From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Sep 13 06:16:06 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 45A3316A415 for ; Wed, 13 Sep 2006 06:16:06 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from arindam.mukerjee@gmail.com) Received: from py-out-1112.google.com (py-out-1112.google.com [64.233.166.181]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B1C6343D45 for ; Wed, 13 Sep 2006 06:16:05 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from arindam.mukerjee@gmail.com) Received: by py-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id o67so2780742pye for ; Tue, 12 Sep 2006 23:16:05 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=rFIq57AA+KoIk82tpAQOdUM77Fwiuw5faG9I/T+wnXz20hJZSUnKrqR39iUbC4WACzHar1xZG8CNInQ1V2XpmRtL9CCMG8W2Aycj8WFLzOKLTwM9mxXpbSVWLmo0AZaqzNLACH9YINJckSYqnkFYaKT3o1FudR7GLKne41oTUH0= Received: by 10.35.88.18 with SMTP id q18mr12359069pyl; Tue, 12 Sep 2006 23:16:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.35.13.20 with HTTP; Tue, 12 Sep 2006 23:16:04 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 11:46:04 +0530 From: Arindam To: "Jerold McAllister" In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: X Configuration Woes 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: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 06:16:06 -0000 > > Some updates: > > > > Following this I did a fresh install using the FreeBSD6.1 CD1. Xorg > > installed is 6.9.0. > > I did not run xorgconfig or anything. There was no /etc/X11/xorg.conf > > either. From the command-line I ran "xdm" and the GUI started ... I > > could login ... and then that's about it. > > > > 1. The Mouse still does not work ... may be I should try MouseSystems > > protocol. > > I can't say much about the mouse. I usually let it figure out > things itself and it works. Is it a plain ps2 mouse (with round ps2 > connector)? I just do the mouse test during sysinstall and it works. Well, well ... sometimes I feel these days being a Linux user is no big deal. May be it never was but at least in the old days, by being a Linux user, I used to be more aware of what goes inside my box and what lights blink to tell what story. These days, Linux ... should I say most of the distros rather, make you feel like a pampered fuzzy user ... you really don't need to know an awful lot more about your box to get a fully functional system than you need to install M$ Window$. Some like it that way, but for me the fun is lost ... perhaps _the_ reason why I switched to FreeBSD ... anything comparable could do for me but I just happened to get my hands on these couple of ISOs. > > > 2. What should I do about GNOME / KDE etc. I am not aching to get a > > jazzy a GUI on my FreeBSD installation. I can make do with a very > > minimal one. But I want a minimal one at least now, I just have to get > > this running or I can't sleep. > > If you don't want a fancy GUI desktop, then skip KDE and Gnome. > > I prefer to use Afterstep. It installs nicely. > It is found in ports at /usr/ports/x11-wm/afterstep > It can be a little confusing at first to set up and configure - as are > all X things - but after getting it configured for me, it gives me what I > need: several windows for logging in to various hosts, a button to bring > up Firefoxand X support for whatever I run, such as OpenOffice or Xpdf > or Xmahjongg and a couple of other games, etc. > > The only thing I haven't managed to my liking is getting it to create > anchor buttons for each thing when I bring it up. It only does so for the > minimized windows. I got that in one version, but it seemed to mess up > the focus control and click to bring forward action so I gave up on that. > > I edited: /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc > to make it work my way. I think you can make individual .xinitrc files > in home directories as well, but I wanted mine to work for all of my > small handful of accounts so I edited the main one. I am tired of these two lookalikes ... KDE and GNOME. They weren't in the olden days ... but they have undergone some serious plastic surgery of late and now I don't like the taste of either. So XFCE or Afterstep would be welcome changes. As another poster mentioned Ratpoison, I would be keen to find out about it too ... since it has been dubbed for being keyboard friendly. I hate mice. > > Have fun, You bet I am having fun. I am writing a blog article on why I picked up FreeBSD. You can find it after a while on my sparse blog http://shoddykid.blogspot.com. > > ////jerry >