# Can Mac OS X be removed and completely replaced by freeBSD



## OldSubSailor (Jan 19, 2019)

I hope this is not a continuation of the Booting FreeBSD on iMac posting.  I have an old iMac that barely survived flooding in my house during hurricane Harvey.  It did sit and stew in a hot, wet environment for 9 days, so I do not know how long it will continue to run. What I would like to do is, if possible, is to turn it into a complete freeBSD command line machine, no GUI necessary (new iMac here), disk partitioning, no dual booting, etc. just for learning and messing around.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 19, 2019)

Hi Mate

I have a complete guide on installing Freebsd on mac hardware

When you install Freebsd 12 set the partition scheme to bios+uefi,
that will make Freebsd auto boot after 2 or 3 seconds,
otherwise it will fall back to legacy boot and take 30 seconds for the boot menu to show up

My freebsd notes from the last 18 months are on github,
if they are of any use

Let me know if you need help getting Freebsd set up on a mac


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## fernandel (Jan 19, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> I hope this is not a continuation of the Booting FreeBSD on iMac posting.  I have an old iMac that barely survived flooding in my house during hurricane Harvey.  It did sit and stew in a hot, wet environment for 9 days, so I do not know how long it will continue to run. What I would like to do is, if possible, is to turn it into a complete freeBSD command line machine, no GUI necessary (new iMac here), disk partitioning, no dual booting, etc. just for learning and messing around.


I put new SSD drive in iMac late 2009 and installed on just FreeBSD 12.0-Release  And with NapoleonWils0n help I blessed efi partition and boot very fast.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 21, 2019)

Thank you for your replies. So does that mean that I do not erase the hard drive to eliminate Mac OS X then?


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 21, 2019)

Also, it seems that the iso downloads are either very slow or hanging up


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 22, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> Hi Mate
> 
> I have a complete guide on installing Freebsd on mac hardware
> 
> ...



I downloaded the freebsd iso and burned it to a dvd. If I click on the iso, I get a message saying that it could not be opened, no mountable file systems. I tried your guide, and when I restart holding the option/alt key, the dvd does not appear, just the current hard drive and the online os 10.9 drive.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 22, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> Thank you for your replies. So does that mean that I do not erase the hard drive to eliminate Mac OS X then?


HI Mate

If you want to erase Mac osx on your internal drive you can boot into osx on an external drive and then use disk utility to erase mac osx and reformat as mac osx journaled, thats what i normally do because it also creates the efi parition as well, or you could erase the whole drive during the Freebsd install

When you do the Freebsd install you select uefi+bios for the partition scheme,
and zfs on root and Freebsd will be installed on the rest of the disk and will boot automatically after 3 or 4 seconds


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 22, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> I downloaded the freebsd iso and burned it to a dvd. If I click on the iso, I get a message saying that it could not be opened, no mountable file systems. I tried your guide, and when I restart holding the option/alt key, the dvd does not appear, just the current hard drive and the online os 10.9 drive.


That doesnt sound right, never had that problem before
Which Freebsd iso file did you download, it should either be disc1.iso or dvd1.iso from the downloads page 

This is the link for Freebsd amd64 disc1.iso
What program did you use to burn the iso to a dvd, maybe thats the issue, you can use disk utility to burn the iso to a dvd,
heres a couple of guides to burning iso to dvds either using the finder or diskutility

let me know if that helps,
ill google that error your having and see if anything turns up


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 22, 2019)

The no mountable file systems error is probably because the iso download got corrupted

You could try using curl to download the iso file


```
curl -C - -O https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/releases/amd64/amd64/ISO-IMAGES/12.0/FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64-disc1.iso
```


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## SirDice (Jan 22, 2019)

How old is the iMac? As the early iMacs were based on the PowerPC architecture. An amd64 image is obviously not going to work in that case.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 22, 2019)

I downloaded: FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso; 3,884,677,120 bytes (3.89 GB on disk)
I performed the checksum and it matched.

If I understand correctly, if I double click on the iso, I should not be getting that warning window? I hope that this little screenshot will show you what I am getting. The iso looks right, I think?
The computer that I am try to install it on is running Mac OS X 10.9.x. I used that computer and this one, macOS 10.14 to burn the dvd, both from the finder and diskutility. I did discover that I had to put the iso in a new folder and burn it to the dvd in order for the dvd to be readable by either iMac. 
I am burning the dvd so that I do not have to go online to download any other files, as per the instructions.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 22, 2019)

SirDice said:


> How old is the iMac? As the early iMacs were based on the PowerPC architecture. An amd64 image is obviously not going to work in that case.


Howdy,
It is a late 2013 iMac, and this is a 2017 iMac. I am just wondering why both returns that error message.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 22, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> The no mountable file systems error is probably because the iso download got corrupted
> 
> You could try using curl to download the iso file
> 
> ...



I am giving that a try now, it appears that either dl method takes 2 hours (connected via Ethernet). 


 % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current

                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed

  5 3704M    5  218M    0     0   457k      0  2:18:11  0:08:09  2:10:02  344k


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 22, 2019)

Your right i forgot about the original power pc iMacs,
checking you have the right iso for your architecture would be a good first step


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 22, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> Your right i forgot about the original power pc iMacs,
> checking you have the right iso for your architecture would be a good first step


both are  core i cpus


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 22, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> both are  core i cpus


If you click the Apple icon in the top left of the screen and select about this mac it will open a new windows,
in that window there is a button that says more info, if you click more info it opens the system info window which will list the architecture and cpu type


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## aragats (Jan 22, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> I did discover that I had to put the iso in a new folder and burn it to the dvd in order for the dvd to be readable by either iMac.


Based on that phrase I suspect that you burn a data DVD *containing* that _iso_ file.
The DVD must be created *out of that* iso file.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 22, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> I downloaded: FreeBSD-12.0-RELEASE-amd64-dvd1.iso; 3,884,677,120 bytes (3.89 GB on disk)
> I performed the checksum and it matched.
> 
> If I understand correctly, if I double click on the iso, I should not be getting that warning window? I hope that this little screenshot will show you what I am getting. The iso looks right, I think?
> ...


HI Mate

Dont double click the iso file,
its not like a dmg file on the mac you have to mount

The reason you are getting an error is because you are double clicking the iso and the mac then tries to mount the iso,
but it cant read the Freebsd file system so it gives you an error

You just need to drag the iso file into the Disk Utility sidebar then select it and click burn,
or you can select the iso in the finder and then in the menu and the top of the screen there is an option to burn the iso to a disk


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 22, 2019)

Here's a video on youtube on how to burn an iso file on the mac using disk utility


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 22, 2019)

After you manage to burn the iso to a dvd and are ready to do the install,
you need to power off the mac insert the dvd and hold down alt so it boots the disc in efi mode and turn the power on,
then you should see the disk show up and you need to select the disk that has efi in its name,
keep holding alt until the disks show up

From memory it may show 2 dvd disc icons in the when you boot up,
one marked windows and the other name efi boot or something, i may be remembering wrong

But you do need to hold down alt and select the disc with efi in the name


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 22, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> After you manage to burn the iso to a dvd and are ready to do the install,
> you need to power off the mac insert the dvd and hold down alt so it boots the disc in efi mode and turn the power on,
> then you should see the disk show up and you need to select the disk that has efi in its name,
> keep holding alt until the disks show up
> ...


Howdy,
I did that, but the dvd never appears, just the internal iMac HD and Mac OS 9 restore drive appear.
Screen shots of the dvd included. It sure looks like it is on the dvd and should work.
I just burn the file to the dvd, and not make any sort of bootable, if possible, dvd?
I am not using any form of Windows on my iMacs.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 22, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> Howdy,
> I did that, but the dvd never appears, just the internal iMac HD and Mac OS 9 restore drive appear.
> Screen shots of the dvd included. It sure looks like it is on the dvd and should work.
> I just burn the file to the dvd, and not make any sort of bootable, if possible, dvd?
> I am not using any form of Windows on my iMacs.


HI Mate

Thats odd, 
so holding down alt with the dvd in when you start the mac until the window with the macs hard drive appears doesnt work,
and the dvd doesnt show up.

Have you tried holding down c instead of alt 

The other thing you could try is install the Freebsd memstick.img onto a usb stick,
and then turn off the mac, plug in the usb stick holding down alt and select the disk marked efi

I used etcher on the mac to install the Freebsd memstick.img onto a usb stick because i ran out of dvds


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## aragats (Jan 22, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> It sure looks like it is on the dvd and should work.
> I just burn the file to the dvd


Dear OldSubSailor , you ask for help, but you don't read our replies.
That file should NEVER be written to a DVD, instead, your DVD must be burned OUT of that file, that is the IMAGE of your DVD.

[EDIT] burn disc images


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 23, 2019)

aragats said:


> Dear OldSubSailor , you ask for help, but you don't read our replies.
> That file should NEVER be written to a DVD, instead, your DVD must be burned OUT of that file, that is the IMAGE of your DVD.
> 
> [EDIT] burn disc images


Interesting. To my knowledge, I have BURNED the iso file exactly as the link (I.E via the file dropdown) that you provided several time to dvd; no joy. I am attaching images of what I believe to be the process. Am I messing up in some manner? 
Thank you


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 23, 2019)

aragats said:


> Dear OldSubSailor , you ask for help, but you don't read our replies.
> That file should NEVER be written to a DVD, instead, your DVD must be burned OUT of that file, that is the IMAGE of your DVD.
> 
> [EDIT] burn disc images



Also, I am not sure what you mean by written.  All that I have done is burn.
thank you


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 23, 2019)

Ok, I believe that I got it. Somewhere online, I read that I had to put the file in a folder then burn it. Clearly, one does not do this. It was a readable disk but would not work. I burned straight to this dvd, and reinserted it.  I got an error message about it not being readable by this system.
However, I selected ignore and restarted my iMac while pressing the alt/option button and it showed up as ya'll said that it would. 
Now to try it on the older iMac


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 23, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> Hi Mate
> 
> I have a complete guide on installing Freebsd on mac hardware
> 
> ...


I'm trying to install, and things seem to sort of work. However, when I get into an options menu, I can't seem to select any of them.
I can move through the options with the arrow keys, but no key that I try will, select, I guess by trying to enter an * the box to the left.
I am using an Apple usb keyboard, and selected the default keyboard. This is really impacting me when I setting the zfs scheme and drive.
I was able to get through a beginners kind of option install, but I would like to implement your suggestions.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 23, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> I'm trying to install, and things seem to sort of work. However, when I get into an options menu, I can't seem to select any of them.
> I can move through the options with the arrow keys, but no key that I try will, select, I guess by trying to enter an * the box to the left.
> I am using an Apple usb keyboard, and selected the default keyboard. This is really impacting me when I setting the zfs scheme and drive.
> I was able to get through a beginners kind of option install, but I would like to implement your suggestions.


HI Mate

Use the space bar to select an option, or press space again to deselect


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 23, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> HI Mate
> 
> Use the space bar to select an option, or press space again to deselect


thank you.  I did discover that I can click the mouse pointer in a box if I find the exact "sweet spot". I also found that I had to press the tab key in order to select various buttons <ok>; <cancel> in some windows that had data in them. Clicking on the buttons would just add more strange text to the data.  The space bar appears to have done the trick for selecting my HD for the zfs partition and the other boxes.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 23, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> thank you.  I did discover that I can click the mouse pointer in a box if I find the exact "sweet spot". I also found that I had to press the tab key in order to select various buttons <ok>; <cancel> in some windows that had data in them. Clicking on the buttons would just add more strange text to the data.  Alas, I have as of yet to get the zfs partition to work; can't select my hard drive although it is listed in the zfs configuration window. Perhaps I should start a new thread about that?


Have you tried pressing tab and then pressing space to select the drive in the zfs config window,
and then tab to the ok button and pressing enter


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 23, 2019)

You just need to select the drive like you have selected other options by pressing the space bar which adds a * next to option


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 24, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> You just need to select the drive like you have selected other options by pressing the space bar which adds a * next to option


That is exactly what I did and it worked. Only my ada0 drive was showing but it was unselected until I pressed space.  I wonder why if this is such an auto process, and only one drive showing, it was not auto selected.  Drat, getting old is a real pain in many ways.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 24, 2019)

My take is that is BSD waits to be told what to do by the user,
whereas Mac OSX takes the Nanny knows best approach


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 26, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> My take is that is BSD waits to be told what to do by the user,
> whereas Mac OSX takes the Nanny knows best approach


well, evidently so.
I have been playing with unix for a bit (using the old Kernighan THE UNIX PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT book, just for the sense of history) but I hate that block cursor. So after looking around for a bit, I found what is supposed to be a way to change it, but here is what happened:
$ vidcontrol -c normal, blink, noblock
  vidcontrol: ioctl(CONS_GETCURSOR SHAPE): Inappropriate ioctl for device

So now I am at a loss about what to do about changing it, if possible. Evidently if I could using the vidcontrol command; I would not be able to change it to a vertical line, which I prefer, and use on the terminal on this iMac. Even an underscore is better, to me, than that block.


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## fernandel (Jan 26, 2019)

As aragats wrote try:

```
[LIST]
[*]Insert a blank DVD or CD into the Mac
[*]Launch the Terminal and type the following command:
[*]hdiutil burn ~/Path/To/DiskImageFile.iso
```
[/LIST]


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 26, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> well, evidently so.
> I have been playing with unix for a bit (using the old Kernighan THE UNIX PROGRAMMING ENVIRONMENT book, just for the sense of history) but I hate that block cursor. So after looking around for a bit, I found what is supposed to be a way to change it, but here is what happened:
> $ vidcontrol -c normal, blink, noblock
> vidcontrol: ioctl(CONS_GETCURSOR SHAPE): Inappropriate ioctl for device
> ...


HI Mate

So you managed to install Freebsd have you installed a Desktop or Window Manager,
or are not using X

Its is possible to change the block cursor depending on the terminal you use,
for instance urxvt has an option you can add to your ~/.Xresources to enable an underlined cursor


```
URxvt.cursorUnderline: 1
```

Then reload the ~/.Xresources file and open a new terminal to see the change


```
xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources
```

I use the i3wm tiling window manager

id just install a window manager or light weight desktop like mate, xfce or lxde,
then install a terminal and change the cursor to an underscore, job done

I have a block cursor i could change the shape but its never bothered me

What does bother me is that last time i used Mac osx i tried to update some apps from the Mac app store,
it prompts me for my apple id to update the apps instead of my admin password which i can remember,
so i have to search for the text file with my apple id and put that in the update password prompt.

Then i get a new prompt saying we are going to send a verification code to your mobile device,
so i have to find my phone unlock it and then enter to the verification code from the phone into the mac app store update dialog box

All to update a couple of £3 apps i bought years ago on the app store

Whereas on Freebsd the the update looks like this


```
# pkg update
# pkg upgrade
```


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 26, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> HI Mate
> 
> So you managed to install Freebsd have you installed a Desktop or Window Manager,
> or are not using X
> ...


I have not installed any kind of window thing. Staying strictly in the command line on the old iMac. I use my new iMac for all the web and GUI stuff; using sh because it closely matched the book on the old iMac.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 26, 2019)

fernandel said:


> As aragats wrote try:
> 
> ```
> [LIST]
> ...


Thank you for your reply.  I have had freebsd up and running for several days now.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 26, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> I have not installed any kind of window thing. Staying strictly in the command line


So you boot up Freebsd, 
log in but don't use startx to start a window manager or use a Desktop environment

You can still stay strictly on the command line and use a tiling window manager like i3wm
and then install and terminal and change the block cursor to an underscore and solve your issue


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 26, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> So you boot up Freebsd,
> log in but don't use startx to start a window manager or use a Desktop environment
> 
> You can still stay strictly on the command line and use a tiling window manager like i3wm
> and then install and terminal and change the block cursor to an underscore and solve your issue



Ah, interesting. I looked at some images of it, and it looks nice. 
I have not looked on the iMac to see if it’s in the FreeBSD ports/ pkg directories yet, if so, then I have to run my long Ethernet cable to it.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 26, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> Ah, interesting. I looked at some images of it, and it looks nice.
> I have not looked on the iMac to see if it’s in the FreeBSD ports/ pkg directories yet, if so, then I have to run my long Ethernet cable to it.



I found this in the forums:
I think that it is important to start by saying very clearly that i3 is not intended for beginning, inexperienced, average, or even 'normal' Unix-like users. Yes, that means exactly what it says -- the vast majority of Unix-like users are not going to find i3 useful, or even very interesting.

REALLY?


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 26, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> I found this in the forums:
> I think that it is important to start by saying very clearly that i3 is not intended for beginning, inexperienced, average, or even 'normal' Unix-like users. Yes, that means exactly what it says -- the vast majority of Unix-like users are not going to find i3 useful, or even very interesting.
> 
> REALLY?


I have a different option of i3wm,
its probably the easiest window manager to configure compared to other tiling window managers,
is really light weight and uses hardly any cpu

The killer feature is the the speed of switching virtual desktops compared to mac osx,
no animations that takes 2 seconds every time you want to switch to another virtual desktop

Also it works really well with multiple displays and with applications in full screen mode

i3wm comes with an application launcher called dmenu which by default is at the top of the screen,
you invoke dmenu with a keyboard shortcut and type the first couple letters of the program you want to launch

I prefer to use rofi as an application launcher instead of dmenu,
there are other applications launchers you can use as well which are more like Alfred on the mac

Or you can install a Desktop environment like Gnome, Kde, Xfce


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 26, 2019)

reddit unixporn is somewhere you could have a look at for examples of i3wm and other Desktop configs,
or Freebsd screen shots


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 27, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> So you boot up Freebsd,
> log in but don't use startx to start a window manager or use a Desktop environment
> 
> You can still stay strictly on the command line and use a tiling window manager like i3wm
> and then install and terminal and change the block cursor to an underscore and solve your issue




So do I still need to install x11 / Xorg? Evidently I missed something again. Still trying to figure out what Mod1 key is, just entering i3 on the command line returns
i3: Cannot open display


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## Phishfry (Jan 27, 2019)

Welcome aboard mate.


OldSubSailor said:


> So do I still need to install x11 / Xorg?


Yes.
You can chose either pkg install xorg or xorg-minimal. Minimal is just that. Bare basics.
You will need to setup a xorg directive file for any special display or screen arrangements.
Probably need to install a video driver for your display adapter.

I think it is good to start at `Xorg :retro` then figure out `twm` then proceed on to higher levels.
This is the 'learn to crawl before you can walk' path.
Xorg retro shows you how to get basic screens on display and how to use a mouse. twm takes it to the next level.


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## Phishfry (Jan 27, 2019)

Just because you didn't install xorg does not mean it is not installed. It is probably a dependency of i3 and it pulls it in for you.

Window Managers and Desktop Envirnoments are two different approaches to a FreeBSD desktop.
With Window Managers you have more custom options. Like a blank slate.
Using Desktop Envirnoments means a pre-configured desktop. Much larger in disk size but good for new users. Less work to use.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 27, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> Just because you didn't install xorg does not mean it is not installed. It is probably a dependency of i3 and it pulls it in for you.
> 
> Window Managers and Desktop Envirnoments are two different approaches to a FreeBSD desktop.
> With Window Managers you have more custom options. Like a blank slate.
> Using Desktop Envirnoments means a pre-configured desktop. Much larger in disk size but good for new users. Less work to use.


Thank you for reply.
I went ahead and installed Xorg, but I still got that display error message when I entered any Xorg or i3 commands that were listed in the man pages.
This is a late 2013 iMac, so I had hoped that installing video drivers were not necessary.

I had posted that I saw forum posting about i3 being for advanced users. Heck even the i3 man page says that.

I really do not want a GUI or desktop; I just liked the way the i3 command line terminal looked. However, at this point, it not worth the frustration.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 27, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> So do I still need to install x11 / Xorg? Evidently I missed something again. Still trying to figure out what Mod1 key is, just entering i3 on the command line returns
> i3: Cannot open display


Did you read the i3wm user guide

Or look at the Freebsd Handbook XWindows section,
im guessing you havent set up ~/.xinitrc for i3wm


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 27, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> Did you read the i3wm user guide
> 
> Or look at the Freebsd Handbook XWindows section,
> im guessing you havent set up ~/.xinitrc for i3wm




Howdy,
I just looked at the man page( which mentioned XWindows and for advanced users), and I did look at the Handbook, but evidently I missed something, but did not look at the not the user guide.  I have to keep running back and forth between iMacs.  I am curious, does installing an NVIDA driver help anything except XWindows or i3?  The old iMac has a NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M Mac Edition.  The latest driver, Nvidia Website, is ... FreeBSD-X86_64-390.59.  I also looked around and found this: Latest Legacy GPU version (390.xx series): 390.87. I downloaded that driver to this iMac just to look at it and the readme file showed "Last Updated: Wed May  9 21:54:06 PDT 2018", so now I am wondering which port pkg file to use, and should I use pkg or make install.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 27, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> Howdy,
> I just looked at the man page( which mentioned XWindows and for advanced users), and I did look at the Handbook, but evidently I missed something, but did not look at the not the user guide.  I have to keep running back and forth between iMacs.  I am curious, does installing an NVIDA driver help anything except XWindows or i3?  The old iMac has a NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M Mac Edition.  The latest driver, Nvidia Website, is ... FreeBSD-X86_64-390.59.  I also looked around and found this: Latest Legacy GPU version (390.xx series): 390.87. I downloaded that driver to this iMac just to look at it and the readme file showed "Last Updated: Wed May  9 21:54:06 PDT 2018", so now I am wondering which port pkg file to use, and should I use pkg or make install.


Im not sure which driver you need for nvidia i have an intel graphics card

but you want to use pkg's not ports, ports take a long time to build
and you shouldn't mix ports and packages you have to use one or the other

Also probably best use the nvidia pkg rather than downloading the driver from the nvidia site


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 27, 2019)

Thank you, I dowloaded it from Nvidia to the new iMac just to see what the number is.  I will delete it soon.  Also, I was so frustrated last night that I again re-installed freeBSD.
I reinstalled Xorg following the handbook, and got a long list of messages about freetype, perl, python, etc. before the shell prompt showed up.
In keeping with the handbook, is this something that I really need to do:
If Xorg has been used on this computer before, move or remove any existing configuration files:
# mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf ~/xorg.conf.etc
# mv /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf ~/xorg.conf.localetc

I did find them in the /etc . . .  and /usr . . . path. I suppose that the Xorg installed them there, seeing as how I am using a fresh reinstall of freebsd.
I don't know what moving them does, so I held off for now.
my account is already wheel, so I did not mess with that either.

So I went to the next step, startx, and I got this:
auth: file /home/me/.serverauth.2473 does not exist.
the I was presented with a screen full of error reports and exited back to the shell prompt.


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## NapoleonWils0n (Jan 27, 2019)

copy default xinitrc to ~/.xinitrx


OldSubSailor said:


> Thank you, I dowloaded it from Nvidia to the new iMac just to see what the number is.  I will delete it soon.  Also, I was so frustrated last night that I again re-installed freeBSD.
> I reinstalled Xorg following the handbook, and got a long list of messages about freetype, perl, python, etc. before the shell prompt showed up.
> In keeping with the handbook, is this something that I really need to do:
> If Xorg has been used on this computer before, move or remove any existing configuration files:
> ...


You need to copy the default xinitrc to ~/.xinitrx


```
cp /usr/local/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc
```

and then edit ~/.xinitrx and set i3wm to start when you run startx

use whatever text editor you want to edit the file for example nano


```
nano ~/.xinitrc
```

add the following code to the end the ~/.xinitrc file and save


```
exec /usr/local/bin/i3
```

then after you log in run startx and it will start i3wm


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 28, 2019)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> copy default xinitrc to ~/.xinitrx
> 
> You need to copy the default xinitrc to ~/*.xinitrx*
> 
> ...



===============================================
Thank you 
I have not reinstalled i3 yet, I was just hoping to get the  x stuff working as per the handbook and eliminate the server errors. The handbook said...
"The TWM window manager is included by default. It is started when Xorg starts:"

I did not find TWM using locate, the case sensitive thing got me unlike the macOS, that. Found it using twm
also,
"You need to copy the default xinitrc to ~/.xinitrx"
was that a typo or do I need a xinitrx file rather than the xinitrc file (not bird dogging you, just want to make sure)? 

I had the xinitrc (not as a dot file: does that matter?) in the home directory when I tried the start command earlier and got that server error stuff.


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## Phishfry (Jan 28, 2019)

OldSubSailor said:


> "The TWM window manager is included by default. It is started when Xorg starts:"


Just for reference it is not included in xorg minimal.
Firing it up is the same as shown above for i3.
You need to create a .xinitrc file and exec /usr/local/bin/twm or i3 or whatever Window Manager you want.
First though you must setup a display and install drivers.
If you want bare basic we have x11-drivers/xf86-video-scfb.
This is a basic framebuffer. No acceleration. Works with most anything.
https://wiki.freebsd.org/GraphicsOld/SCFB
This will get your feet wet on what is required to get a display driver working.

Set up a display driver first then fire up a Window Manager.



OldSubSailor said:


> So I went to the next step, startx, and I got this:
> auth: file /home/me/.serverauth.2473 does not exist.
> the I was presented with a screen full of error reports and exited back to the shell prompt.


If you are going the Window Manager route you need to read up on PolicyKit. Your Desktop Environments handle this for you.
Using a Window Manager you must fire it up yourself.

I think if your new to Xorg you need to stick to Desktop Envirnoments. Choose from Xfce, Mate, Gnome or KDE.


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## OldSubSailor (Jan 28, 2019)

Phishfry said:


> Just for reference it is not included in xorg minimal.
> Firing it up is the same as shown above for i3.
> You need to create a .xinitrc file and exec /usr/local/bin/twm or i3 or whatever Window Manager you want.
> First though you must setup a display and install drivers.
> ...




Thank you for your reply.
I installed the Nvidia driver. Right now, I would like to not get the fatal server errors when entering the startx command. On the forum, one person said that they were getting errors, until he used pkg remove Xorg, and used the make install clean to reinstall it.  For some reason, pkg install was missing or messing something up.  I am going to give that a try next just to see what happens.


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## jhfoo (Jul 4, 2020)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> Hi Mate
> 
> I have a complete guide on installing Freebsd on mac hardware
> 
> ...


Your link above is returning 404. Is there a new site?


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## forquare (Jul 6, 2020)

jhfoo said:


> Your link above is returning 404. Is there a new site?



Looks like the file extension changed.  The file is still there under a slightly different filename: https://github.com/NapoleonWils0n/cerberus/blob/master/freebsd/freebsd-macbook.org (looks like it was a ".md" file before)


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## bu_mi (Mar 23, 2021)

NapoleonWils0n said:


> Hi Mate
> 
> I have a complete guide on installing Freebsd on mac hardware
> 
> ...


Could you please update this link? It is currently a 404.


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## decuser (Mar 28, 2021)

I occasionally run FreeBSD on my iMac 2008 (it's still intel). Works fine. Why bother with DVD? I use memstick on the USB. Of course, I'm going off memory here, so reality may vary


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