# New user to BSD, coming from Linux



## kenny_w (Nov 21, 2017)

Hi everyone, I have just started to try out FreeBSD. I'm installing xorg at the moment. I know that I'm going to run into troubles with installing stuff so I figured I'd make a thread on the forums & see what I can learn! 
I'm sorry if this is in the wrong section, I don't know what section would be better to put this in, this is the first time I've ever used the FreeBSD forums.

Does anyone have any really helpful Wiki pages, cheat-sheets, tips, etc that would be good for me to check out? I'm a Linux user, the only thing that is a deal-breaker for me is QTSIXA, the program to connect PS3 controllers to the computer via bluetooth. QTSIXA is a Linux program, can I use this on FreeBSD? I just have a little 10" Dell Mini 10v (1011) netbook that I use to watch videos while I'm on the bus / play emulator games(gameboy, n64, SNES, sega, etc)

And is there a build-essential / base-devel / kernel-devel kinda file packages to install? What do I need in order to compile software on FreeBSD? I'm running i386!


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## kenny_w (Nov 21, 2017)

Okay, so it seems I've got a problem with the i915 driver, it does this exact same thing to me on Void Linux & Arch Linux, but Debian/Fedora work fine even though it works with i915...
Its a 945GSE I think, its a Dell Inspiron Mini 10v (1011). I don't know how to make the equivalent of lspci -nnk to work so I can't see the exact driver model/etc.

Edit: For anyone going over this & looking for a solution, just install xf86-video-intel & then i915kms should work[with your GUI]  I added it to my rc.conf with kld_list="i915kms"


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## rigoletto@ (Nov 21, 2017)

Welcome!

Starting with the basic, the first thing a FreeBSD user should read is the FreeBSD Handbook.

I do not understood exactly what you mean by compiling software:

If you are asking about compiling FreeBSD Ports (from the tree), I usually recommend ports-mgmt/synth for general users, Synth. There are many others, like ports-mgmt/poudriere (the tool used by FreeBSD it-self to create the official packages, but often too much for a single user/machine) and ports-mgmt/portmaster etc.
If the point is porting new software to FreeBSD: Porter's Handbook is your friend¹.

FreeBSD Graphics WIKI. --> be aware if your graphic card does not appear as supported in that page it probably is by the graphics/drm-next-kmod (what is in sync with a recent Linux version), but that just work in the 10.X versions.

Calomel is a page I like and use a lot. Others folks can certainly bring more options, or you could also do search in the forums for them, but you would be better assisted bringing the specific issues you eventually experience.

EDIT: about QTSIXA, I do not have idea. 

EDIT_2: the manual pages in FreeBSD actually bring useful information.

¹ there are pretty good developers and programmers hanging in the forums, but the vastly majority of them does not hang in here but in the mailling lists and in the IRC. I mean, questions too technically inclined are often better assisted on those channels.

Cheers!


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## scottro (Nov 21, 2017)

As for the i915, depending upon the card, it may only work well in CURRENT.  However, you say Arch and Void are giving you problems as well.  What sort of problem?
Most Linux distributions, including those two, work quite well with  most Intel cards.  

The equivalent of lspci is pciconf -lv  (list, verbose)


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## kenny_w (Nov 21, 2017)

Thanks for the replies lebarondemerde & scottro, and to answer scott's question, when I try to install Arch Linux & Void Linux(after I update, or if I choose network instead of iso) the screen bugs out. I'll show you guys a photo.
I'm afraid one day Debian will start doing this too.. What do I do?! When I kldload i915kms the screen does basically the same thing... its a 945GSE intel mobile, Dell Inspiron Mini 10v (1011).... The Arch Linux variant I was using, BlueStar, would work on a live USB no problem, but upon installing it it would bug out like this.

https://imgur.com/a/4KOlD  <-- this is a photo I took from Linux, it looks basically the same on BSD.. I'm SSH'ed into it so I can unload it thankfully.


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## scottro (Nov 21, 2017)

Hrrm.  Did you try with Vanilla Arch?  (Not familiar with BlueStar).  My laptops are relatively old, the newest, a Yoga2, having the Haswell  ULT.  In FreeBSD, that only works well for me with CURRENT.  (With Linux, including Arch and Void, no problems).


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## ShelLuser (Nov 21, 2017)

kenny_w said:


> Hi everyone, I have just started to try out FreeBSD. I'm installing xorg at the moment. I know that I'm going to run into troubles with installing stuff so I figured I'd make a thread on the forums & see what I can learn!


Welcome. Although FreeBSD is quite different than Linux there are still plenty things both environments have in common.

The most important aspect to be aware of, in my opinion obviously, is that manual pages on FreeBSD are just that: _manual_ pages. When working with FreeBSD these can be your first and most important source of directly available information. Also be aware of the apropos command which helps you to search these manual pages. There really is value in using `man man` every once in a while and familiarize yourself with the man(1) and apropos(1) (or "whatis") manualpages.

As to installing software... Be aware that you shouldn't mix ports and packages. Either use the ports collection to install stuff by going into a ports directory and installing things manually (`# make install clean`, though you might want to study ports(7) if you go this route, it has some very useful information) or you could use pkg to grab binary packages and install from a repository. So basically using `# pkg install <stuff>`.

There are indeed very good software solutions availably which can help you install individual ports and to manage the ports collection as a whole. Even so, if you are going to use the ports collection I still advice you to try the manual approach at least once so that you'll become more familiar with it.

Simple reasoning really: if something goes wrong while using a "port front-end" then how can you determine if the problem lies with the port or the frontend?



kenny_w said:


> Does anyone have any really helpful Wiki pages, cheat-sheets, tips, etc that would be good for me to check out? I'm a Linux user, the only thing that is a deal-breaker for me is QTSIXA, the program to connect PS3 controllers to the computer via bluetooth. QTSIXA is a Linux program, can I use this on FreeBSD?


Be aware that FreeBSD has a smaller market share in comparison to Linux when it comes to desktop usage and gaming. That's not to say it can't make a good desktop, I myself use FreeBSD on my laptop as well as a second X desktop on my server, but its use is somewhat limited.


```
omicron:/usr/ports $ make search name=qtsixa
omicron:/usr/ports $ make search key=qtsixa
omicron:/usr/ports $
```
Apparently there's no existing port for this software. But you can always try to grab the source and then see if you can compile it manually. I just discovered the sourceforge repository. You're probably need to satisfy plenty of dependencies, but considering that KDE4 which was fully build upon QT works flawlessly on FreeBSD it might be doable.


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## PacketMan (Nov 21, 2017)

lebarondemerde said:


> Calomel is a page I like and use a lot.


Thanks for this!

Kenny_w  - I would say stick with it for a year.  Help us help you and the disciplines of FreeBSD will reward you.


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## kenny_w (Nov 22, 2017)

Alrighty so it looks like I'm getting nowhere with this issue, I've tried a few different things, like editting the/boot/laoder.conf, but can't seem to make it go into 1024x600, its far too small in 800x600 & I can't make i915 work, so I'll try the CURRENT release. I really hope that works with it. I'm running i386, and honestly BSD seems like it runs quite smooth on my somewhat old netbook..

Ok, so I tried the CURRENT release, but i915kms still gives me this same bug.... ugh.


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## kenny_w (Nov 22, 2017)

PacketMan said:


> Thanks for this!
> 
> Kenny_w  - I would say stick with it for a year.  Help us help you and the disciplines of FreeBSD will reward you.



I can't stick with it with no GUI, so I'm giving up until I find a for-sure fix for this problem then I might come back to BSD... Why does it work on Debian/Fedora but not FreeBSD, Void, or any Arch variants? I've tried BlueStar AND Manjaro on it, not gonna bother with trying to install vanilla arch on it, too hard.

I've spent the last few hours trying to find a fix but I've had no luck, so...

Also, I installed all the xf86-input-synaptics xf86-input-mouse libsynaptics etc but my touchpad won't work on CURRENT but it works on the 11 release..


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## PacketMan (Nov 22, 2017)

kenny_w said:


> I can't stick with it with no GUI



It took me weeks to get Xorg up and running on my first machine.  In the end I bought a used Nvidia card, loaded the right driver, set a few lines and that was it.  I had thought of giving up but I was determined, and learned a lot along the way. Now my household is free of Windows; all FreeBSD with the exception of one Ubuntu laptop. We have never been happier.


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## rigoletto@ (Nov 22, 2017)

I think it is safe to assume Debian has an older version as usual. If so, some code added later broke it. Alternatively, Debian do patch the driver what would be found in their sources.

So, may worth to test with 10.X-RELEASE (I do not know if the driver got updated), and/or do a search in the Debian sources.


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## poorandunlucky (Nov 22, 2017)

A wild FreeBSD disappears...?


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## Deleted member 30996 (Nov 22, 2017)

kenny_w said:


> When I kldload i915kms the screen does basically the same thing... its a 945GSE intel mobile...



All my machines are either Vista or Win7 vintage, one of them is running an Intel i945GM and another i965GM that work without flaw.


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## forquare (Nov 22, 2017)

When you try using a GUI, are you able to swap back to the console (alt+ctrl+F1) and see any relevant messages?


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## Oko (Nov 22, 2017)

Trihexagonal said:


> All my machines are either Vista or Win7 vintage


I had no doubts based on your previous posts on this forum


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## Sensucht94 (Nov 22, 2017)

I think lebarondemerde may be right; it's a plausible explanation after all.

However, according to that theory OP would experience the same upsetting issue also on Debian/Fedora  as soon as those distro adopt the patched Linux driver. Perhaps trying graphics/drm-next-kmod would ultimately be the right choice 

Also maybe OP would find some useful info about his/her issue in /var/log


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## Deleted member 30996 (Nov 22, 2017)

Oko said:


> I had no doubts based on your previous posts on this forum



I just purchased another Thinkpad T61 last night.


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## ronaldlees (Nov 22, 2017)

Hey  - don't give up so easily!  On FreeBSD, the i915 is an exception to the rule IMO.  It's had a storied history that's detailed pretty well in this post:

https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/intel-gfx/2016-May/095581.html

With the i915, they had a graphics device that was 17,000 LOC (lines of code) out of sync with the upstream.  Over the past couple years, they've whittled that down to about 1k.  So, they're working pretty hard!  You just picked a graphics device (OK, you didn't pick it, it was already in your laptop) - that happens to have a more turbulent development story on FreeBSD than some of the others.  But, from what I'm seeing, they're on track to get it all fixed up soon (via i915kms, etc).

Personally, I have great success with Nvidia on FreeBSD, but of course that doesn't help you at the moment.  If you go, keep us in mind and come back soon!


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## ronaldlees (Nov 22, 2017)

Sensucht94 said:


> I think lebarondemerde may be right; it's a plausible explanation after all.
> 
> However, according to that theory OP would experience the same upsetting issue also on Debian/Fedora  as soon as those distro adopt the patched Linux driver. Perhaps trying graphics/drm-next-kmod would ultimately be the right choice
> 
> Also maybe OP would find some useful info about his/her issue in /var/log



This poster seems to have made his (newer, intel graphics) laptop work by using graphics/drm-next-kmod:

http://www.srobb.net/freebsdintel.html

His situation probably is not that dis-similar to the OP's.  I think he used a 12-CURRENT snapshot from here:

https://download.freebsd.org/ftp/snapshots/


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## kenny_w (Nov 23, 2017)

Thanks guys. I will attempt to use drm-next-kmod, I really hope it works!
I had SparkyLinux installed on my netbook but it wouldn't boot up this morning :/ so I've re-installed FreeBSD in hopes that this fix will make it work. I still have a lot of work ahead of me if I can even get the video driver to work properly.

edit: "*ONLY_FOR_ARCHS:* amd64" ?????? but I'm using i386, didn't I say that???


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## scottro (Nov 23, 2017)

Yes you did and I missed it. My apologies.


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## kenny_w (Nov 23, 2017)

Wow I don't know what I did differently but it seems like its working!! I can now use my netbook with FreeBSD!! HURRAY!! 
Ok so, can you guys please help me figure out how to make sure I have all my other drivers installed right? I have an RTL8821ae wifi + bluetooth PCI-E chip, and intel sound, and some other components in there I don't really know... I wish I could get an output like lspci -nnk but pciconf -lv doesn't really show me what I want to see..

edit: its OK Scott, I have somehow made it work, I'm honestly shocked :O 
I just did kldload i915 and rebooted and it worked fine, I guess the i915kms driver doesn't want to work but the normal i915 driver works OK.


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## Deleted member 30996 (Nov 23, 2017)

I have Intel HD Audio on both Thinkpads I have running FreeBSD and don't have any sound issues.


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## kenny_w (Nov 23, 2017)

Can somebody tell me how to enable autologin in SLIM??? I don't know how to make Lightdm work or I'd just use lightdm... Can anybody please help me with either making lightdm work or making SLIM auto-login??? This is my first time ever using FreeBSD, I just need some help to make this thing workable

Edit: I've worked out how to auto-login, but I'm still fighting with how to make qt5ct work, and I need to figure out how to check if I have the driver for rtl8821ae, I'd really love any help.... could somebody please help me with this stuff???


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## kenny_w (Nov 23, 2017)

Why isn't gtk2 an option for QT5CT??? Where is the /etc/environment file in FreeBSD??? I have to type export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct every time I boot up.. Would really appreciate some help here..


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## Deleted member 48958 (Nov 23, 2017)

kenny_w said:
			
		

> Can somebody tell me how to enable autologin in SLIM???


Add `auto_login                    yes` and `default_user                    yourusername` to /usr/local/etc/slim.conf.



kenny_w said:


> QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME


Add it to your wm session startup script, like .xinitrc, or some custom "gnome-session".
There is no need to add it system wide.


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## kenny_w (Nov 23, 2017)

Thank you ILVXA, I'm still not sure how to get the gtk2 option in qt5ct though, I think I know the package I'm missing but I don't know the name of it in FreeBSD.. In Debian it is called qt5-gtk-platformtheme

I figured out how to edit the SLIM display manager for auto-login. I just need to make qt5ct work... I tried adding that line into .xinitrc but its not changed anything.


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## rigoletto@ (Nov 23, 2017)

To have GTK3 support in qt5ct you need to have x11-toolkits/qt5-widgets compiled with GTK3 support. For GTK2, I guess it does not support anymore.


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## Sensucht94 (Nov 24, 2017)

kenny_w said:
			
		

> Can somebody tell me how to enable autologin in SLIM???



ILUXA said it all ; however enabling autologin it's not the safest of the choices, so I rather just uncommenting the `# default_user username` string, and then uncomment `#focus_password      yes`. This writes your username as default in the user_field on the Slim Screen, and focus the cursor on the password field, so as you just have to quickly type your password before entering Xorg.

I'll upload (on my files.fm account) some FreeBSD slim-themes I gathered online, all tested and working well. It's really easy to edit each of them and create your custom one. Download link:  FreeBSD_slim-themes.tar.gz

Also give a look to another lightweight display manager x11/sddm, and to the nice-looking lebarondemerde's freebsd SDDM theme: x11-themes/sddm-freebsd-black-theme.

XDM is obviously the lightest, but it's highly customizeable if you know how


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## balanga (Nov 24, 2017)

Trihexagonal said:


> I just purchased another Thinkpad T61 last night.



My T61 went into my ThinkPad graveyard last week ...


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## rigoletto@ (Nov 24, 2017)

Sensucht94 said:


> ILUXA said it all ; however enabling autologin it's not the safest of the choices, so I rather just uncommenting the `# default_user username` string, and then uncomment `#focus_password      yes`. This writes your username as default in the user_field on the Slim Screen, and focus the cursor on the password field, so as you just have to quickly type your password before entering Xorg.
> 
> I'll upload (on my files.fm account) some FreeBSD slim-themes I gathered online, all tested and working well. It's really easy to edit each of them and create your custom one. Download link:  FreeBSD_slim-themes.tar.gz
> 
> ...



I've created I similar theme for SLiM too. I just do not ported it because SLiM is actually dead upstream and we do not know until when it will work, and so I do not want to add a new port in the tree in this situation.

Thanks!


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