From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sat Apr 30 18:41:20 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@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 EE894AD93A0 for ; Sat, 30 Apr 2016 18:41:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from galtsev@kicp.uchicago.edu) Received: from cosmo.uchicago.edu (cosmo.uchicago.edu [128.135.70.90]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AE3D61309 for ; Sat, 30 Apr 2016 18:41:20 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from galtsev@kicp.uchicago.edu) Received: by cosmo.uchicago.edu (Postfix, from userid 48) id CA66ECB8CA5; Sat, 30 Apr 2016 13:41:13 -0500 (CDT) Received: from 76.193.16.109 (SquirrelMail authenticated user valeri) by cosmo.uchicago.edu with HTTP; Sat, 30 Apr 2016 13:41:13 -0500 (CDT) Message-ID: <53864.76.193.16.109.1462041673.squirrel@cosmo.uchicago.edu> In-Reply-To: References: <20160430084415.03be443d.freebsd@edvax.de> <5724604D.3020804@hotmail.com> Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2016 13:41:13 -0500 (CDT) Subject: Re: Is 10.3 i386 jinxed ? From: "Valeri Galtsev" To: "Manish Jain" Cc: "Polytropon" , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Reply-To: galtsev@kicp.uchicago.edu User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.8-5.el5.centos.7 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.22 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2016 18:41:21 -0000 On Sat, April 30, 2016 1:13 pm, Manish Jain wrote: > On 04/30/16 13:05, Manish Jain wrote: >> On 04/30/16 12:14, Polytropon wrote: >>> On Sat, 30 Apr 2016 04:26:47 +0530, Manish Jain wrote: >>>> Hi, >>>> >>>> I have a 5 year old Intel x86 Pentium-based laptop (Gateway NE56R). I >>>> just finished installing FreeBSD 10.3 (i386) with Gnome on it. I was >>>> expecting everything to go smoothly but the Gnome desktop is proving >>>> to >>>> be a disaster. >>> This also was my first impression when installing Gnome 2 ("classic >>> Gnome desktop") on a Dell D630 laptop running FreeBSD i386 10.2 >>> (started >>> with 10.0). There was some work to do, things to update and to install, >>> scripts to abuse, crazy things to do... but after that, everything >>> worked as intended. Sadly I didn't take notes on what I did, but I can >>> assure you that most of it was not obvious, logical, or acceptable. :-/ >>> >>> How did you install Gnome? Ports or packages? Which version? >>> >>> >>> >>>> Most of the desktop is trash, half the application icons >>>> are missing and there are no panels. >>> You probably are missing some important dependency packages. >>> >>> >>> >>>> Even keyboard input typed into >>>> gnome-terminal is not displayed correctly (some of the characters in >>>> the >>>> echo go missing). >>> That _really_ sounds strange. >>> >>> >>> >>>> All necessary entries (hald_enable, polkitd_enable, >>>> dbus_enable, gnome_enable) are set to YES in rc.conf. I wonder what is >>>> wrong ? >>> Using Gnome is wrong. ;-) >>> >>> >>> >>>> Is there any way I can get FreeBSD and Gnome working on the laptop ? >>> Reconsider using Gnome. Check if Lxde or Xfce will work better for you. >>> > > I reinstalled the whole system using xfce as the desktop. While things > have improved, the system is still not workable. > > 1) The installer 'forgot' to place the boot code on the MBR. I had to > use live CD + boot0cfg to fix that. > 2) The first time X started, xfce4-panel crashed > 3) The second time, xfce-terminal crashed > 4) The third time, trying to launch firefox rebooted the system. > > Overall, 10.3 i386 seems to have gremlins in the belly. What do I do ? > Try some linux distro ? This is exactly what I have been trying to avoid. > > BTW, does anyone have any idea where can I get Windows XP drivers for > the NE56R laptop ? If nothing else works, XP remains my fall-back option. Hearing all that makes me think that this laptop likely has hardware problems. I would definitely get some live system CD and check drive smart status. I also would definitely run memtest86 (leaving it running for 24 hours at lest). memtest86 is not definitive for clearing suspicion about RAM, RAM errors sometimes manifest themselves only under heavy load whereas load is almost zero when memtest86 is run. I would check if the laptop needs cleaning inside. If laptop body is easily flexed, and laptop was carried around a lot, I also would suspect micro cracks in system board ("motherboard" is common jargon for it for last couple of decades ;-) One thing I forgot to mention: poor condition of optical drive can lead to poorly installed system, I guess. Just my $0.02 Valeri > > Regards, > Manish Jain > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > https://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Valeri Galtsev Sr System Administrator Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics University of Chicago Phone: 773-702-4247 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++