# Is desktop-installer good for a newbie ?



## sudobsd (Aug 18, 2022)

Hello, as a newbie who wants to jump in the FreeBSD world, i wanted to know if desktop-installer is good for quickly install a DE and quickly configure the system.


Thanks !


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## zirias@ (Aug 18, 2022)

I never used it. Assuming it works as advertised, it is

"good" as you will quickly have the DE you want up and running.
"not good" as you won't learn how the things work on FreeBSD.
So, it's ultimately your choice what you consider more important.


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## sudobsd (Aug 18, 2022)

Yeah you right, i guess i could try desktop-installer, but its kinda bad since i won't learn a lot about how to install DEs in FreeBSD.


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## 6502 (Aug 18, 2022)

Try to install, search, read, delete and re-install... Better than waiting for answers in forum.


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## mer (Aug 18, 2022)

Last time I looked at it it worked pretty good, but that was on a pretty generic system with Intel graphics.  But as pointed out it's not really that hard to install something.  There are meta-packages for most of the popular DEs (KDE5, gnome) and lots of choices for old fashioned window managers.


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## sudobsd (Aug 18, 2022)

Ah ok i'll try, right now im having troubles with GRUB detecting FreeBSD on EndeavourOS.


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## zirias@ (Aug 18, 2022)

Did you consider virtualization instead of multi-booting? Then you could use FreeBSD's native bootloader instead of grub, which is a lot easier.

It of course depends on your usecase. But if you have one "main" OS (which you use most of the time), and one other you need for experimenting or for compatibility with some specific application etc ... it can often make sense to just install the "main" OS on the bare metal and the other one in a virtual machine...


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## sudobsd (Aug 18, 2022)

My pc only has 4GB of ram, so virtualization isn't a good idea


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## Erichans (Aug 18, 2022)

If you can/will share your hardware: motherboard (is it UEFI capable*?), CPU & hdd(s) perhaps the forum community can give you better specific advice as to viable options. In the end you can make your own informed choice. Depending on the CPU, 4GB is quite adequate for a FreeBSD OS with a (non-overloaded) DE; however—if possible—an extra 4GB will give you a lot more options.

___
* that could ease your booting install options.


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## meaw229a (Aug 19, 2022)

sudobsd said:


> Ah ok i'll try, right now im having troubles with GRUB detecting FreeBSD on EndeavourOS.


Just install reFind on your Linux OS and forget about grub. Works very well !
reFind should be in your distribution repo.


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## _al (Aug 19, 2022)

sudobsd said:


> Ah ok i'll try, right now im having troubles with GRUB detecting FreeBSD on EndeavourOS.


Before removing FreeBSD from your HP-Notebook, try editing /etc/default/grub as mentioned in post 82








						Dual booting Linux and FreeBSD on a single drive
					

No, its not mounted




					forums.freebsd.org
				



This was my fault - I didn't pay attention that GRUB_TIMEOUT=0 (which is causing Linux to boot immediately without any choice).


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## freespirit8827 (Sep 11, 2022)

zirias@ said:


> Did you consider virtualization instead of multi-booting? Then you could use FreeBSD's native bootloader instead of grub, which is a lot easier.
> 
> It of course depends on your usecase. But if you have one "main" OS (which you use most of the time), and one other you need for experimenting or for compatibility with some specific application etc ... it can often make sense to just install the "main" OS on the bare metal and the other one in a virtual machine...


In my case the host os i windows 10 Professional as I have 32gb of ram and Windows 10Home restricts you to a poultry 16GB of ram maximum. As for the Virtualization aspect of the equation I use Vm Ware Workstation, although  prior to purchasing Vmware Workstation I was using Oracle Virtual box.


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## recluce (Sep 22, 2022)

I have used desktop-installer numerous times to install a DE for desktop systems. I have had very positive experiences with it installing XFCE or Mate. The one time I tried Cinnamon, the system was not usable afterwards - but Cinnamon on FreeBSD was very outdated at that point in time, it might be better now.

Update Oct 24, 2022: at least for XFCE, desktop-installer also works on remote, headless installations (once you got a bootable FreeBSD base system, e.g. by using mfsBSD). You would need to install/cofigure XRDP manually after running desktop-installer.


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## freespirit8827 (Sep 24, 2022)

sudobsd said:


> My pc only has 4GB of ram, so virtualization isn't a good idea


I it at all possable to upgrade yoyr ram to say 8gb org 16gb?


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## darmokandjalad (Sep 25, 2022)

I set up my first FreeBSD desktop this past January and hadn't found desktop-installer in all my googling; thanks for asking about it here.

For what it's worth, the FreeBSD Foundation has a tutorial called Installing a Desktop Environment on FreeBSD that takes you through the installation and configuration of XFCE. It was straightforward for me, and since you report having experience with Linux, it might work for you, too. I just worked through it after doing a fresh install of 13.0.


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