# MacBook trouble installing DE



## fvs (Feb 20, 2019)

Trouble getting desk top environment to open


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## SirDice (Feb 20, 2019)

How to ask questions the smart way; Be precise and informative about your problem


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## trev (Feb 20, 2019)

Unfortunately, the forum's psychic reading facility is currently down for maintenance.

You will have to supply some more information than you have so far if anyone is to usefully help you solve whatever the problem might be.


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## fvs (Feb 22, 2019)

SirDice said:


> How to ask questions the smart way; Be precise and informative about your problem


I can install freebsd on the MacBook, however after following the instruction to install the desktop environments it fails to boot up the Gui?, Is their a special method for MacBook hardware?


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## SirDice (Feb 22, 2019)

What version of FreeBSD and what model MacBook?


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## fvs (Feb 26, 2019)

Version 12: MacBook late 2008.
Thanks for reply, I really would like to use the MacBook with Freebsd 12 and only a window manager.


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## iSiek (Feb 26, 2019)

MacBooks by default cause troubles 
Everything depends on hardware equiped in particular MacBook version.

If GUI is not starting, looks like GPU is not recognized or supported.
Please log on to your system and type in console

`pciconf -lv`

From the output, identify what is your graphic card.
When you provide us its manufacturer and model, we can check which driver might be able to support your machine.

This should be covered in *vgapci@ *section. If you cannot find it or it is displayed as *none@* that means your graphic card is unsupported.


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## electricdawn (Mar 7, 2019)

Try using the VESA driver. You have to save the code snippet below in a text file in /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/driver-vesa.conf. You have to be root to do that.


```
Section "Device"
    Identifier    "Card0"
    Driver    "vesa"
EndSection
```

PS: I just tried booting FreeBSD on my 2017 MacBook 12". I could make X work with using the `scfb` driver. In the code snippet above, just replace `vesa` with `scfb`.


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## hokense (Jul 6, 2019)

electricdawn said:


> Try using the VESA driver. You have to save the code snippet below in a text file in /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/driver-vesa.conf. You have to be root to do that.
> 
> 
> ```
> ...


My MacBook is the exactly the same model as yours. Just tried FreeBSD-12.0 live on it, both the keyboard and the touchpad won't work. How did you make yours work?


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## fernandel (Jul 7, 2019)

On mine iMAc I am using /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/driver-scfb.conf
and I have in:

```
Section "Device"
              Identifier "Card0"
              Driver "scfb"
EndSection
```
and it work (I am using Openbox).

And what is your error?


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