Installing GUI

Hi there,

I am a new FreeBSD. I am entirely new to tihs OS, I just have good dos/windows skills. So I am comparing everything with dos/windows.

I have installed FreeBSD with default settings. When FreeBSD starts, the GUI (if there is any ?!?!?) doesn't start; just the command line. So thats no problem, because I liked the old MS-Dos 5.0 version, where the command prompt started and we wrote Win to execute the GUI.

But my problem is to determine, if the GUI is installed on the OS. For example in Windows there is a Add/Remove Programs section, where I can get all installed programms. Is there any way of getting the installed programms in FreeBSD ??

Because of I don't know if there is any installed GUI, I started sysinstall and installed a programm named X. I think this is the GUI in FreeBSD. After that, I found a programm names X in a directory, but I don't know if it was there before I installed the GUI manually.

If I start X, a GUI like application starts but there is nothing on screen. I saw in solaris that a popup window appeared if the user right-clicks the desktop. But in X nothing happens. There is no popup, no taskbar, no window, nothing. I even couldn't exit the GUI. I had to restart my computer.

Have I to install any additional application to X to be able to use the GUI.

Thanks a lot for your help.
Bye!

Welcome to FreeBSD; I hope your time using it will be as rewarding as mine has been.

Where to start? Well, I would suggest that extensive reading be your next step. You've already covered several topics, some related, some not.

X (I'm not sure if you have XFree86 or Xorg) is the windowing system, and usually installs with a very basic window manager, called twm, which is not at all eye candy, and not much fun to play with. You can start the X server by issuing 'startx' at the command prompt.

In order to build a GUI desktop environment, you will need to install a window manager and any apps that you wish to use on the desktop. KDE and Gnome are popular Open Source desktop environments, complete with all of the bells and whistles you may (or may not) be looking for. Many people, including myself, prefer a light-weight window manager, and a custom set of apps.
There are many, many window manager for you to chose from.

However, I would take some time to read this chapter of the handbook and get familiar with the ports collection; it'll save you alot of time in the long run, and is the easiest way to install and maintain software on a FreeBSD system. In the ports collection you will find more applications that you can shake a stick at, and they're organized in categories, ie window managers will be under /usr/ports/x11-wm

Once you have a window manager installed (I use blackbox), then you can create a file in your home dir called .xinitrc. This file will eventually include lines to start all of the applications you want to run when you do 'startx'; an
easy one-liner would be something like:

/usr/X11R6/bin/blackbox

Then, when you issue 'startx' at the command prompt, you will get a graphical session with the blackbox window manager.

To get X to start at boot time, and present you with a GUI login prompt, you'll need to configure your system to use xdm(1), which probably installed with X. Your best resources are the FreeBSD Handbook, the FAQ, and the FreeBSD mailing lists.

Good luck, and welcome, again, to the FreeBSD Community!

FREEBSD desktop:

1. KDE
2. GNOME
3. XFCE
   and open FreeBSD Handbook
   scoll to: 5 .The X Window System
   
   have fun.

how to get system statistics in sunos

you mean solaris os. and you want to join FreeBSD in sun server right?