# CDE for FreeBSD will not launch.



## aimeec1995 (Nov 13, 2017)

Using freebsd 11.1 amd64

I have installed the cde port and follow all of its instructions.

in /etc/rc.conf:

```
rpcbind_enable="YES"
dtspc_enable="YES"
dtcms_enable="YES"
```

`env LANG=C startx /usr/dt/bin/Xsession`

x just crashes 

I have looked in the xorg log and I see no errors of any kind. Just x terminating..


----------



## aragats (Nov 14, 2017)

Run `X` first, then run CDE to see what's going on:
	
	



```
X &
env DISPLAY=:0 <cde start command>
```


----------



## Datapanic (Nov 14, 2017)

I kinda like Mikael Urankar's port better than the official one in the ports tree. https://github.com/MikaelUrankar/cde

The setup is a little bit different, but it works for me.

<- CDE DieHard!


----------



## aimeec1995 (Nov 14, 2017)

aragats said:


> Run `X` first, then run CDE to see what's going on:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Will do.


Datapanic said:


> I kinda like Mikael Urankar's port better than the official one in the ports tree. https://github.com/MikaelUrankar/cde
> 
> The setup is a little bit different, but it works for me.
> 
> <- CDE DieHard!


This lacks any manner of tutorial?


----------



## aragats (Nov 14, 2017)

aimeec1995 said:


> This lacks any manner of tutorial?


It was straight forward and smooth: I built it a year ago and posted the screenshot.


----------



## ShelLuser (Nov 14, 2017)

This is _amazing_!

I tried building the official CDE port a few times but it always breaks on me with an ksh93 related build error, and I never bothered to look deeper into that. So today I grabbed the port which Datapanic suggested and well, it just works. The only thing I don't like is the somewhat distorted brownish 'drops wallpaper' (second virtual desktop), it's brown in the port while I clearly remember that it used to be a blue / cyan background with raindrops on it.

But that's a mere detail, one I can fix myself if I have to by firing up my old Blade server and trying to grab the backdrops from there. I even have an old sparcstation somewhere in my basement with Solaris 7 on it, that's bound to have a full CDE installation as well.

For now I'm really happy that I found this. As soon as I figure out how to configure dtlogin in order to add KDE4 as an option I'm going to make it the official login manager. That brings back memories!

Now my FreeBSD machine has _truly_ succeeded my trusty, deeply respected and still fondly remembered Solaris environments.

Thanks for sharing guys!


----------



## Datapanic (Nov 15, 2017)

Just a follow up on things to config on Mikael's port:

add

```
inetd_enable="YES"
rpcbind_enable="YES"
```
to /etc/rc.conf

Edit /etc/inetd.conf to add the following (making sure you only enable other services as needed - the default is nothing enabled):


```
dtspc stream tcp4 nowait root /usr/local/dt/bin/dtspcd  /usr/local/dt/bin/dtspcd
cmsd/2-5 dgram rpc/udp4 wait root /usr/local/dt/bin/rpc.cmsd rpc.cmsd
```

Add `dtspc           6112/tcp   #subprocess control` to /etc/services


----------



## ShelLuser (Nov 15, 2017)

However, you don't really need that to get CDE to work. Not the "external port" that is. All I did was enable rpcbind which was enough to get the whole thing to start. Apart from the obvious services of course such as dbus and hald.


----------



## Datapanic (Nov 15, 2017)

If you only use CDE, you do not need dbus or hald


----------



## ShelLuser (Nov 15, 2017)

Datapanic True that, but I also use KDE so I'm keeping those services around for now.

Speaking of which, I did it   Took me a moment to (re)figure the whole dtlogin out but it works like a charm, with only one small caveat so far...

First locate /usr/local/dt/config/C/Xresources.d. Those session files are the ones responsible for the different session choices which you get in the dtlogin window. You can overrule any of those if you want to by using /usr/local/etc/dt/config. However, you'll notice that by default this directory only has an unrelated Xsession.d directory.

SO...  `# mkdir -p C/Xresources.d`, this is the first command you'll need. Add a file in there, just to keep the sequence in order I used 0180.session. Then I added this:


```
Dtlogin*altDtName:      KDE4
Dtlogin*altDtStart:     /usr/local/bin/startkde
```
After you fire up your login manager with this you'll have a fifth option to chose from: KDE4 

The only caveat I spotted so far was when I logged out of KDE back into dtlogin. During that moment it no longer recognized KDE4 for some reason. I used the current option instead and (obviously) logged right back into CDE. After I logged off though the menu once again recognized KDE4.

So it looks like I'll be using a login manager again. This brings back some good memories to be honest. Especially seeing files such as Xaccess and Xservers; that's how I used to mess around with CDE back in the days. I had a Linux computer and a Solaris server, so I used X on the command line to log onto the login manager (dtlogin) and from there on use the CDE environment, but all from my own Linux workstation / server.

The only things left on my todo list as the blueish waterdrop wallpaper and the distorted console I get when using X together with the x11/nvidia-driver port. I assume the distortion is because of the differences in resolution between the (vt operated) console and the X environment, but I'll have to look closer into that, needs some more studying on my part.

Even so, this is very exciting. It's been _years_ since I last logged onto a real CDE environment, and it really feels good to have it back!


----------

