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Date:      Wed, 09 Jul 2014 14:44:00 -0400
From:      Lowell Gilbert <freebsd-questions-local@be-well.ilk.org>
To:        freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: Reconfiguring a package and other questions.
Message-ID:  <441ttujrtb.fsf@lowell-desk.lan>
In-Reply-To: <8738eaochn.fsf@UlanBator.myhome.westell.com> (R. Clayton's message of "Wed, 09 Jul 2014 10:03:48 -0400")
References:  <8738eaochn.fsf@UlanBator.myhome.westell.com>

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rvclayton@acm.org (R. Clayton) writes:

> I'm running this
>
>   $ uname -a
>   FreeBSD BanjaLuka 10.0-RELEASE FreeBSD 10.0-RELEASE #0 r260789: Fri Jan 17
>   01:46:25 UTC 2014     root@snap.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC i386 
>
>   $ 
>
> and I did this (via www.freebsd.org/handbook/x-install.html)
>
>   # pkg install xorg
>
> to install X.  It didn't work: xstart runs the default window manager, but the
> keyboard and mouse are frozen.

[I assume you meant "startx" instead of "xstart".]

See the Handbook's chapter on "The X Window System". Particularly the
parts on configuration and troubleshooting.

At a guess, configuring the mouse at the console before starting X may
be all you need. I do that by enabling moused in my rc.conf, but there
are easier ways. The installer might be able to handle this for you (you
can run bsdinstall(8) from the command line).

> 1: I usually install xorg from ports, and what I do in this case (which usually
> happens) is reconfigure xorg-server to disable hal.  However, I don't see how
> packages can be reconfigured.  the pkg-config man page seems to show how to
> reconfigure pkg itself, not individual packages.  How it possible to
> reconfigure packages?

It isn't. A future feature called "subpackages" will do some of this,
but there are several intermediate steps that have to happen before that
occurs. For now, a package cannot have the (port's) options changed
after the package is built.

> 2: How do I undo the effects of installing a metapackage like xorg?  Doing the
> obvious 
>
>   # whereis X
>   X: /usr/local/bin/X
>
>   # pkg remove xorg
>   Deinstallation has been requested for the following 1 packages:
>
>           xorg-7.7
>
>   Proceed with deinstalling packages [y/N]: y
>   [1/1] Deleting xorg-7.7... done
>
>   # whereis X
>   X: /usr/local/bin/X
>
>   #  
>
> doesn't do what I wanted ("pkg delete -R xorg" behaves as above).

What you want is "pkg autoremove". 

See "man pkg-autoremove". [In fact, you will probably understand things
better if you go back and re-read "man 8 pkg" and "man 7 ports".]

> 3: I resorted to deleting xorg-server as a package and re-installing it as a
> port with appropriate configuration.  This works, but raises the question of
> consistency between ports and packages.  What is the relation between the
> software in ports and the software in packages?  Have I just introduced an
> error (or potential for error) that will come back and bite me hard six months
> after I've forgotten what I've done?

You should be fine. To avoid losing the dependency data in the process,
you might want to try ports-mgmt/portmaster or ports-mgmt/portupgrade
for rebuilding any port.



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