1 # How to get a desktop on DragonFly
3 The following page describes the steps need to get to a desktop on DrafonFly.
8 To get to the desktop you need a working internet connection to download pkgsrc and the packages themselves.
10 ## Dealing with pkgsrc
13 The basic pkgsrc tools are already provided with every DragonFly default installation, but you still have to download the pkgsrc tree to build and install packages.
15 First choose a mirror next to you which provides a git repo containing the pkgsrc tree, you can find them on the [DragonFly mirrors page](http://www.dragonflybsd.org/mirrors/). Next copy the mirrors adress into the Makefile contained in /usr.
19 # cd /usr && make pkgsrc-create
21 to initally create the pkgsrc tree.
23 ### Searching a package
24 Since there are many different packages in the pkgsrc tree you can use a small tool to find the one you are looking for in a short time. For example if you are looking for the ruby package just do
28 and you will get a list of packages containing ruby in their name. If you want to install the ruby-1.9.2pl0 package now, just do
30 # pkg_search -v ruby-1.9.2pl0
32 and you will get the path leading to the package.
34 ### Installing a package
35 You got two possibilities to install a package. The first one is to install it from source and the second one is to install prebuild binaries. Depending on your cpu and the size of the package its faster installing binaries, but if you want to change some build options you have to install it by source.
36 If you want to install binaries you only have to use the pkg_radd application. For example to install the xfce4 package just do:
40 If you want to install something by source you have to change into the packages directory contained in the pkgsrc tree and execute bmake install clean:
42 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/security/openssh && bmake install clean
44 If you build a package by source you can also change some build options if supported by the package.
46 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/security/openssh && bmake show-options
48 You will get a list of supported options. To change them install the package by:
50 # bmake PKG_OPTIONS.<package_name>="-option1 option2" install clean
53 ### Removing a package
54 If you don't need a package anymore and you want to remove it just change into the packages directory and do:
60 From time to time you should update your packages, since there will be newer versions with bugfixes or new functionality. There are several methods to update packages but the best one is to use pkg_rolling-replace. You can install it with pkgsrc. After you've done that you'll only have to:
62 # cd /usr && make pkgsrc-update
63 # pkg_rolling-replace -u
65 ## The X Window System
66 ### Installing the Server
67 The installation of the X Window System contains a few steps. We will start with the most basic one: Installing the X-Server.
68 To do so you have to execute as root
70 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/x11/modular-xorg-server && bmake install clean
72 or if you want to install it as a binary
74 # pkg_radd modular-xorg-server
76 ### Installing appropriate drivers
77 You now need some input drivers and a video driver for your video card.
78 If you want to install all input and video drivers so you can test them out install the modular-xorg-drivers package
79 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/modular-xorg-drivers && bmake install clean
80 or if you want to install them as binaries
81 # pkg_radd modular-xorg-drivers
83 If you know which drivers you need install them on your own needs. They can be found in /usr/pkgsrc/x11/ and are named xf86-<video or input>-<driver name>
85 ### Other importan X related packages
86 Now we will install other important packages for X. We will need some additional libraries
87 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/modular-xorg-libs && bmake install clean
88 or if you want to install them as binaries
89 # pkg_radd modular-xorg-libs
91 Next we'll need some fonts
92 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/modular-xorg-fonts && bmake install clean
93 or if you want to install them as binaries
94 # pkg_radd modular-xorg-fonts
96 Last package we need contains some useful applications like xterm and startx
97 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/modular-xorg-apps && bmake install clean
98 or if you want to install them as binaries
99 # pkg_radd modular-xorg-apps
102 Since we have installed all necessary packages now we have to configure X so it works like we want it. First execute as root
104 # cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
105 Now we have a basic configuration file for X.
106 As normal user now create a file named ~/.xinitrc and write exec xterm in it. Now make it executable
107 # chmod +x ~/.xinitrc
108 Now you can try to start the X server by doing
111 If everything works well you should see a white terminal and should be able to mover your mouse. Click into the terminal and test you keyboard layout. Now type exit into the terminal and you will return to TTY. If everything worked well you can continue with installing a desktop environment, if not you have to manually edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf . Also check the X.org documentation and the DragonFly handbook, where you may find a solution to your problem.
113 ## Installing a Desktop Environment
115 This part will explain how to install the desktop environments KDE and Xfce, if you prefer GNOME or a standalone windowmanager you have to read other guides or documentation.
117 KDE stands for K Desktop Environment, its a modern desktop environment, based on Nokia's QT-Framework, with many nice applications. If your computer has less than 1Gb RAM you should better install Xfce4 described later in this guide.
118 Since the KDE and QT packages are pretty huge you can save much time when using binary packages.
119 There are 2 different KDE meta-packages available: KDE3 and KDE4 . KDE3 is the older, but more stable release while KDE4 has many new features but also new bugs. So it's on you to decide which one you want to install.
120 For KDE3 simply do as root
125 Now that you have installed KDE we still need to start it.
126 As user edit your ~/.xinitrc and comment the exec xterm part out and add exec startkde.
127 Now start it with executing startx as user. If everything works well you should see a standard KDE desktop, you now can explore ist or read documentation to see what you can do with it.
129 Some users may prefer a graphical log in, KDE provides it's own display manager for them: kdm. It looks better than the X display manager xdm and provides more options. To start it at boot time simply change your ttyv8 line in /etc/ttys to ttyv8 “/usr/pkg/bin/kdm -nodaemon” xterm on secure .
132 Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment using the GTK+ toolkit (like GNOME) it has less applications than KDE but if your computer isn't that good it's the better choice.
133 To install Xfce4 simply install the xfce4 and xfce4- meta-packages as root
134 # pkg_radd xfce4 && pkg_radd xfce4-extras
135 or if you want to compile them yourself
136 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/xfce4 && bmake install clean
137 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/xfce4-extras && bmake install clean
138 To test if it works edit your ~/.xinitrc as user, comment the exec xterm part out and add exec startxfce4.
139 Since Xfce doesnt have its own display manager for a graphical login so you have to install one yourself. You could either install xdm, kdm or gdm. Gdm is the GNOME display manager and also uses the GTK+ toolkit so it's a good choice for Xfce, too.
140 Install gdm by executing:
143 # cd /usr/pkgsrc/x11/gdm && bmake install
144 To start it at boot time you can simply add gdm_enable=”YES” to your /etc/rc.conf