From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG  Wed Jan  6 05:25:37 2010
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Date: Tue, 5 Jan 2010 22:25:36 -0700 (MST)
From: Warren Block <wblock@wonkity.com>
To: Ed Lerner <emlerne@gmail.com>
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	(wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Tue, 05 Jan 2010 22:25:36 -0700 (MST)
Cc: questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Installing FreeBSD 8 on an HP Pavilion TX2510US
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On Tue, 5 Jan 2010, Ed Lerner wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I have been wanting to put FreeBSD on my laptop for some time now. I backed
> up all of my files to a separate HD. I burned 8.0-RELEASE-i386-dvd1.iso to a
> DVD and installed it on my laptop, removing all partitions so FreeBSD is my
> sole OS. I also used the FreeBSD boot manager. I have attempted a number of
> different settings variations and installations. My problem is that FreeBSD
> seems to install properly, yet I cannot get to a GUI. I have added all ports
> and specifically checked the GNOME packages. When I attempt to run 'gdm', I
> get returned:
>
> ** (gdm-binary:878): WARNING **: Couldn't connect to system bus: Failed to
> connect to socket /var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket: No such file or directory

You need to start the GNOME services (including dbus):

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11-wm.html

Short form: add gnome_enable="YES" in /etc/rc.conf and restart.

For the future, it's often helpful to identify the notebook you're 
using.  You might find information on specific models here:

http://laptop.bsdgroup.de/freebsd/index.html

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA