# FreeBSD 12.2 missing xorg qxl video driver



## zebity (May 17, 2021)

Hi FreeBSDers,

I have noticed that FreeBSD 12.2 no longer appear to have xorg qxl video driver which was needed to run FreeBSD Desktop on QEMU / KVM.

Was this a deliberate omission ?

I initially did a pkg install of X11 & Gnome but X11 fails to start and qxl video driver is not found.

So I did ports fetch / extract and the driver is now not even in the ports collection.

What is needed to get it back ?

In mean time I will see if 11.4 has the same issue.

Cheers from Oz,


Zebity


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## SirDice (May 17, 2021)

Has nothing to do with the version of FreeBSD, all versions use one and the same ports tree.

x11-drivers/xf86-video-qxl was removed because it depended on a deprecated Python version.


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## zebity (May 17, 2021)

Thanks SirDice,

can you advise how this can be addressed.

Would dependency have to be address via upstream or is it specific to FreeBSD port ?

Thank you.

Zebity


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## SirDice (May 17, 2021)

zebity said:


> Would dependency have to be address via upstream or is it specific to FreeBSD port ?


It needs to be fixed upstream.


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## zebity (May 18, 2021)

Hi SirDice,

thanks again for response.

i have also noticed that the gnome3 desktop (in full and light guise) are also no longer available as compiled packages.

Is this again a deliberate choice ?

I checked on FreshPorts and it still has then listed as available (Ie. not deprecated).

cheer from Oz,


Zebity.


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## zebity (May 18, 2021)

Hi SirDice,

I tried a source build from 11.4 ports tree but this failed.

So I did source build from: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xorg/driver/xf86-video-qxl on FreeBSD 12.2

With the following pkgs installed: git, autoconf, automake, xorg-macros, m4, pkgconf, libtool, python37
+ evdev & utouch (for QEMU EvTouch USB Tablet)

This built and installed without a hitch (just run the configure script, make & make install)

With a small update to /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d X11 I was once more able to get FreeBSD X11 working on KVM / QEMU (currently without gdm or gnome desktop)

So no change was required to upstream.

Wondering if can get pkg fixed as it is still missing gdm / gnome stuff with 11.4 and the qxl driver for 12.2

Cheers from Oz,

Zebity


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## SirDice (May 18, 2021)

zebity said:


> i have also noticed that the gnome3 desktop (in full and light guise) are also no longer available as compiled packages.


There may have been build failures with dependencies. You can check the status of the build clusters here: https://pkg-status.freebsd.org/builds?type=package



zebity said:


> Wondering if can get pkg fixed


Don't focus on the packages, all packages require a port. Get the port fixed and the package will automatically follow. Anyone can submit PRs, preferably with patches but that's not mandatory. You only need to register an account with the bugtracker. In this case open a PR to get the port reinstated. 





						FreeBSD Bugzilla Main Page
					






					bugs.freebsd.org
				






zebity said:


> it is still missing gdm / gnome stuff with 11.4 and the qxl driver for 12.2


There is only one ports tree, it's used for _all_ versions of FreeBSD. We don't have this kind of version differences of software as is common with a lot of Linux distributions.


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## zebity (May 18, 2021)

Hi SirDice,

thanks for advise again.

I have submitted bug report/request: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=255973

Cheers from Oz,

zebity


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## zebity (Sep 6, 2021)

Hi SirDice,

I completed testing of x11-drivers/xf86-video-qxl including building from upstream source and via old port tree "2020Q3".

The "deprecation" seemed to have been very pre-emptive as fixing the port is trivial:



> $ git diff Makefile
> diff --git a/x11-drivers/xf86-video-qxl/Makefile b/x11-drivers/xf86-video-qxl/Makefile
> index fb265dd39d71..42cb413cebf7 100644
> --- a/x11-drivers/xf86-video-qxl/Makefile
> ...



However the process of restoring it seems convoluted.

Seems that the x11 tree is accumulating a large back log of issues, is there still a maintainer for this ?

I ask as, having found how to fix the qxl problem I have now been hit with this one: https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=256454

But this is seperate from the qxl depracation...

Thank you.

Zebity.


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