Solved freeBSD 13 (virtual machine): X won't start

Cath O'Deray · Nov 9, 2021

salvomic said:
… FreeBSD 13 distribution from scratch in a virtual machine on Parallels 17 …

Which version of FreeBSD, exactly?

freebsd-version -kru

uname -aKU

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

grahamperrin said:
Which version of FreeBSD, exactly?

freebsd-version -kru

uname -aKU


salvo@freeBSD:~ $ freebsd-version -kru
13.0-RELEASE-p4
13.0-RELEASE-p4
13.0-RELEASE-p5


salvo@freeBSD:~ $ uname -aKU
FreeBSD freeBSD 13.0-RELEASE-p4 FreeBSD 13.0-RELEASE-p4 #0: Tue Aug 24 07:33:27 UTC 2021     root@amd64-builder.daemonology.net:/usr/obj/usr/src/amd64.amd64/sys/GENERIC  amd64 1300139 1300139

SirDice · Nov 9, 2021

astyle said:
You can if you have X forwarding enabled. I was able to run KWrite over SSH.

This doesn't start X on the destination machine. It runs it on the source host.

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

where is located the [hald] service?
I put it in /etc/rc.conf (hald_enable="YES") but it seems non to be present:


salvo@freeBSD:~ $ service hald stop
hald does not exist in /etc/rc.d or the local startup
directories (/usr/local/etc/rc.d), or is not executable

It is not in /usr/local/etc/rc.d
Is it normal so?

Tieks · Nov 9, 2021

salvomic said:
where is located the [hald] service?

It's deprecated, phased out some time ago.

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

Tieks said:
It's deprecated, phased out some time ago.

ok. I was wondering why to install Gnome 3 it is almost always recommended (even for FreeBSD 13) to add to the /etc/rc.conf file the line hald_enable="YES"

Alexander88207 · Nov 9, 2021

salvomic said:
no, I didn't. As in the old installation GNOME worked without Xorg configuration at all.
However, here that folder (/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d) is empty: no file driver-scfb.conf there.

You have to create this file.

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

Alexander88207 said:
You have to create this file.

ok, I'll try

However, BINGO!
Creating this file GDM and Gnome started!

Full X now!

The solution, as you suggested, is Here

Now, please, help: there is a bug maybe, here (both in i386 32 bit and AMD 64 bit FreeBSD 13) with GNOME: if I use "Settings" (gnome-control-center) then "Users", the utility Setting doesn't open more and I cannot use "change background", "settings"

astyle · Nov 9, 2021

salvomic said:
ok. I was wondering why to install Gnome 3 it is almost always recommended (even for FreeBSD 13) to add to the /etc/rc.conf file the line hald_enable="YES"

"almost always" is key here... the Handbok does tell you how to install Gnome3, but those same instructions don't tell you to enable hald any more.

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

astyle said:
"almost always" is key here... the Handbok does tell you how to install Gnome3, but those same instructions don't tell you to enable hald any more.

thank you

astyle · Nov 9, 2021

salvomic said:
ok, I'll try

However, BINGO!
Creating this file GDM and Gnome started!

Full X now!
The solution, as you suggested, is Here

Now, please, help: there is a bug maybe, here (both in i386 32 bit and AMD 64 bit FreeBSD 13) with GNOME: if I use "Settings" (gnome-control-center) then "Users", the utility Setting doesn't open more and I cannot use "change background", "settings"

Congrats. However, this is a different topic already.

I can make a guess: This is probably because you're using packages, rather than ports. Packages are compiled with very conservative defaults, so some features end up disabled. Sometimes, that is resolvable by installing something additional from package repos, sometimes it's not. Just a heads up: the way GNOME and KDE implemented user management - that works on Linux, but is very unreliable on FreeBSD. On my end of things, I just learned the CLI way of handling user management.

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

astyle said:
Congrats. However, this is a different topic already.

I can make a guess: This is probably because you're using packages, rather than ports. Packages are compiled with very conservative defaults, so some features end up disabled. Sometimes, that is resolvable by installing something additional from package repos, sometimes it's not. Just a heads up: the way GNOME and KDE implemented user management - that works on Linux, but is very unreliable on FreeBSD. On my end of things, I just learned the CLI way of handling user management.

Yes, of course, you're right, in fact it's always better to do everything about CLI. After all, I was just trying *only* to change the profile icon. I had already noticed this bug in the previous installation (the one updated by FBSD 12) and now I can find it here. It would be enough for me to bring the gnome-control-center functionality back to life... : how?

In addition, in the previous installation I had a resolution of 1400x1050 (4:3), now I only have a resolution of 1024x768: how could I do?

Alexander88207 · Nov 9, 2021

salvomic said:
Now, please, help: there is a bug maybe, here (both in i386 32 bit and AMD 64 bit FreeBSD 13) with GNOME: if I use "Settings" (gnome-control-center) then "Users", the utility Setting doesn't open more and I cannot use "change background", "settings"

The gnome-control-center seems to be unstable currently https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=259007

Confirmed .. same problem after fresh install on new laptop. But there is also problem with gnome-control-settings user tab. It crashed gnome-control-settings and if u try to start new instance of gnome-control-center nothing happends.

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

To increase the resolution I set the file /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/driver.scfb.conf così:


Section "Device"
        Identifier "Card 0"
        Driver "scfb"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier    "Configured Monitor"
    HorizSync       30.0-62.0
    VertRefresh     50.0-70.0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier    "Default Screen"
    Monitor        "Configured Monitor"
    Device        "Card 0"
    DefaultDepth    24
    SubSection Display"
        Depth    24
        Modes    "1440x1050" "1024x768" "800x600"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

But the resolution always remains 1024x768 (4:3).
I would like to use only 1440x1050.
How to do it? Thank you.

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

Alexander88207 said:
The gnome-control-center seems to be unstable currently https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=259007

Very interesting, this explains everything. I hope they can solve this instability very soon.
I also noticed that when the settings bug arises (at least here with me) the Terminal also becomes unstable: the background goes away and the characters overlap (I don't know exactly if it depends on that but it could be; however I'm doing some tries so I don't know)

Alexander88207 · Nov 9, 2021

salvomic said:
To increase the resolution I set the file /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/driver.scfb.conf così:
Section "Device" Identifier "Card 0" Driver "scfb" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Configured Monitor" HorizSync 30.0-62.0 VertRefresh 50.0-70.0 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Monitor "Configured Monitor" Device "Card 0" DefaultDepth 24 SubSection Display" Depth 24 Modes "1440x1050" "1024x768" "800x600" EndSubSection EndSection

But the resolution always remains 1024x768 (4:3).
I would like to use only 1440x1050.
How to do it? Thank you.

Do you have emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions installed?

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

Alexander88207 said:
Do you have emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions installed?

I installed them now and restarted.

I get the message out "vbox ... in not running"

SirDice · Nov 9, 2021

emulators/virtualbox-ose-additions is for VirtualBox guests only.

Alexander88207 · Nov 9, 2021

salvomic said:
I installed them now and restarted.

I get the message out "vbox ... in not running"

I assumed that you are using VirtualBox.

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

Alexander88207 said:
I assumed that you are using Virtual Box.

sorry, no, I'm running FreeBSD 13 on Parallels 17 in a macBook with macOS Monterey (12)

eternal_noob · Nov 9, 2021

salvomic said:
But the resolution always remains 1024x768 (4:3).
I would like to use only 1440x1050.

I use the xf86-video-scfb driver too (on a Raspberry Pi 400) and i cannot change the resolution via an X.Org config file. I have to edit a configuration file in the boot partition.
What i want to say is that xf86-video-scfb uses the resolution UEFI tells it to use. Maybe try to add the efi_max_resolution or vbe_max_resolution parameters in loader.conf.

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

eternal_noob said:
I use the xf86-video-scfb driver too (on a Raspberry Pi 400) and i cannot change the resolution via an X.Org config file. I have to edit a configuration file in the boot partition.
What i want to say is that xf86-video-scfb uses the resolution UEFI tells it to use. Maybe try to add the efi_max_resolution or vbe_max_resolution parameters in loader.conf.

I found the solution for the resolution increase in this web page, using too the Boot loader.

Boot> mode
# list the mode in the os system
OK> mode 0
OK> gop get
# to get a list of the modes supported (e.g 1024x768 ...)
OK> gop list
# to get the integer number to use to set (e.g. 2 or 3, in my system it is 9)
OK> gop set 9
OK> quit

The machine rebooted with the new resolution.
I could choose the resolution of 1680x1050 which is active in both text mode and X server (Gnome and GDM).
Beautiful. But...
After the restart the resolution is again 1024x768 :-(
How to get this permanent without repeat every time the procedure?

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

Now I would change the icon for the user in GDM, but I can't do it with Gnome because of the bug in gnome-control-center: do you have any suggestions to do it in any other way? I don't remember how to do it...

Vull · Nov 9, 2021

salvomic said:
...
I would like to use only 1440x1050.
How to do it? Thank you.

If the previous suggestions are still not working for you, try using cvt to get a Modeline for your desired resolution:

Code:

root@mlatest:~ # cvt 1400 1050
# 1400x1050 59.98 Hz (CVT 1.47M3) hsync: 65.32 kHz; pclk: 121.75 MHz
Modeline "1400x1050_60.00"  121.75  1400 1488 1632 1864  1050 1053 1057 1089 -hsync +vsync

Add this exact Modeline and and a "PreferredMode" Option to your "Monitor" section, i.e.,

Code:

Section "Monitor"
  Identifier "Configured Monitor"
  Modeline "1400x1050_60.00"  121.75  1400 1488 1632 1864  1050 1053 1057 1089 -hsync +vsync
  Option     "PreferredMode" "1400x1050_60.00"
EndSection

This worked for me, with no other lines in the "Monitor" section, and also, with no "Screen" section. I then had to select the new resolution in my GUI "Display Settings" program. This is still working on a bare-metal FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE system, but the exact same configuration also worked on bare-metal Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint systems. The previous modes are still available to me in my "Display Settings" program after this change.

salvomic · Nov 9, 2021

Vull said:
If the previous suggestions are still not working for you, try using cvt to get a Modeline for your desired resolution:

Code:

root@mlatest:~ # cvt 1400 1050 # 1400x1050 59.98 Hz (CVT 1.47M3) hsync: 65.32 kHz; pclk: 121.75 MHz Modeline "1400x1050_60.00" 121.75 1400 1488 1632 1864 1050 1053 1057 1089 -hsync +vsync

Add this exact Modeline and and a "PreferredMode" Option to your "Monitor" section, i.e.,

Code:

Section "Monitor" Identifier "Configured Monitor" Modeline "1400x1050_60.00" 121.75 1400 1488 1632 1864 1050 1053 1057 1089 -hsync +vsync Option "PreferredMode" "1400x1050_60.00" EndSection

This worked for me, with no other lines in the "Monitor" section, and also, with no "Screen" section. I then had to select the new resolution in my GUI "Display Settings" program. This is still working on a bare-metal FreeBSD-13.0-RELEASE system, but the exact same configuration also worked on bare-metal Debian, Ubuntu, and Linux Mint systems. The previous modes are still available to me in my "Display Settings" program after this change.

thanks!
However I found another solution, here in the Forum, to get permanent the "gop set" at boot: open /boot/loader.conf and set
exec="gop set <modenumber>" (in my case exec="gop set 9").
This for FreeBSD 13. For previous version it should be exec="mode 9".
It seems that this works, here on Parallels, without retouching the configuration file.

Anyway, please, can you tell me what the code you posted for a resolution of 1680x1050 would look like? Thank you.

Solved freeBSD 13 (virtual machine): X won't start

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