Installing gnome on freebsd

I have a fresh 64-bits install of FreeBSD 8.1 on a machine, but having issues with getting gnome to work.

I have followed the guidelines on FreeBSD GNOME Project: GNOME 2.32 FAQ
In summary that is:
pkg_add -r gnome2
Add gnome_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf
After a reboot and logging in, there is no automatic start of gnome. The command startx gives: Command not found.

I then deinstalled gnome2 and instead installed gnome2-lite from ports and added the following to rc.conf:
dbus_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
and kept gnome_enable="YES" as the last line.

I then added "exec gnome-session" to ~/.xinitrc and ran startx. Again a Command not found. Also tried "exec /usr/local/bin/gnome-session" in .xinitrc.
After a reboot startx gave the same response.

Would could be wrong and how do I get gnome to work on this machine?

Did you try to add also
gdm_enable="YES" in rc.conf
also make sure you have /proc mounted :
proc /proc procfs rw 0 0 to to /etc/fstab

Do you have X instaled,cause you can not do startx if xorg is not installed.
pkg_add -r xorg

What release of freebsd are you running?

[/quote]
pkg_add -tr gnome2

cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome2 && make && make install

Still can't get it to work. This what I am doing in the shown order:
Add to rc.conf:

gdm_enable="YES"

Add to /etc/fstab:

proc /proc procfs rw 0 0

Install ports:

portsnap fetch
portsnap extract

Install gnome:

pkg_add -r gnome2
cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome2
make install clean

The installation error occurs in the last step and the follow-on packages cannot be installed such as gdk-pixbuf2 and gtk-update-icon-cache

What about :

pkg_add -r xorg

This command installs xorg which is needed in order startx to work.What is the exact error that you are getting when you try to install it?

I finally got this to work and here are the installation steps for posterity:

Add to rc.conf:

hald_enable="YES"
gdm_enable="YES"
dbus_enable="YES"
gnome_enable="YES"

Add to /etc/fstab:

/proc /proc procfs rw 0 0

portsnap fetch extract
pkg_add -r gnome2 xorg

Reboot and gnome starts automatically.

pkg_add -r xorg or #cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg : make install clean
next: pkg_add -r gnome 2 or #cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome2 :make install clean

ee /etc/rc.conf :
gnome_enable="YES"
hald_enable="YES"
dbus_enable="YES"
avahi_daemon_enable="YES"
avahi_dnsconfd_enable="YES"
gdm_enable="YES"

#init 6 (or reboot) to reboot;

Thank you for your suggestion, avahi is a useful addition indeed.