FreeBSD - changing default XWM

Disciple of The Watch · Sep 30, 2007

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As the title said, I've installed BSD on a virtual machine for testing purposes, prior to replacing Slackware with BSD, after hearing much of BSD's touted rock-solidity.

There are still a few things I am unsure of, though, before doing the change.

First, XWM. FreeBSD's default TWM (or something like that) is totally no-frills, but not really for me. Being an Xfce aficionado, it's easy to guess which WM I want.

I have the .run packages - alternatively, the tarball as well- to compile Xfce, and this is exactly what I intend to do. Looking around on the web, to change my default WM, the xf86config in /usr/X11R6/bin must be edited. This file is nowhere to be found. There were some other files, but I'd rather not try to blindly stumble upon the good one.

So, if xf86config is not the file I need to tweak, then which one is?

And what are the necessary modifications that must be done to the file to set Xfce as default XWM? I'll honestly say that I've never compiled a XWM from scratch, thanks to the 'xwmconfig' option implemented in Slackware, and the fact that Slack comes packaged with Xfce, unlike FreeBSD.

*EDIT* Also, now that I think about it, I need to get a PPPoE connection up and running.

[ September 30, 2007, 07:36: Message edited by: Disciple of The Watch ]

Morgoth · Oct 1, 2007

Oh yeah.. xwindows , one of the lesser parts of the Unix system. Took me an entire day once to install IceWM and I never got the videocard working properly.

Have you looked for other XF86Config files? Just back then up and then mess around, it won't damage your monitor (unless you start messing with the frequencies). You will find the correct config file quick enough.
Also, are you using Xfree or Xorg? Since BSD operates under a different license than Slackware, the XWindows implementation might be different.

Disciple of The Watch · Oct 1, 2007

I'll have to check to be 100% sure, but IIRC, it's Xorg 6.9.0.

I've checked around in the files, but found nothing regarding xf86 config. I took a peek in those other files, but a couple of them were nothing more than garbled gibberish.

I'll try what you said about experimenting. I've installed FreeBSD as a virtual machine on VMware and kept a snapshot of a fresh install, so f****** something up isn't really an issue.

Morgoth · Oct 1, 2007

Hmm... I think only the XFree86 implementation uses a config file called xf86config. Xorg uses xorgconfig... IIRC.

Disciple of The Watch · Oct 9, 2007

Morgoth, I found this documentation on the web regarding installing fluxbox on FreeBSD, and I'd like to get your opinion on it.

You will also need to place the following line into your /etc/make.conf file to declare that you are going to be using X.org instead of the XFree86 port.

X_WINDOW_SYSTEM=xorg

# cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg
# make install

The installation is the easy part, now comes the hard port of configuring your hardware in X.org. The best way to do this is use the X.org config script as root
# xorgconfig
Mouse Protocol
- If you do not know choose Auto or Sysmouse and it will usually work.
Emulate 3 Button Protocol
- If you have a 3 button mouse, or a mouse with a wheel (counts as a 3rd button) choose no. Otherwise you need to hit yes. This allows you to press both buttons to represent the 3rd button which is needed for pasting text.
Mouse Device
- Unless your mouse is set to something else just hit enter to use the default of /dev/sysmouse
Keyboard
- If in doubt, press 1
XKB
- If you do not know what this is, choose no
Monitor
- This is one of the more important parts. If you choose incorrectly you could damage your monitor. Some monitors will tell you the hsync and vsync under their menu. Others you will need to search for online. The best way to find the hsync and vsync is to look up the monitor's model number which you can find on the back of the monitor. You can search on a search engine for the model number along with the term hsync and hopefully find it. If you are unable to find the hsync and vsync anywhere then you can try using one of the generic ranges given on the menu. When you find the range go to enter your own range and put the numbers in using the format that the others are in.
Video Card
- Here you definitely want to look at the card database. When going through it you want to look for a card with the same chipset as yours if your card is not listed. The chipset is what counts here, not the maker of the card since many makers implement a number of chipsets. If you get an error when trying to start X.org later it is probably because you choose the wrong chipset. Often it takes several trys to find the correct one, or researching your card online to see what other people choose for it. This can be a hassle, especially with onboard cards, but if you keep at it you will probably find the chipset is on the list somewhere.
Video Memory
- This is in KB so you will need to multiply the number of MB of memory your card has by 1024 and enter it in. Normally this is just hashed out in the X.org config file so it is not of high importance that you get it right.
Resolutions
- Choose some resolutions that are somewhat low if you are unsure what how high your card can handle in X.org. You only need to get it to run the first time, then you can come back and set them higher.
Once you have finished the script it will write the file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf

The following is an example of setting up the resolution for 1280x1024 and 1024x768 at 24M colors.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "onboard"
Monitor "mx70"
DefaultDepth 24

Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection
Here the resolutions must be written in order of largest to smallest or you will be scrolling around on your desktop. To change between these two resolutions you would press ctrl+alt+"+" to get a higher resolution, and ctrl+alt+"-" to get smaller. And yes, that is control, alt, plus. All held down at once and in that order.
Setting up a wheel mouse
To add support for the wheel on a mouse the last two lines in the following example are needed to map the buttons
Identifier "Mouse1"
Driver "mouse"
Option "Protocol" "Auto"
Option "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"
Option "Buttons" "5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Installing a Window Manager
After setting up X.org a Window Manager should be installed to help organize the desktop and make things all around easier. There are many to choose from in /usr/ports/x11-wm All the major ones are there such as KDE and Gnome. If you are looking for something similiar to windows one of these is a good choice. In this tutorial however we will be using FluxBox, which is a very light weight wm that is simple to use and configure. It can be installed from the ports at /usr/ports/x11-wm/fluxbox A gui also available for configuring fluxbox at /usr/ports/x11-wm/fluxconf
For more on setting up fluxbox read the Fluxbox tutorial.
Launching programs on startup with ~/.xinitrc
The .xinitrc file is run when X.org starts up, so this is where we need to place everything we want to load at startup. A basic .xinitrc file could look like this
exec xterm &
exec fluxbox
The above file would launch an xterm terminal and then load the window manager, which in this case is fluxbox. All programs being launched need an & after them so they will run in the background, the window manager however does not. Any program can be added to this file. If you wanted to also launch gkrellm and gaim on startup it would look something like this
exec xterm &
exec gaim &
exec gkrellm &
exec fluxbox
Starting X.org
Now that the .xinitrc file has been created X.org can be started by typing
# startx
X.org can be stopped by pressing ctrl+alt+backspace
If you have problems starting x go back and reconfigure your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.
Setting the background
Once X.org is running the first thing you will want to do is get rid of the horrid default background. This can be done using either feh (/usr/ports/graphics/feh), Eterm (/usr/ports/x11/eterm), or a number of other programs not covered here. To set a file called mybg.jpg in your home dir to the background it would look like this in the two mentioned programs
# feh --bg-center ~/mybg.jpg

# Esetroot ~/mybg.jpg
In FluxBox one of these commands can be placed under the root command in a theme file which are found under ~/.fluxbox/styles This will automatically load that background when you choose the theme.
Getting Transparent Terminals
Both Eterm (/usr/ports/x11/eterm) and Wterm (/usr/ports/x11/wterm) allow for transparent terminals. In Wterm the options needed are
# wterm -fg white -tr
This creates a clear window with white text. If you have a very dark background this is alright, but in most cases you will want to add shading to make your text more readable.
# wterm -bg green -fg white -tr -sh
The above command creates a terminal window with a green transparent background and white text.
A clear transparent window in Eterm is created with
# Eterm --buttonbar=0 --trans -v -f white
A window shaded at 60% blue is created with
# Eterm --buttonbar=0 --trans --shade=60 --tint=blue -v -f white
To add these to your fluxbox menu (~/.fluxbox/menu) you would insert the follow sub group
[submenu] (Terminals)
[exec] (Wterm Blue) {wterm -bg blue -fg white -tr -sh}
[exec] (Wterm Green) {wterm -bg green -fg white -tr -sh}
[exec] (Wterm Red) {wterm -bg red -fg white -tr -sh}
[exec] (Wterm Orange) {wterm -bg orange -fg white -tr -sh}
[exec] (Wterm Clear) {wterm -fg white -tr}

[exec] (Eterm 20 Purple) {Eterm --buttonbar=0 --trans
--shade=20 --tint=purple -v -f white}
[exec] (Eterm 20 Gray) {Eterm --buttonbar=0 --trans
--shade=20 -v -f white}
[exec] (Eterm 60 Gray) {Eterm --buttonbar=0 --trans
--shade=60 -v -f white}
[exec] (Eterm 60 Blue) {Eterm --buttonbar=0 --trans
--shade=60 --tint=blue -v -f white}
[exec] (Eterm Clear) {Eterm --buttonbar=0 --trans
-v -f white}
[end]
Click to expand...

Morgoth · Oct 10, 2007

It looks fine to me, it is very verbose (which helps) and I guess it should work. The only part which I do not understand is the first one, the modification of '/etc/make.conf'.

Is he setting a global variable for the make tool there?

Disciple of The Watch · Feb 21, 2008

/me casts Resurrect Thread

Out of frustration, I abandoned FreeBSD completly.

I was browsing through my CDs, and stumbled upon the two FreeBSD CDs. I decided to give it one more go.

The install went fine. For my first testing purposes, I did a VM without a network connection, and just root as user.

The standard install went fine. Then came the part of installing a XWM other than TWM (or whatever XWM FreeBSD uses by default). Tried building it from ports - it tried to connect to a FTP. I dabbled with pkg_add -r XYZ - it tried to connect to a FTP.

I was about to just blow it off when I had a flash.

I mounted the CDROM, then used pkg_add /cdrom/packages/x11/kde-3.2.5,tbz. Some loading happens. That's a good sign. KDE quietly installs in the background. The install completes. I add echo "exec startkde" >> ~/.xinitrc, then type startx and cross my fingers. KDE boots in 640*480. Well, it's a start. I log out, then do a xorgconfig. I select my settings, save them to xorg.conf, and restart KDE, which now boots in 1280*1024.

It's no secret I hate KDE. However, I had the choice between KDE and GNOME. So between to crappy WMs, I took the less worst.

All that's left to do now is install rp-pppoe and compile the rest of the programs I use - Opera, Pidgin, XMMS.

There's still a long way for me to go, but hey, it's a damn good start.

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FreeBSD - changing default XWM

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