# Can somebody help me installing the Xorg?



## mrphuongmia (Jun 26, 2010)

I'm just a newbie trying my first FreeBSD 8.0 installation. I did as in the handbook guides but everytime I try with 'startx', a very ugly window manager appears and the display is full of random colors  I think there's something wrong with my xorg configurations. I have a Dell Vostro 1088 with ATI Mobility Radeon 4300.
Really want to use BSD and really really need your helps.
Thanks.


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## OH (Jun 26, 2010)

Try looking in /var/log/Xorg.0.log for any clues as to what's going wrong


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## Beastie (Jun 26, 2010)

Does the "very ugly window manager" look like this by any chance?
You might want to create a ~/.xinitrc file that executes the window manager of your choice, instead of the default.


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## mrphuongmia (Jun 27, 2010)

Thanks to you all.
Yes,my desktop is just like the window manager in your picture (I guess so) but it's even worse. I can't do anything with mouse and windows. I think there must be something wrong with my card (?). I tried installing KDE yesterday but when I type 'startkde' it didn't work ("Command not found")  Should I try with Gnome?


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## wblock@ (Jun 27, 2010)

mrphuongmia said:
			
		

> I can't do anything with mouse and windows.



Did you enable dbus and hal as at the start of the Handbook X11 config chapter?

It is often helpful to show your xorg.conf and /var/log/Xorg.0.log.


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## mrphuongmia (Jun 27, 2010)

wblock said:
			
		

> Did you enable dbus and hal as at the start of the Handbook X11 config chapter?
> 
> It is often helpful to show your xorg.conf and /var/log/Xorg.0.log.



But I don't know how to print out the contents of those 2 files in the console :\
I enabled dbus and hald, and they worked well.


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## zeiz (Jun 27, 2010)

If you installed KDE try to start it with KDM. This is from FreeBSD Handbook :


> To enable *kdm*, the ttyv8 entry in /etc/ttys has to be adapted. The line should look as follows:
> For KDE3:
> 
> ```
> ...


If you want to start KDE with *startx* anyway follow this instruction from the Handbook:


> After KDE has been installed, the X server must be told to launch this application instead of the default window manager. This is accomplished by editing the .xinitrc file:
> For KDE3:
> `$ echo "exec startkde" > ~/.xinitrc`
> For KDE4:
> ...


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## mrphuongmia (Jun 27, 2010)

Thanks. I'll try it


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## mrphuongmia (Jun 27, 2010)

No matter how I tried with both KDE and Gnome, after "startx" there's just a black screen with many colorful dots and no mouse. It hangs there and I have to go back and press Ctrl+C.
I guess I haven't do right with xorg.conf file, I don't know much about graphic card and display to config it correctly.

My xorg.conf file has:


```
Section "Monitor"
   Indentifier   "Monitor0"
   VendorName    "SEC"
   ModelName     "5441"
EndSection
...
Section "Screen"
   Indentifier   "Screen0"
   Device        "Card0"
   Monitor       "Monitor0"
   SubSection    "Display"
      Viewport   0 0
      Depth      1
   EndSubSection
   ...
   SubSection    "Display"
      Viewport   0 0
      Depth      24
   EndSubSection
EndSection
```


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## Beastie (Jun 27, 2010)

Try starting X without a xorg.conf file by renaming it: `# mv xorg.conf xorg.conf.bak`.


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## rhyous (Jun 27, 2010)

This might help you find where you went astray.
http://rhyous.com/2009/12/18/how-to-install-and-configure-a-freebsd-8-desktop-with-xorg-and-kde/


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## zeiz (Jun 27, 2010)

If problems I usually try to set resolution in SubSection "Display".
Your resolution seems to be 1366Ã—768 (SEC5441).
I would edit SubSection "Display" where depth is 24 and remove all the other with depth 1, 4 .. etc so it would be only one:

```
Subsection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1366Ã—768"
EndSubSection
```
Did you try KDM or only *startx*?
Also what driver do you use (Section "Device")?


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## mrphuongmia (Jun 28, 2010)

zeiz said:
			
		

> If problems I usually try to set resolution in SubSection "Display".
> Your resolution seems to be 1366Ã—768 (SEC5441).
> I would edit SubSection "Display" where depth is 24 and remove all the other with depth 1, 4 .. etc so it would be only one:
> 
> ...



Thanks zeiz!
I tried both startx (after disabled xorg.conf) and kdm but it was like before. 
My card is ATI Mobility Radeon 4300. On http://www.ati.com there's a driver of this card for Linux, I tried it but nothing happened. Is there a open source driver for it?
I also tried with PC-BSD, it could boot into KDE, and let me choose the resolution for my display, but 1366x768 didn't work, only 1024x768 did.
I'll do again with your suggests  hopefully
I'm now a student of Computer Science in Vietnam and interested in FreeBSD OS, but I can't find any Vietnamese forum about FreeBSD. So I tried with my not-good English in this forum.
So amazed with your helps! Thanks all!


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## adamk (Jun 28, 2010)

The open source driver is installed with the rest of Xorg.  It's part of the xf86-video-ati port.  There is also the radeonhd driver which you could try, though I'm not sure it will do much good.  /var/log/Xorg.0.log would be really helpful.  You can dump it to a pastebin site by installing curl from ports/packages and then running:

`cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | curl -F 'sprunge=<-' [url]http://sprunge.us[/url]`


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