# GNOME install



## KenGordon (Sep 30, 2013)

This is my first post to this forum in many years. I used FreeBSD version 2.X many years ago to operate a web and e-mail server for the University of Idaho's College of Mines. I am now revisiting FreeBSD and have run into somewhat of a snag.

I hope this is the correct place in the forum to put this question, so here goes:

I am installing FreeBSD and various ports on two computers: 1) our main computer which I and my wife use very heavily. That is one I built about 7 years ago. It is a Gigbyte mobo with an AMD64 3800 CPU running at about 2 GHz. I have 3 GB of RAM, and two HDs installed: a) a 500 GB Seagate which is our primary Windows drive, and a second 250 GB Seagate which I have dedicated to FreeBSD, and 2) a computer for our oldest son who does music composition, among other things. It turns out that his computer appears to be at least five times faster than ours. 

The problem I have run into is that I installed GNOME on our son's box using `pkg_add -r gnome`. It appeared to install, completely, over night and works well, although I have no audio yet. I began the install about midnight one night, and it was finished before morning. The audio problem is probably related to the fact that he has three sound "cards" in that computer. I'll get that sorted out later.

However, when attempting the install on our own box, I used `make install clean` from /usr/ports/x11/gnome2.

My question is: "Just how many years does it take to complete the install?" and secondly "How can you tell how close you are to being finished?"

I began the install at midnight or so on Saturday. By 9:00 PM on Sunday evening, the box was still churning away with my continuing to stare at the screen constantly from 2:00 PM Sunday until then. My rear-end hurt and I was hungry.

I finally `control -C`ed out of it at one of the option screens as my wife was going frantic since she had to get a grant request for our handicapped daughter finished by Monday afternoon.

So, might any of you good folks have an answer to my two questions? Thanks,

BTW, I built our son's box about three years ago. I also installed a second WDC 250 GB drive a few days ago, and dedicated that to FreeBSD. He is quite happy with what FreeBSD is offering him. We boot both machines to the chosen operating system at the BIOS boot screen `F-12`.

One more thing: I upped the swap space on our son's computer to 4GB at the time of install, but left the default on ours. I suppose that might make a big difference?


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## ondra_knezour (Sep 30, 2013)

Building complete x11/gnome2 may easily take several days.

You don't have to sit near the computer the whole time to check many configuration dialogs, see the `make config-recursive` option.

Running multiple jobs using `make -jnumber` may speed things up... or broke everything.


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## wblock@ (Sep 30, 2013)

Old processor, old disk drives, but you do have enough memory.  Building from source, especially one of the larger desktop environments, takes a long time.  If you use ports-mgmt/portmaster, the window title will show which port of how many it is currently building, also shown in ps(1), I think.

Or just install packages, as was done on the other computer.  It may actually be five times faster, but there is a huge difference between building from source and installing binary packages.

That Athlon 64 3800+ is roughly as fast as a higher-grade Atom CPU.  And when I say "fast" and "Atom" in the same sentence...  Hardware is cheap compared to the hours spent waiting on it.  I suggest paying the Intel premium; my experience is that the Intel CPUs and chipsets really do perform enough better to justify it.


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## KenGordon (Sep 30, 2013)

ondra_knezour said:
			
		

> Building complete x11/gnome2 may easily take several days.


My sweet wife will be happy to hear that....I think...



			
				ondra_knezour said:
			
		

> You don't have to sit near the computer the whole time to check many configuration dialogs, see the `make config-recursive` option.


Thanks for that. I had wondered, but hadn't yet done enough research...



			
				ondra_knezour said:
			
		

> Running multiple jobs using `make -jnumber` may speed things up... or broke everything.


Well, I don't need that, thanks.


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## KenGordon (Oct 1, 2013)

Thank you very much for your reply. I appreciate it. Yes, I had planned to build a new box for my wife and me over a year ago, but never did get around to it. And yes, Intel CPUs are now better than AMD. However, there was a time when AMD CPUs were better and ran cooler than Intel chips, but that was a long time ago.


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## SirDice (Oct 1, 2013)

You may want to try x11/gnome2-lite first. It doesn't contain as much as x11/gnome2 but everything can be installed afterwards. The gnome2-lite should give you a working desktop at least.


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## KenGordon (Oct 1, 2013)

Ha ha! Gentlemen: a "round tuit" is a round piece of something, usually wood, about the size of the old U.S. dollar coin, with the word "TUIT" printed on both sides. This is to be given to those who tell you, "I'll do it when I get around to it." You just give them one of these round "tuits" and they have to do what they said they would, since they now have gotten a "round tuit". 

After all, we can't be TOO serious here: this stuff is just plain FUN!


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## KenGordon (Oct 3, 2013)

OK gents, I have one more (hopefully the last) question: since I had to `Control-C` out of the install, how do I restart the install from that point? Will `cd /usr/ports/devl/ccache` and `make build` from a terminal window allow the install to continue from where I got out of it, or do I have to start over?

BTW, GNOME is now starting, but there are many applications missing.


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## KenGordon (Oct 3, 2013)

Never mind: it looks like I have it going correctly. Thanks!


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## SirDice (Oct 3, 2013)

KenGordon said:
			
		

> OK gents, I have one more (hopefully the last) question: since I had to `Control-C` out of the install, how do I restart the install from that point? Will `cd /usr/ports/devl/ccache` and `make build` from a terminal window allow the install to continue from where I got out of it, or do I have to start over?


No need to start over. Although a `make clean` would be advised to clean out any half built stuff. The system is clever enough to detect what's already installed and will continue installing dependencies where it left off.


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## KenGordon (Oct 3, 2013)

OK. Now I have another problem, similar to the previous one (which I took care of using information I found here by searching on it). However this one has me stumped...at least for the moment.

The install halts, and I get this:


```
/usr/ports/multimedia/bsd.kmod.mk "can't find kernel source tree"
```

and


```
/usr/ports/multimedia/cuse4bsd.kmod
```

Now what?


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## KenGordon (Oct 3, 2013)

I fixed the previous issue by issuing `make clean` in /usr/ports/x11/gnome2, and then `pkg_add -r lsof`, then `make config-recursive install clean` in the same directory.

The install went ahead just fine...until the above popped up.


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## KenGordon (Oct 4, 2013)

OK. I installed Subversion and the source files. Things installed very rapidly after that. I then installed LibreOffice. Now, although I can see my printer, a Canon MX-890 networked printer, I have to learn how to connect it. I am having difficulty finding spadmin, but I'll find it.

Thanks for the help, folks.


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