Date: Mon, 08 Nov 2004 23:18:09 +0100 From: Olivier Gautherot <olivier@gautherot.net> To: "Bryan E. Henning" <behenning@cox.net> Cc: Ron Ganzer <ganzman@ganzman.no-ip.org> Subject: Re: how to start X11R6 Message-ID: <418FF0A1.8010900@gautherot.net> In-Reply-To: <web-1780010@ganzman.no-ip.org> References: <web-1780010@ganzman.no-ip.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Hi Bryan!
Ron Ganzer wrote:
> On Tue, 2 Nov 2004 20:09:47 -0700
> "Bryan E. Henning" <behenning@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> After I boot freebsd, and I login what do I do to start gnome or xfree86
>> Exactly what are the commands to start an application. I can browse
>> directories but so far that is the extent of what I know how to do.
>> Could anyone help?
>>
>
> bryan ,
> if gnome is installed fully all you need to do is type #gdm
> or just type #startx
>
> if startx fails just edit ~/.xinitrc and add/change the line exec gdm
>
Note: occurrence of '#' mean: "Shell prompt"
If you type gdm from a shell on the console, make sure you do it as root
or invoke it as:
# sudo gdm
The simplest way is to declare GNOME as you main desktop and the
first invocation of #startx should install whatever you need. Worst case,
create a new user and invoke #startx, then look at the new files in the
home directory.
Adding gdm to your .xinitrc may not be a good idea: gdm is a login
manager, not a desktop. The window manager is called (IIRC)
gnome-session. If it fails, add in the meantime these 2 lines to your
.xinitrc
exec gnome-wm &
exec gnome-panel
This should get you temporarily sorted out, although it is not the
"official"
way. All this assumes that you start X with the command #startx.
There are many other window managers (KDE, XFCE, Enlightenment...)
that you can use, depending on what services you need. Some have
working bootstraps - try typing "start" followed by 2 <TAB> keystrokes
to see what is installed. You're likely to find hints for the above
mentioned
3 desktop managers. In short, KDE is a heavyweight, full-featured desktop.
XFCE is a lightweight, fast desktop. I must confess I have not tried
Enlightenment myself but I heard also excellent comments about it;-)
I hope you're not totally confused by now ;-)
Keep us posted if you still have problems.
Cheers
Olivier
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?418FF0A1.8010900>