Can somebody help me installing the Xorg?

mrphuongmia · Jun 26, 2010

I'm just a newbie trying my first FreeBSD 8.0 installation. I did as in the handbook guides but everytime I try with 'startx', a very ugly window manager appears and the display is full of random colors

I think there's something wrong with my xorg configurations. I have a Dell Vostro 1088 with ATI Mobility Radeon 4300.
Really want to use BSD and really really need your helps.
Thanks.

OH · Jun 26, 2010

Try looking in /var/log/Xorg.0.log for any clues as to what's going wrong

Beastie · Jun 26, 2010

Does the "very ugly window manager" look like this by any chance?
You might want to create a ~/.xinitrc file that executes the window manager of your choice, instead of the default.

mrphuongmia · Jun 27, 2010

Thanks to you all.
Yes,my desktop is just like the window manager in your picture (I guess so) but it's even worse. I can't do anything with mouse and windows. I think there must be something wrong with my card (?). I tried installing KDE yesterday but when I type 'startkde' it didn't work ("Command not found")

Should I try with Gnome?

wblock@ · Jun 27, 2010

mrphuongmia said:
I can't do anything with mouse and windows.

Did you enable dbus and hal as at the start of the Handbook X11 config chapter?

It is often helpful to show your xorg.conf and /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

mrphuongmia · Jun 27, 2010

wblock said:
Did you enable dbus and hal as at the start of the Handbook X11 config chapter?

It is often helpful to show your xorg.conf and /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

But I don't know how to print out the contents of those 2 files in the console :\
I enabled dbus and hald, and they worked well.

zeiz · Jun 27, 2010

If you installed KDE try to start it with KDM. This is from FreeBSD Handbook :

Code:
To enable kdm, the ttyv8 entry in /etc/ttys has to be adapted. The line should look as follows:
For KDE3:

Code:

ttyv8 "/usr/local/bin/kdm -nodaemon" xterm on secure

For KDE4:

Code:

ttyv8 "/usr/local/kde4/bin/kdm -nodaemon" xterm on secure

If you want to start KDE with startx anyway follow this instruction from the Handbook:

After KDE has been installed, the X server must be told to launch this application instead of the default window manager. This is accomplished by editing the .xinitrc file:
For KDE3:
$ echo "exec startkde" > ~/.xinitrc
For KDE4:
$ echo "exec /usr/local/kde4/bin/startkde" > ~/.xinitrc
Now, whenever the X Window System is invoked with startx, KDE will be the desktop.

mrphuongmia · Jun 27, 2010

Thanks. I'll try it

mrphuongmia · Jun 27, 2010

No matter how I tried with both KDE and Gnome, after "startx" there's just a black screen with many colorful dots and no mouse. It hangs there and I have to go back and press Ctrl+C.
I guess I haven't do right with xorg.conf file, I don't know much about graphic card and display to config it correctly.

My xorg.conf file has:

Code:

Section "Monitor"
   Indentifier   "Monitor0"
   VendorName    "SEC"
   ModelName     "5441"
EndSection
...
Section "Screen"
   Indentifier   "Screen0"
   Device        "Card0"
   Monitor       "Monitor0"
   SubSection    "Display"
      Viewport   0 0
      Depth      1
   EndSubSection
   ...
   SubSection    "Display"
      Viewport   0 0
      Depth      24
   EndSubSection
EndSection

Beastie · Jun 27, 2010

Try starting X without a xorg.conf file by renaming it: # mv xorg.conf xorg.conf.bak.

rhyous · Jun 27, 2010

This might help you find where you went astray.
http://rhyous.com/2009/12/18/how-to-install-and-configure-a-freebsd-8-desktop-with-xorg-and-kde/

zeiz · Jun 27, 2010

If problems I usually try to set resolution in SubSection "Display".
Your resolution seems to be 1366Ã—768 (SEC5441).
I would edit SubSection "Display" where depth is 24 and remove all the other with depth 1, 4 .. etc so it would be only one:

Code:

Subsection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1366Ã—768"
EndSubSection

Did you try KDM or only startx?
Also what driver do you use (Section "Device")?

mrphuongmia · Jun 28, 2010

zeiz said:
If problems I usually try to set resolution in SubSection "Display".
Your resolution seems to be 1366Ã—768 (SEC5441).
I would edit SubSection "Display" where depth is 24 and remove all the other with depth 1, 4 .. etc so it would be only one:

Code:

Subsection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 Modes "1366Ã—768" EndSubSection

Did you try KDM or only startx?
Also what driver do you use (Section "Device")?

Thanks zeiz!
I tried both startx (after disabled xorg.conf) and kdm but it was like before.
My card is ATI Mobility Radeon 4300. On http://www.ati.com there's a driver of this card for Linux, I tried it but nothing happened. Is there a open source driver for it?
I also tried with PC-BSD, it could boot into KDE, and let me choose the resolution for my display, but 1366x768 didn't work, only 1024x768 did.
I'll do again with your suggests

hopefully
I'm now a student of Computer Science in Vietnam and interested in FreeBSD OS, but I can't find any Vietnamese forum about FreeBSD. So I tried with my not-good English in this forum.
So amazed with your helps! Thanks all!

adamk · Jun 28, 2010

The open source driver is installed with the rest of Xorg. It's part of the xf86-video-ati port. There is also the radeonhd driver which you could try, though I'm not sure it will do much good. /var/log/Xorg.0.log would be really helpful. You can dump it to a pastebin site by installing curl from ports/packages and then running:

cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | curl -F 'sprunge=<-' [url]http://sprunge.us[/url]