Gnome/X-setup in FreeBSD

By default in freeBSD there is no GUI installed.
Installing X and Gnome

Check the location of pkg_add by the below command.

# whereis pkg_add 

Output should be

pkg_add: /usr/sbin/pkg_add /usr/share/man/man1/pkg_add.1.gz

To install the X environment enter the below command.

# pkg_add -r xorg

After installation check the location of xorg by running the below command

# whereis xorg

Output should be

xorg: /usr/ports/x11/xorg

Installing GNOME

Add the below lines in /etc/rc.conf
gnome_enable="YES"
Save the file


Make the following lines in /etc/rc.conf

hald_enable="YES"
dbus_enable="YES"

Add the following lines in /etc/fstab

proc          /proc   procfs rw 0 0

This line is must for the Gnome to work properly.


Generate xorg.conf file by running the below command
Login as root

# Xorg -configure

Now a file named xorg.conf.new will be generated in the /root directory. Copy the file in to xorg.conf

# cp xorg.conf.new to xorg.conf 

# cp xorg.conf /etc/X11

Now we can start X in FreeBSD

# startx

Add the below line to /etc/rc.conf

gdm_enable="YES"
gnome_enable="YES"

and save the file
Install Gnome2 by running the below command

#pkg_add -r gnome2

After installation reboot the machine. No you can login to the Graphical environment.

Enjoy !!