Solved KDE SDDM install

S

SAJM

Referring to the handbook on installing KDE and sddm

docs.freebsd.org

Chapter 5. The X Window System

This chapter describes how to install and configure Xorg on FreeBSD, which provides the open source X Window System used to provide a graphical environment
docs.freebsd.org docs.freebsd.org

The handbook states quite clearly to install KDE and sddm then populate rc.conf to enable hald, dbus and sddm - all very straight forward

I know from previous experience there is more to it.

Shouldn't this section be expanded?
 
1) it follows the instructions to install Xorg, so it's assumed you already followed those.
2) you don't need one if you use sddm
3) none
 
Well I don't know how you do it but in my experience when following the handbook guide KDE does not load. I've just followed it line by line and the guide does not work. In the past when I've tried and sought help on forums there is always more to do. Forum users always refer me to other config files that need things added and then eventually KDE loads.

The fundamental problem with BSD is that users are inclined to be very knowledgeable indeed. Some of them give no room to those who may be a little slow to grasp concepts. I've been sloshed in the past on this forum for not "tuning into" some users mindset. I believe this attitude runs through the documentation.

I do not mean this as a criticism, just an observation. Of course it is up to the group at large how they wish to run things.
For what it's worth this is just my perspective.
 
SAJM said:
… 5.7. Desktop Environments …
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That's an outdated edition of the handbook. Not your fault; outdated content is commonly found by Google, and so on.

forums.freebsd.org

FreeBSD Forums header area (above the Forums button) directing readers to oudated content (outdated Handbook, and so on)

At a glance, at least six of the links under Documentation are outdated. https://docs.freebsd.org/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/ is an outdated edition of the FreeBSD Handbook; and so on. Please aim for consistency with the main FreeBSD site. Thanks.
forums.freebsd.org forums.freebsd.org

SAJM said:
… when following the handbook guide KDE does not load. …
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SirDice said:
What do you suggest should be added?
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https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/x11/#x11-wm-kde should warn users to not accept the default that's presented by sddm(1).

https://matrix.to/#/!GdmnfkDxuKZAIC...64957LqBjU:kde.org?via=kde.org&via=matrix.org (2021-01-14) reminds me:

Graham Perrin: wayland-session is on the todo stack…
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tcberner: thanks, understood. In Reddit there's recent discussion of KDE on FreeBSD, one of the symptoms reported by a person having difficulty sounded (to me) like sddm defaulting to Plasma (Wayland) (Wayland)
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A year or so ago, things were not too bad. The Plasma (Wayland) (Wayland) option would result in a blackout followed by reappearance of sddm.

With my more recent tests, the experience was worse:
  • blackout.
It was necessary to Control-Alt-F2 to ttyv1, login as root then service sddm restart, although I vaguely recall seeing some dregs that made me less than happy. If you find yourself in this situation, maybe cleaner to shutdown -r now.


https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/x11/#x11-troubleshooting in the current edition of the FreeBSD Handbook is outdated. The information panel about hald(8) should be corrected.

tuxador said:
HAL is deprecated . …
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Yep, and way beyond that, things were removed: https://forums.FreeBSD.org/threads/freebsd-freebsd-13-0-rc5.79798/post-505832

Directing users to things such as hald’s configuration rule is quite useless; it makes a troubleshooting situation more troublesome by wasting the reader's time.


Generally, this is a good example of a massive chapter of a book being overkill when typically, less than a handful of lines should suffice:

https://community.kde.org/FreeBSD/Setup#Quick_start
 
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I
tuxador said:
HAL is deprecated .
You should instead install bsdisks since devd depends on for managing external drives. Devd is loaded by default.
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If that is the case shouldn't it be described in the handbook. I eventually found the 12.2 handbook:

docs.freebsd.org

Chapter 5. The X Window System

This chapter describes how to install and configure Xorg on FreeBSD, which provides the open source X Window System used to provide a graphical environment
docs.freebsd.org docs.freebsd.org

The correct documentation did mention a config in fstab that I duly populated but KDE still does not load. It will not load because the information provided is still inadequate or vague at best. Why mention HAL in the documentation if KDE is not going to work with it?
Am I missing something here, is there something that everyone except me knows when interpreting the contents of the Handbook?
 
SirDice said:
1) it follows the instructions to install Xorg, so it's assumed you already followed those.
2) you don't need one if you use sddm
3) none
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After installing sddm as per the Handbook what would you expect to happen after x11/sddm is installed?
 
SAJM said:
After installing sddm as per the Handbook what would you expect to happen after x11/sddm is installed?
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Absolutely nothing. It's setup to start during boot, so you'd need to restart before anything would happen.
 
SAJM said:
After installing sddm as per the Handbook what would you expect to happen after x11/sddm is installed?
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after installing sddm and adding the appropriate line to /etc/rc.conf, if you don't want to restart, you can always do
service sddm start
Then the sddm screen will appear, and take you into your desktop environment when you login.

However, in my experience, this causes some unexpected behaviors, so a restart is preferable. It doesn't take long on decent hardware, so I don't worry about it.

Keep in mind, I almost exclusively use XFCE, so I wouldn't have any experience with any of the plasma wayland issues discussed above.
 
SirDice said:
Absolutely nothing. It's setup to start during boot, so you'd need to restart before anything would happen.
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Ah! so at least a reboot is required.
jardows said:
after installing sddm and adding the appropriate line to /etc/rc.conf, if you don't want to restart, you can always do
service sddm start
Then the sddm screen will appear, and take you into your desktop environment when you login.

However, in my experience, this causes some unexpected behaviors, so a restart is preferable. It doesn't take long on decent hardware, so I don't worry about it.

Keep in mind, I almost exclusively use XFCE, so I wouldn't have any experience with any of the plasma wayland issues discussed above.
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sddm does not start kde. Well not by following the procedure detailed in the handbook it doesn't.

I'm going to reinstall the OS again and make double sure I followed everything correctly.
 
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SAJM said:
The fundamental problem with BSD is that users are inclined to be very knowledgeable indeed. Some of them give no room to those who may be a little slow to grasp concepts. I've been sloshed in the past on this forum for not "tuning into" some users mindset. I believe this attitude runs through the documentation.
Click to expand...
In my experience, there are many, many forum users who go out of their way to help.

One of the problems with the documentation is that FreeBSD is has been around for a long time and in my experience you can end up looking at different versions of the documentation, some of which is out of date. What I've found is that you can generally find someone here who can point out what may be missing in the docs, or how you have misinterpreted it.
 
I have reloaded the os, xorg, kde etc as per the documentation 3 times now. There is no way I I entered a typo, and KDE does not load.
How does one go about finding who is responsible for the documentation and get it corrected, or at least expand the section in question. There is no point in publishing, and then if it is not clear, referring users to a forum. That is just a waste of time.
 
SAJM said:
Are you involved in updating the Handbook?
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No, but I updated the Quick start in the KDE area.

SAJM said:
… KDE does not load. …
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Please, can you describe the symptom?

Did you, perhaps, get no progress beyond the splash screen?

splash screen.png
 
This thread was to establish there was a problem with the documentation and where I go to correct it.

I will open a series of other threads to address each problem and then document them all. I have already started this.
 
SirDice said:
Absolutely nothing. It's setup to start during boot, so you'd need to restart before anything would happen.
Click to expand...
And you are correct. Absolutely nothing happens, I log on and there is the $ prompt, and there it stays. There is nothing in the Handbook I can find to suggest anything different.

I would love to know which config I missed.
 
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