# Why no Xorg option?



## astouffer (Jan 25, 2011)

Why does the installer no longer have the option of installing Xorg along with the base system? In previous versions this was available. After the installer finished and I rebooted I tried using sysinstall to install Xorg. It was not successful because there is not a clearly labeled package, maybe call it Xorg-base? Installing the servers and clients fails because it does't get all the libs and default X apps. Maybe installing some window managers will work because they need Xorg as a dependency. No luck there, they install even without Xorg. A bit of googling from another computer led me to handbook saying "pkg_add -r xorg" which finally did work.

Now Xorg itself has some issues. Who thinks that X displaying a solid black screen is a good indication of correct video settings? For the longest time I thought something was broken until the -retro option was used. I can do this so called "test" myself by turning the monitor off.

Now that X was working I found the keyboard and mouse were not. A bit more googling revealed the AllowEmptyInput option had to be turned off. If this option should always be off then why is it on by default?

I have not run FreeBSD since the version 4 or 5 days but this 8.1 release is not nearly as smooth as previous versions.


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## Beastie (Jan 25, 2011)

Welcome to the forums.



			
				astouffer said:
			
		

> Why does the installer no longer have the option of installing Xorg along with the base system?


Maybe because there are no more software packages on *disc1*.
It may fetch it from the FTP servers I guess, but sysinstall is being replaced as we speak so it's probably not worth fixing anymore.



			
				astouffer said:
			
		

> Who thinks that X displaying a solid black screen is a good indication of correct video settings? For the longest time I thought something was broken until the -retro option was used.


This forum is probably not the best place to report this. Maybe you could ask them instead.



			
				astouffer said:
			
		

> I can do this so called "test" myself by turning the monitor off.


What?



			
				astouffer said:
			
		

> I have not run FreeBSD since the version 4 or 5 days but this 8.1 release is not nearly as smooth as previous versions.


I haven't noticed. Could you be a little more specific? Like what "smooth" means, which part is/isn't, etc.


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## wblock@ (Jan 25, 2011)

astouffer said:
			
		

> Now Xorg itself has some issues. Who thinks that X displaying a solid black screen is a good indication of correct video settings?



It's not, it's just the result of running X.  As to the default background changing, you should check with the X.org people.



> Now that X was working I found the keyboard and mouse were not. A bit more googling revealed the AllowEmptyInput option had to be turned off. If this option should always be off then why is it on by default?



It should never be off, it's a long-propagated mistake based on a misunderstanding: AllowEmptyInput, FreeBSD, and Xorg Input


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