How do you configure X without xorg.conf files?

And no answer... It is ok. It is a very old laptop. If this is too much fuss, then don't worry about it. I can use the touchpad. I am grateful for all the help so far. I used to work in IT decades ago. This is all just a fun hobby for me now. My IT career died decades ago, so this is not really important. I forgot how much I enjoyed tinkering though, so this is a bit of a treat for me.
 
Don't know if that is going to help you with your touchpad, but on my laptop I'm using hw.psm.synaptics_support=1. That helps with touchpad.
For your "regular" mouse driver, it never surfaced in this thread, but do you have xf86-input-mouse installed?
You can check by pkg info -a | grep input:
Code:
...
xf86-input-keyboard-1.9.0_4    X.Org keyboard input driver
xf86-input-mouse-1.9.3_3       X.Org mouse input driver
...
You need these for Xorg to work properly. And since xorg-server does not install these by default, it won't hurt to double-check.
Sorry, but in such cases Xorg.0.log may not even hint there is a problem with your mouse/keyboard. It will say mouse & kbd detected all right while you can use neither of them.
So always double check the Xorg input drivers are installed -- no matter if it's Radeon/Intel HD/nVidia GPU.
 
Bad news. I was actually doing quite well. The only issue that I had was the mouse right-click, so I was feeling very confident for a bit. I think that is where I went wrong. I started editing and configuring openbox, tint2, and wbar, then I found Vermaden's site. https://vermaden.wordpress.com/2018/07/01/freebsd-desktop-part-12-configuration-openbox/ I installed most of the scripts successfully, but one of them really locked up my computer bad. So bad in fact, I felt the need to reinstall and start all over again. I could not do anything with the computer. I am not pointing fingers, I am just saying that I don't know what happened or why. So now I lost everything and am back to vesa drivers and a small screen. This time things are different though for some reason. I am using Xorg 1.20.8. My log says:
Code:
LoadModule: "radeon"
No drivers available.
I have the line in
Code:
kld_list="/boot/modules/radeonkms.ko"
in /etc/rc.conf as with last time which worked then. I installed the drivers as suggested by the wiki: https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics. I used the command listed above to confirm they are loaded as well as used the commands listed on this site: https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/freebsd-9-1-howto-load-a-kernel-module/, so I am quite certain they are loaded. This makes the /var/log/Xorg.0.log confusing. I have the same /usr/local/etc/x11/xorg.conf.d/driver-radeon.conf listed above as last time. I also get the error in the log:
Code:
 no screens found (EE)
. Apologies for actually going backwards. I actually believed I was on my way to arranging my openbox look instead of this. I guess this is the way the world tells me that I needed to learn this part better before moving on to desktop beautification. :)
 
Not sure how that helps, but good to know. My /var/log/Xorg.0.log says:
Code:
List of video drivers:
  scfb
  modesetting
  vesa
I guess the question is how do I load the radeon driver into Xorg then? I tried the /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/driver.conf like last time, but that does not seem to work. The example as with last time is found here: https://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html.
Forgot to add that yes, xf86-input-mouse-1.9.3_3 is loaded as with libinput (both x86 and the normal one), keyboard, drm-kmod-g20190710, drm-legacy-kmod-g20200306, and libdrm.
 
Those drivers (x11-drivers/xf86-input-keyboard, x11-drivers/xf86-input-mouse and x11-drivers/xf86-input-libinput) are installed as a dependency of x11-drivers/xorg-drivers which in turn is a dependency of x11/xorg. So unless you are building from ports and changed the build options of x11-drivers/xorg-drivers those should be installed.
Built from ports but don't remember ever fiddling with those options. Maybe you're right here and I did something. Which may also be the case with the OP.
There's a problem, so something may be out of order. Therefore check the closest first.
 
I don't use ports because it is such an old laptop. Last time I had freebsd on this computer was so many years ago that I forgot when now. I tried back then to use ports, and it would take something like days for each build. When I had it configured before, I got very lucky and found a site that had great instructions and a beautiful tint2rc. I got a new computer and just let this one sit as a paperweight for years. I don't even know why I removed freebsd from this computer actually. I think it was freebsd 8 back then if I remember correctly. I guess as with now, it was always just a learning side project. I just had this up yesterday. I don't understand how I could have such a different experience in the space of a day? Anyway, the /var/log/Xorg.0.log still says:
Code:
LoadModule: "radeon"
Failed to load module "radeon" (module does not exist, 0)
modesetting: Driver for Modesetting Kernel Drivers: kms
modeset(0): claimed PCI slot 1@0:5:0
...
glamor0: Failed to initialize glamor at ScreenInit() time.
AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0
 
Not sure how that helps, but good to know. My /var/log/Xorg.0.log says:
Code:
List of video drivers:
  scfb
  modesetting
  vesa
I guess the question is how do I load the radeon driver into Xorg then?
I am fairly certain you don't. If the drm-kmod is loaded you use the modesetting driver with it. But what do I know, I am a long-term nvidia user :rolleyes:
 
Now I am getting an error:
Code:
Mesa 18.3.2 implementation error: Invalid GLSL version in shading _language_version()
AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0
and
Code:
UnloadModule: "radeon"
Unloading radeon
glamor0: Failed to get GLSL version
modeset(0): Failed to initialize glamor at ScreenInit() time.
Fatal Server error:
AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0.
At least the radeon driver actually loads now, so progress is being made. I just don't know why this now?
 
OK, here is another one ;) Is your very old notebook actually x86 or x86_64 architecture? Here is why it seems to matter:
There are reports that users on i386 hardware have problems using the drm-kmod package. A workaround for this is to disable PAE via /boot/loader.conf: hw.above4g_allow=0
 
I noticed that. However, it worked last time minus the right click on the mouse. Once you know it can work, it is hard to give up. Now I have everything working again, but the graphics are not as good to the point as not functional. I am getting a
Code:
xauth .serverauth
error now in the logs. Did I mess up the permissions for my user somehow, and if so how do I get them back? Nevermind. https://www.freebsd.org/doc/handbook/x-config.html says use the command:
Code:
pw groupmod video -m slurms || pw groupmod wheel -m slurms.
 
The https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics page said, "Furthermore, if you notice high CPU usage or excessive tearing while viewing HD video it is reported that installing the libva-intel-driver is helpful, as it enables VAAPI support on these systems. This package should be installed in addition to the drm-kmod, mesa-libs and mesa-dri packages." I only installed the drm-kmod drivers last time. I wonder if the extra drivers are working against me this time?
 
OK, here is another one ;) Is your very old notebook actually x86 or x86_64 architecture? Here is why it seems to matter:
I added this. Nothing really has changed. It was a good suggestion though. Openbox is actually working fine now once again. It is Gnome desktop that is freaking out on me for some reason. A task for tomorrow. Thanks for the help as always! :D
 
You know, right now I, personally, am quite satisfied with FVWM2 and the apps I know I need. This one will run well even on a very old laptop :). I'm tired of GNOME as it adds absolutely NOTHING to my configuration. Unless it be a bunch of services & apps I never use.
 
You know, right now I, personally, am quite satisfied with FVWM2 and the apps I know I need. This one will run well even on a very old laptop :). I'm tired of GNOME as it adds absolutely NOTHING to my configuration. Unless it be a bunch of services & apps I never use.
Thanks, I will give it a try. I kind of enjoy trying to configure Openbox right now. It is nice for a low resource computer. Do you know any guides for tint2, wbar, and openbox? Also, is there a way to have the FreeBSD handbook as an offline resource in the event I make another mistake (not that something like that would ever happen to me, but hypothetically! ;))? Also, feh is not loading my wallpaper when I start openbox. My autostart.sh looks like this now:
Code:
#!/bin/sh
(sleep 2 && tint2)
(sleep 2 && wbar)
(sleep 2 && feh --bg-scale '/home/user/wallpapers/WinterPath.jpg' &)
Does not matter if I use the quotes or not, feh will not work with the autostart.sh. If I open a terminal and type the exact same command, feh works.
 
I don't have any info on any of those other apps as I use x11-wm/fluxbox. As for the handbook, I am not sure if it is available as a PDF or something else, I never looked. I am never without an Internet connection as I work from home normally and cannot be offline.
 
I always have a connection, but this laptop is on wifi and our connection is already not great. The two together means that this computer is mostly of just getting email and such. Downloading FVWM2 now.
 
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