BSD works but it's so boring. How do I make it look cool?

[George Harrison]

I was *finally* able to get FreeBSD to work. When I started x it went into a really boring twm desktop. It won't let me choose anything except Enlightenment which is only slightly better. It will not recognize Gnome or KDE even though I installed all the packages for it. Why is this? What I have now is so complex I can't even figure out how to change my wallpaper. I hate twm and Enlgihtenment is just ok. I am using 5.3 by the way, if 4.11 is any better looking please let me know. Overall my question is: How do I make FreeBSD look cool? I've seen many cool pics from Google Images and such but my desktop is just too boring and hard to use. Any helpful advice would be nice. Thanks.



Edit: Oh and "xwmconfig" doesn't work.

[debian]

If you've installed KDE type this in CLI:

/usr/local/bin/startkde

.
If that doesn't start KDE, type this:

which startkde

. This will give you the location of KDE directory.

[sether]

echo "startkde" > .xinitrc
startx

And *BSD isn't boring, it just comes with everything vanilla - it's letting you do all the customization. I mean, don't you hate it when Linux distros set everything up for you, and there's always something you don't like about the interface? Well in this case *BSD knows that and is allowing you to do it from scratch.

[Vergil83]

And *BSD isn't boring, it just comes with everything vanilla - it's letting you do all the customization. I mean, don't you hate it when Linux distros set everything up for you, and there's always something you don't like about the interface? Well in this case *BSD knows that and is allowing you to do it from scratch.

[kiat]

Freebsd has revived my love for *nix related OS.

I had sort of given up on Linux and other *nix OS's because I wasn't able to get my broadband connection to work the last time I installed Red Hat 8. So I reverted to XP.

Then I heard that I could solve that broadband connection woe if I had a router. I got one last week and and decided it was time for some adventure again...

Yes, the installation was quite a pain but in the end it was worth it. I had to install it twice to get it right.

In my first install, I didn't manage to get X Windows to work. I kept trying XFree86 and xf865config when I should be using Xorg.

The Network Configuration part took some time to get right too, as I wasn't sure what to enter for things such as Ipv4 Gateway and Name Server.

Also, for some mysterious reasons, the login was corrupted. I didn't have to type any password as root and was able to log in by just supplying the login id root.

I figured I should just do a fresh install than try and figure out what was wrong. That proved useful because I became more familiar with the entire process.

I realised by this time that I should be using Xorg and instead of XFree86 - thanks to this article I found on the Net.

It was supposed to be a rather simple process:

1) Build an initial configuration file
Xorg -Configure

2) Test the configuration file (xorg.conf.new is in the folder root)
Xorg - config xorg.conf.new

3) If the test is successfully, replace the current xorg.conf with xorg.conf.new
cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

But I did those several times and each time I reboot and login as root and ran startx, X Windows didn't show up properly and the mouse didn't work.

It must have been the fifth time I had repeated those steps (and several other wrong steps) when I decided to log in as the user (rather than root). I ran startx and then startkde. Ah, guess what? Finally X Windows was working.

What happened was that the copy of xorg.conf at /etc/X11/Xorg.conf was started when I logged in as user. That copy was replaced by xorg.conf.new when I did the copying.

When I logged in as root, the untouched copy at /usr/X11R6/etc/11/xorg.conf was used and as a result, X Windows wasn't properly rendered. Something like that.

Anyway, I think Freebsd is cool. I like the fact that it's only 1 CD compared to 2-3 for Fedora and other Linux distros. Also being able to install packages using ports is amazing.

[CoffeeMonster]

echo "startkde" > .xinitrc
startx

And *BSD isn't boring, it just comes with everything vanilla - it's letting you do all the customization. I mean, don't you hate it when Linux distros set everything up for you, and there's always something you don't like about the interface? Well in this case *BSD knows that and is allowing you to do it from scratch.

Hmmm true, but gentoo and debian doesnt really impose a look and feel on you. A KDE desktop looks like it's come straight from the KDE Project. Which is cool but when your distro has it's own look and feel it kinda makes it feel more different and unique to that distro (sometimes)

[thumper242]

Don't forget http://windowmaker.org/ !!!

Personally, I like it because it's clean and simple.
None of the KDE size.

[George Harrison]

Wow, a lot has changed since this post. I really like Ports now and now I actually hate KDE... In fact, I try to even limit myself on using a WM. I like working in a command line quite a bit, using ports and then surfing the web with Links, talking to people using Pork; good stuff. When I do launch X, I really like Fluxbox and especially Blackbox. Heh, making stuff look cool is easy for me now. FBSD is a great learning tool. Well thanks for the help.

[thumper242]

Wow, a lot has changed since this post. I really like Ports now and now I actually hate KDE... In fact, I try to even limit myself on using a WM. I like working in a command line quite a bit, using ports and then surfing the web with Links, talking to people using Pork; good stuff. When I do launch X, I really like Fluxbox and especially Blackbox. Heh, making stuff look cool is easy for me now. FBSD is a great learning tool. Well thanks for the help.

I look at the WM as a way for me to more efficiently use the command line.

Although I love screen(1) and virtual terminals and all that, a WM makes it so I can more easily get work done.

[George Harrison]

True, I enjoy Flux and such quite a bit because it is very easy to configure and make look cool. One time I made a 1024x768 transparent aterm to stretch across the entire screen so I could punch in my commands without having to search through the menu to find a terminal - it was cool.