XFree86 troubles in 5.0 RC2

[Stephan Assmus]

Hello,

I have successfully installed FreeBSD 5.0 RC2 on my computer. Well, not
quite, that's why I'm writing... The install went pretty smooth
considering I am a total newbie to FreeBSD. I have also never used or
even installed Linux. When I tried to configure XFree86 during the
install, text mode was left and I entered a graphical configuration
tool, that seemed display my current default configuration as a tree
with symbolds for computer, graphics board, monitor and so on. I went
into some configuration dialogs using the right click context menu, but
when I was about to enter the keyboard config (or mouse?), I was
brought back to the text mode installer with a message that said
configuration of XFree86 seemed to have failed. Further atempts to
enter the graphical configuration again failed. I finished the
installation and booted the system from the harddrive. (I was very
happy that the installation indeed left the MBR untouched and I could
setup my existing bootmenu to include FreeBSD.) Some error messages
scrolled by too fast for me to read, but they seemed like nothing
serious, since the boot process continued and I got to the login
prompt. The system seems fine, just that I cannot launch the X window
system. When I type startx, I get an error message about a missing
configuration file, which makes sense to me considering configuration
failed earlier. I have then read the FreeBSD 4.7 manual about
configuring XFree86. It says to use XFree86 -configure to create an
initial configuration file. However, this too gives me an error message
saying that the following Fatal Error happened: Failed to open /dev/io
for extended I/O. I also tried what the welcome message says and
started sysinstall. From there, I navigated to configuring XFree86,
but again, the graphical configuration tool does not launch anymore.

So, I'm stuck. I actually installed FreeBSD to check out the Gnome and
KDE desktop and use Gimp. I don't know in which direction to
investigate further. Thanks for any and all help.

Regards,
Stephan


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Re: XFree86 troubles in 5.0 RC2

[paul beard]

Stephan Assmus wrote:


So, I'm stuck. I actually installed FreeBSD to check out the Gnome and 
KDE desktop and use Gimp. I don't know in which direction to 
investigate further. Thanks for any and all help.

I would suggest installing 4.7, instead of 5.0-RC2. 5.0 hasn't 
been released yet, while 4.7 is an officially supported release.




--
Paul Beard: seeking UNIX/internet engineering work
http://paulbeard.no-ip.org/paulbeard.html
8040 27th Ave NE Seattle WA 98115 / 206 529 8400

Some programming languages manage to absorb change but withstand
progress.


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Re: XFree86 troubles in 5.0 RC2

[Brian Astill]

Stephan Assmus wrote:


So, I'm stuck. I actually installed FreeBSD to check out the Gnome 
and KDE desktop and use Gimp. I don't know in which direction to 
investigate further. Thanks for any and all help.


Have you tried the text config in /stand/sysinstall?  It does work - 
very well.  That would be my first recommendation.

If still no joy - find XF86Config.  It should be in /etc/X11/  It is a 
plain text file  which you can edit as root.   You will need to consult 
your monitor manual for its vertical and horizontal refresh rates and 
your video card manual for the amount of video RAM and likely video 
driver BUT you can set up the system exactly as you wish (which is why 
many of us prefer do do this rather than trust an install program).

If you don't have the manuals, surf the net - you could use Lynx in FBSD 
for this, or your other OS.  Google invariably leads to the right places 
for the info you need.

HTH

--
Brian


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