and fix the xsm issue. I had expected to be able to use Alt+Fn to switch to a non-xdm-controlled virtual terminal, but Alt+F1 etc. have no effect when X is running. I have since reviewed the FAQ, and I now understand that with X running, I should have used Ctrl+Alt+F1, not Alt+F1. Unfortunately, Ctrl+Alt+F1 causes the VirtualBox *host* to switch to a different virtual terminal. Is it possible to configure FreeBSD to use a key combination other than Ctrl+Alt+Fn? freebsd-version: 10.1-RELEASE uname -a: FreeBSD ernie.localdomain 10.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 10.1-RELEASE #0 r274401: Tue Nov 11 21:02:49 UTC 2014 root@releng1.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64 FWIW, the host is running Debian7. thanks, mike