FreeBSD guest with gnome3 on Linux KVM ...

[jjb2018]

Hi folks,

I'm new to FreeBSD, but a fairly long time user of Linux. Over the last few years I have been running Arch Linux on my main "server" at home. This runs ZFS on Linux, a number of webapps in LXC containers, a couple of VMs running on KVM. The one key issue I have with Linux is ZFS not being "baked-in" and the difficulty of getting linux to boot off ZFS (based on what I've read - never tried it). I've been increasingly tempted to move my main server at home over to FreeBSD ... but I'm not prepared to do that until I've tried and tested FreeBSD in a VM and I know I can recreate my current server's capabilities in FreeBSD. I'm sure it will be possible, but I'm on a steep learning curve.

So, I've installed FreeBSD 11.2 in a VM (running on Linux KVM). The VM has the "QXL" video card assigned. I want to get gnome3 up and running on it but I've hit an issue. After following the handbook guidance on installing GNOME Desktop Env, and Xorg, unfortunately X will not start and so GDM will not start either = no desktop env.

I have installed the following packages:
xf86-video-qxl
xorg
gnome3

I've added kern.vty=vt into /boot/loader.conf and I've added:

dbus_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
gdm_enable="YES"
gnome_enable="YES"

into /etc/rc.conf

If I try startx I get this output:

X.Org X Server 1.18.4
Release Date: 2016-07-19
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: FreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE-p4 amd64 
Current Operating System: FreeBSD freebsd 11.2-RELEASE FreeBSD 11.2-RELEASE #0 r335510: Fri Jun 22 04:32:14 UTC 2018     root@releng2.nyi.freebsd.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC amd64
Build Date: 02 October 2018  09:43:12AM
 
Current version of pixman: 0.34.0
    Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
    to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
    (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
    (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.6.log", Time: Fri Oct 12 22:29:50 2018
(==) Using config directory: "/usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d"
resizing surface0 to 16777216
memory space from 0x80b400000 to 0x8123fd000
memory space from 0x812400000 to 0x81a400000
resizing surface0 to 16777216
memory space from 0x80b400000 to 0x8123fd000
memory space from 0x812400000 to 0x81a400000

(process:39826): Spice-WARNING **: 22:29:50.705: reds.c:2645:reds_init_socket: binding socket to :5900 failed

(process:39826): Spice-WARNING **: 22:29:50.705: reds.c:3656:reds_set_video_codecs_from_string: spice: invalid encoder:codec value at spice:mjpeg;gstreamer:mjpeg;gstreamer:h264;gstreamer:vp8;gstreamer:vp9;

(process:39826): Spice-WARNING **: 22:29:50.705: reds.c:3656:reds_set_video_codecs_from_string: spice: invalid encoder:codec value at ;gstreamer:mjpeg;gstreamer:h264;gstreamer:vp8;gstreamer:vp9;

(process:39826): Spice-WARNING **: 22:29:50.705: reds.c:3656:reds_set_video_codecs_from_string: spice: invalid encoder:codec value at ;gstreamer:h264;gstreamer:vp8;gstreamer:vp9;

(process:39826): Spice-WARNING **: 22:29:50.705: reds.c:3656:reds_set_video_codecs_from_string: spice: invalid encoder:codec value at ;gstreamer:vp8;gstreamer:vp9;

(process:39826): Spice-WARNING **: 22:29:50.705: reds.c:3656:reds_set_video_codecs_from_string: spice: invalid encoder:codec value at ;gstreamer:vp9;

(process:39826): Spice-WARNING **: 22:29:50.705: reds.c:3682:reds_set_video_codecs_from_string: Failed to set video codecs, input string: ';'
failed to initialize server
xinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: server error
$

Anybody got any ideas? I'm not sure how to troubleshoot this. Any help would be much appreciated. Surely there is somebody here who would love to help get a linux guy on-board ;-)

Thanks.