New freeBSD install with Xfce ,startx fails miserably

A

alamahant

Hi Guys ,
Totally noob here to freeBSD.
Just today I did install the latest version from the dvd iso.
I update the packages.
And then I ran :

pkg install xorg xfce lightdm

I enabled dbus and lightdm in rc.conf
BUT
NEITHER lightdm will start NOR can i run "startx" ,after having done the "echo ". /usr/local/etc/xdg....................etc etc etc" thingie.
When I DO try to run "startx" I get an error:
"can not run in framebuffer mode etc etc etc".
According to the Xorg log it can not find module "intel".
Feeling profoundly disappointed about something that I expected to go smoothly.........
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks a lot........
Andreas
 
Emrion and all
Thanks a lot for your kind replies.
Yes I managed to get the display going following your advice.
However lightdm will NOT START.
Sddm works fine with xfce...
For some obscure reason the fans of my laptop are kind of noisy even at idle when running freeBSD.
I tried to find any offender processes in "top" but both mem and cpu seemed normal.
However the fans make noise like when for example compiling something.
So clearly SOMETHING is causing the OS to stuggle and strive.
No comparison intended with linux but this does NOT happen with my Linux boxes.
So something indeed is happening with my freeBSD install.
The only offender I can think of is a bunch of dmesg messages about :

hdac0 command timeout on address 0
What might be causing this "struggle"????????????????????????
Thanks a lot again for your attention and care.........
:)
 
Hi!
I had a similar problem when installed XFCE4. In my case, the problem was because I didn't have the package "xf86-video-intel" installed. Installing that package solved my problem.
For the record, I followed the steps given in [1]. I first installed "xorg", "slim" and "xfce" packages. Then I wrote in /etc/rc.conf the following lines:

dbus_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
slim_enable="YES"

And finally, created the file "$HOME/.xinitrc" with the following line:

exec xfce4-session



[1] https://www.linuxhelp.com/how-to-install-xfce-desktop-in-freebsd
 
matiasb said:
Then I wrote in /etc/rc.conf the following lines:

dbus_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
Click to expand...

I've never really been sure if/when these two lines are required. I never use hald_enable="YES" and don't know what sort of problems I might be making for myself.
 
dbus is required for a Machine-ID but required only once on first startup..Once it generates a Machine-ID it is not needed.
You can manually run it like this: service dbus onestart before your first startup of Xfce4.

hald is not needed but some software can use it. If it is enabled you will get a desktop icon when a usb stick is inserted.
(Compliments of GVFS-RemoteVolumeManager)
 
I do think that Sevendogsbsd advice to get your desktop running first is wise.
Get your desktop running first then use a display manager like slim or lightdm.

I also believe if you look at the FreeBSD Graphics manual provided by Emrion it says to use i915kms in /etc/rc.conf for a desktop on Intel Chips. Depending on the series of Intel chips you either use i915kms in base or on newer chips use ports drm-kmod and the setting changes to kld_list="/boot/modules/i915kms.ko" to reflect that the ports version gets installed in /boot/modules where as the base version is installed in the /boot/kernel/ directory
 

# sysctl machdep.idle{_available,}
machdep.idle_available: spin, mwait, hlt, acpi
machdep.idle: acpi
# sysctl machdep.idle=hlt

Any other than "acpi" should stop your fan, if your ACPI is broken -- unfortunately, most are.
 
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