Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 17:51:46 +0530 From: Arindam <arindam.mukerjee@gmail.com> To: "Jerold McAllister" <jerrymc@msu.edu> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: X Configuration Woes Message-ID: <d85a51ff0609130521p565e9ad4p1690009e6c37d667@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <E1GN9wR-0005Pn-4i@sys21.mail.msu.edu> References: <d85a51ff0609120028o10fa699awc05fd6532e2dd103@mail.gmail.com> <d85a51ff0609120030x89298ddgab65bdbbcb6e29b4@mail.gmail.com> <E1GN9wR-0005Pn-4i@sys21.mail.msu.edu>
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> > > >> I am an absolute FreeBSD Newbie and I decided to give it a try over a > >> lazy weekend - mainly because I don't want to throw away my old PIII > >> box. I picked up FreeBSD 5.4 which was all I got and I am dual booting > >> it with RHEL4.3. My box is rather old ... P3 733 Mhz with 256 megs of > >> SDRAM@100MHz, and I installed FreeBSD on the first 6.5 Gigs of my > >> Seagate harddrive ... connected to the Primary master IDE interface. > >> > > Well, installing FreeBSD for the first time is more compatible with > an ambitious weekend than an lazy one - as you probably have discovered. > It does take considerable work, though the rewards are commensurate. > > >> .... > >> If you can wade through this gibberish, please help. > >> > >> Cheers, > >> Andy > > > > 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. More updates: I did manage to get my mouse in a working state. It's an old 3-button Logitech serial mouse. And guess what ... someone (I suspect myself) connected it to the second serial port. All the while I thought it was on /dev/cuad0 and I specified that as the device. Anyway, I reconnected it to /dev/cuad0 and the pointer does move now (I was running Linux all this while but never noticed this ... that's why Linux is becoming Windowy ... may be I am too cynical). I used the "microsoft" protocol. Still the mouse movements are not smooth all the time. The mouse hardly moves in the console. When I run xdm or startx from the command-line then it does move when X starts. But sometimes after some initial movement, it freezes hopelessly. Don't know what's wrong. > > 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. > > > 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. > > Have fun, > > ////jerry > > > Cheers, > > Andy > > _______________________________________________ > > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > > "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > > > > >
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