Printable View
I have FreeBSD 8.1 in VirtualBox and need to install gnome (or kde, whichever is recommended), but I don't know what to do to get x.org. I watched a tutorial and used their line of code to install it from their website, but it didn't work. Anybody have suggestions? I'm a BSD noob, and would love some help. Thanks!
It's been a long time since I last installed one of the BSDs, so I'm not up to speed with it, but you should be able to follow their online documentation to get xorg and gnome installed:
The X Window System and Virtual Consoles
X11 Configuration
FreeBSD GNOME Project: GNOME 2.32 FAQ
My personal recommendation is Gnome over KDE4 because even after nearly 3 years since its release, KDE4 is still loaded with bugs although it does continue to improve with each interim release.
Good luck with it, and maybe some current BSD'ers will chime in with more info should you need it.
Basically do either of these methods:
The ports way:
cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg
make install clean
... wait for compiling, it will be a while ...
cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome
make install clean
... wait for compiling, it will be a while ...
Or the package way
pkg_add -r xrog
pkg_add -r gnome
This should be faster, but the download could still be a while.
There is configuration involved, such as creating the .xinitrc in your home directory, or configuring the desktop manager, is it GDM for Gnome?
You could download GhostBSD the liveCD that runs Gnome and look at how it is configured.