From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 21 16:32:14 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 14C1B16A41F for ; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:32:14 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Received: from ezekiel.daleco.biz (southernuniform.com [66.76.92.18]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AA53243D7B for ; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:32:05 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Received: from [192.168.2.2] ([69.27.149.254]) by ezekiel.daleco.biz (8.13.4/8.13.1) with ESMTP id k2LGUrf4066666; Tue, 21 Mar 2006 10:31:18 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from kdk@daleco.biz) Message-ID: <44202A32.8080903@daleco.biz> Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 10:30:42 -0600 From: Kevin Kinsey User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.7.12) Gecko/20060127 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Benjamin Sher References: <44201195.6040307@zebra.net> <1142954306.17090.257155784@webmail.messagingengine.com> <44201CAA.4000508@zebra.net> In-Reply-To: <44201CAA.4000508@zebra.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Using boot manager with FreeBSD and Windows X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2006 16:32:14 -0000 Benjamin Sher wrote: > Dear Jud and friends: > > OK, I finally figured out how to make OSL2000 work. Good, I guess. :-) > In scanning all bootable partitions, it lists FreeBSD as two > partitions: the 512 MB /boot partition (name unknown) > and the FreeBSD 37 GB partition. It will not boot FreeBSD > from the FreeBSD partition but, after changing the mode > to swap, it booted at last directly into FreeBSD with the > command "startx". That partition layout sounds a little funny. It could just be the way that "OSL2000" names them, but in FreeBSD /boot is part of the root partition; the "standard" layout is / (root), /var, /usr, with swap space and maybe a seperate partition for /tmp. Other theories exist, and it's not unheard of to have everything in One Big Partition, but IME there are some really good reasons to have seperate partitions for /var and / .... A standard layout is described in the handbook, and may be reasonably appropriated with the "auto defaults" options during the "fdisk" portion of sysinstall, 'though I find that I generally like to arrange the size of /, var, and my swap partition manually. What is interesting is "startx". You didn't type this? What user are you logging in as? What shell is assigned to that user? Depending on which shell, what's in the .cshrc, .shrc, .profile, and .login files in this user's $HOME directory? "startx" doesn't generally run at login, unless you have told it to, which is not always a Good Idea (tm). So, to go on: > I first saw during bootup that it said > that I named "localhost" (for Mindspring) incorrectly. Should be easy to fix. > At any way, I was pretty disheartened when I finally > arrived in FreeBSD. What I saw were two rectangular > screens (with green edges): the one on the left said: > "login", the one on the right said: "xterm". Plus a tiny > clock in the upper corner. I feel completely lost. A normal FreeBSD installation does _not_ start a windowing system until you tell it to*. What you got (and was "disappointed in") was twm (brush up on your ancient history) which loads when startx is called and nothing else is configured/can be found (e.g., you have a blank ~/.xinitrc or .Xresources file, etc.). > Where is KDE? What command should I use to get > into KDE or to access the Internet? If you want KDE, you should install it (unless you have already) and read its documentation to configure it in the way you desire. {It really seems like a visit to the online Handbook would assist you in "getting your feet wet" with FreeBSD. You're doing a good job asking questions and interacting with the list; we're glad to have you "aboard" but if you have to ask about every item that comes on the screen in the next week or two, your welcome could wear itself out, at least for some people, you know.... ;-) } FBSD doesn't force much policy on you _at all_. If you want a web server, you install it and tell it to run the software. If you want a fancy GUI, you install it, and configure the system to run it. Assuming you even choose to run a GUI at all, the only WM that comes preinstalled is twm, for hysterical raisins. The rest is up to you. If you want to run KDE, I'd suggest bookmarking http://freebsd.kde.org, too. Also, it sounds like you're expecting FBSD to act like some kind of "user friendly" Linuxy system (it isn't, per se**); you might want to check out DesktopBSD, which is in a late alpha, IIRC. They have created a GUI front end to "sysinstall" and force KDE upon the user by default, much like some other projects/ companies, but with FreeBSD 5 under the hood. > Thank you all so much. > > Benjamin You're welcome. Kevin Kinsey *there could be, of course, considerable discussion about just what a "normal" FreeBSD installation is; and, it's perfectly normal to have a X windowing system run at startup, but running "startx" from a shell resource script is only one way, and arguably/ probably not the best way, to do this. ** maxim: "FreeBSD *is* user-friendly; it's just picky about who its friends *are*...." -- Q: What is the difference between a duck? A: One leg is both the same.