[Help] GNOME installation on FreeBSD 15.1 keeps failing on real hardware

[prince1394]

Installation environment​

Laptop: Dell G3 3590

CPU: i5-9300H

Integrated GPU: Intel(R) UHD Graphics 630

Discrete GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 (4 GB)

OS: FreeBSD 15.1-RELEASE

Disk: NVMe Intel 512 GB

Installation steps​

1. After installing FreeBSD, I boot into the command-line interface.

2. Run pkg update -f.

3. Run pkg install xorg gnome.

4. Edit /etc/fstab and add: proc /proc procfs rw 0 0.

5. Run sysrc dbus_enable=YES and sysrc gdm_enable=YES.

6. prince is the user I created during installation. I run pw groupmod wheel -m prince and pw groupmod video -m prince.

7. At this point no GPU driver is installed. After rebooting, the error below appears.

8. After a while it reaches the GDM login screen. I select the user prince, enter the password, and get into the GNOME desktop.

9. There are two problems: first, the resolution is stuck at 1920×1080 and can't be changed; second, after the screen is locked, entering the password does not unlock it.

‌10. Next steps. I install the Intel integrated-GPU driver: pkg install drm-kmod and sysrc kld_list+=i915kms.

11. I reboot until the error below appears.

12. And then it just hangs there — it never reaches the GDM login screen.

Later I also installed the NVIDIA driver with pkg install nvidia-drm-kmod and sysrc kld_list+=nvidia-drm, but it likewise gets stuck and can't get into the GNOME graphical interface.

Two questions:

1. What is that error about?

2. Why can't I get into the graphical interface after installing a graphics driver?

Could someone please guide me on this? Thanks!

 

[SirDice]

There are two problems: first, the resolution is stuck at 1920×1080 and can't be changed

Without a proper video driver X11 falls back to vesa(4) (BIOS boot) or scfb(4) (EUFI boot) drivers. Those are quite limited.

I install the Intel integrated-GPU driver

I also installed the NVIDIA driver

Maybe figure out which video card you actually have before randomly installing display drivers.

Turn off GDM, for now. Test with startx(1) until you actually have a functional display driver, then enable GDM.

 

[drsnx60]

Can we convince you to try again on Tuesday ? the binary Repos for 15.1 that include the Graphics Drivers will be rebuilt starting Night between Friday and Saturday and should have finished on Monday.
It is expected that a lot of old drivers for 15.0 will be purged and replace by newly built ones for 15.1 as quarterly REPO 2026Q4.

This can be fixed b building the drivers from source yourself but you may not appreciate the step learning curve to achieve this.
So at this late date for 2026Q3 repos ,,,, please try to reinstall from scratch on Tuesday.

 

[T-Aoki]

If you want to fully install via pkg, wait until all pkgs of 2026Q4 quarterly branch become available if you want DRM/KMS-capable NVIDIA driver.
Otherwise you need to build NVIDIA driver kmods other than x11/nvidia-driver via ports by yourself.

What you need for your GTX 1650 (Turing generation of architectures) is to install x11/nvidia-driver at minimum (it should pull in minimal required NVIDIA driver component), but you need manual configuration even if you can disable Intel iGPU via UEFI firmware (or legacy BIOS).

If you can disable Intel iGPU via UEFI firmware (or legacy BIOS), installing graphics/nvidia-drm-kmod usually allows auto-configuration.
But if you can't, you need additional configuration for hybrid graphics following ashafer@'s guide here.

And by searching this forums, you can find many guides and explanations by several persons including me.

 

[prince1394]

Can we convince you to try again on Tuesday ? the binary Repos for 15.1 that include the Graphics Drivers will be rebuilt starting Night between Friday and Saturday and should have finished on Monday.
It is expected that a lot of old drivers for 15.0 will be purged and replace by newly built ones for 15.1 as quarterly REPO 2026Q4.

This can be fixed b building the drivers from source yourself but you may not appreciate the step learning curve to achieve this.
So at this late date for 2026Q3 repos ,,,, please try to reinstall from scratch on Tuesday.

Thanks, I will try again.