Jilting PC-BSD

I have to admit to giving up, for now, on PC-BSD. I finally got X to work correctly for me, but I was getting intermittent hangs, usually after about 10-15 minutes of running. No messages in any of the various /var/log logs to help me out, just a solid freeze of the entire machine, requiring a reboot.

So I am trying a vanilla FreeBSD 6.1 install. That went pretty smoothly, although I really missed PC-BSD's graphical, guided, installation. That old sysinstall text screen looks pretty tired by now. I again went with the The Complete FreeBSD, Fourth edition recommendation for the disk layout:

• 6 Gb for /


• 512 Mb for swap


• the rest (approx. 105 Gb) for /home

Although I'm not sure that's really a good idea, upon further reflection. If you installed KDE from ports, it says to be sure to have 4GB of room and this set up doesn't leave you much room for error on /usr. So maybe I should have set up another partition for /usr and gave it about 20gb. But maybe that's enough anyway. We'll see.

On the Distributions page, I select All, which adds in X Windows and some basic packages. Upon finishing this installation, these are the packages listed that were installed:


# pkg_info

bitstream-vera-1.10_2 Bitstream Vera TrueType font collection

expat-2.0.0_1 XML 1.0 parser written in C

fontconfig-2.3.2_3,1 An XML-based font configuration API for X Windows

freetype2-2.1.10_3 A free and portable TrueType font rendering engine

imake-6.9.0 Imake and other utilities from X.Org

libXft-2.1.7_1 A client-sided font API for X applications

libdrm-2.0_1 Userspace interface to kernel Direct Rendering Module servi

linux_base-8-8.0_14 Base set of packages needed in Linux mode (for i386/amd64)

perl-5.8.8 Practical Extraction and Report Language

pkgconfig-0.20 A utility to retrieve information about installed libraries

png-1.2.8_3 Library for manipulating PNG images

xorg-clients-6.9.0_2 X client programs and related files from X.Org

xorg-documents-6.9.0 Documentation of X11 protocol and libraries from X.Org

xorg-fonts-100dpi-6.9.0_1 X.Org 100dpi bitmap fonts

xorg-fonts-75dpi-6.9.0_1 X.Org 75dpi bitmap fonts

xorg-fonts-cyrillic-6.9.0_1 X.Org Cyrillic bitmap fonts

xorg-fonts-encodings-6.9.0_1 X.Org font encoding files

xorg-fonts-miscbitmaps-6.9.0_1 X.Org miscellaneous bitmap fonts

xorg-fonts-truetype-6.9.0 X.Org TrueType fonts

xorg-fonts-type1-6.9.0 X.Org Type1 fonts

xorg-fontserver-6.9.0_1 X font server from X.Org

xorg-libraries-6.9.0 X11 libraries and headers from X.Org

xorg-manpages-6.9.0 X.Org library manual pages

xorg-nestserver-6.9.0 Nesting X server from X.Org

xorg-printserver-6.9.0 X Print server from X.Org

xorg-server-6.9.0_1 X.Org X server and related programs

xorg-vfbserver-6.9.0 X virtual framebuffer server from X.Org

xterm-206_1 Terminal emulator for the X Window System



So a pretty basic set of packages is installed. The first thing I did after I rebooted was to get an up to date set of ports. I didn't bother to install the ports from the CD, as it'll be out of date anyway:


# portsnap fetch

[.... many minutes later ....]



# portsnap extract

[.... many ports later ....]



In 'portsnap', I'm using the latest port update tool, rather than the old-fashioned cvsup, as per the handbook. I've since added 3 more ports and one more package:

• editors/emacs : I gotta have my emacs!


• shells/bash : I'm not wedded to a shell, but bash works for me.


• net/cvsup-without-gui : no need to have a bunch of UI stuff around for cvsup, as the command line version works just fine for grabing the system source


• x11/kde : I did this as a package for speed sake. Building it from ports just didn't seem worth the extra effort:
  
  
# pkg_add -r kde

[... a gazillion extra packages later ...]

#

It took long enough as it was.

Here's my new package list:


# pkg_info

ORBit2-2.12.5_2 High-performance CORBA ORB with support for the C language

OpenEXR-1.2.2_1 A high dynamic-range (HDR) image file format

Xaw3d-1.5E_1 A 3-D Athena Widget set that looks like Motif

akode-2.0,1 Default KDE audio backend

akode-plugins-mpc-2.0,1 Musepack decoder plugin for akode

akode-plugins-mpeg-2.0,1 MPEG audio decoder plugin for akode

akode-plugins-oss-2.0,1 OSS output plugin for akode

akode-plugins-resampler-2.0,1 Resampler plugin for akode

akode-plugins-xiph-2.0,1 FLAC/Speex/Vorbis decoder plugin for akode

apr-db4-1.2.2_3 The Apache Group's Portability Library

arts-1.5.1_1,1 Audio system for the KDE integrated X11 desktop

artswrapper-1.2.2 Setuid wrapper for arts

aspell-0.60.4_3 Spelling checker with better suggestion logic than ispell

atk-1.10.3_1 A GNOME accessibility toolkit (ATK)

autoconf-2.13.000227_5 Automatically configure source code on many Un*x platforms

bash-3.1.10_1 The GNU Project's Bourne Again SHell

bitstream-vera-1.10_2 Bitstream Vera TrueType font collection

boost-python-1.33.1 Free peer-reviewed portable C++ source libraries

cairo-1.0.2_2 Vector graphics library with cross-device output support

cdparanoia-3.9.8_8 A CDDA extraction tool (also known as ripper)

cups-base-1.1.23.0_8 The Common UNIX Printing System: headers, libs, & daemons

cyrus-sasl-2.1.21_2 RFC 2222 SASL (Simple Authentication and Security Layer)

db4-4.0.14_1,1 The Berkeley DB package, revision 4

db42-4.2.52_4 The Berkeley DB package, revision 4.2

emacs-21.3_9 GNU editing macros

expat-2.0.0_1 XML 1.0 parser written in C

fftw3-3.0.1_5 Fast C routines to compute the Discrete Fourier Transform

flac-1.1.2_1 Free lossless audio codec

fontconfig-2.3.2_3,1 An XML-based font configuration API for X Windows

freetype2-2.1.10_3 A free and portable TrueType font rendering engine

fribidi-0.10.4_2 A Free Implementation of the Unicode Bidirectional Algorith

gamin-0.1.7_2 A file and directory monitoring system

gconf2-2.12.1_1 A configuration database system for GNOME

gettext-0.14.5_2 GNU gettext package

ghostscript-gnu-7.07_15 GNU Postscript interpreter

glib-2.8.6_1 Some useful routines of C programming (current stable versi

gmake-3.80_2 GNU version of 'make' utility

gnomehier-2.0_7 A utility port that creates the GNOME directory tree

gnu-autoconf-2.59 Automatically configure source code on many Un*x platforms

gnu-automake-1.9.6 GNU Standards-compliant Makefile generator (GNU unmodified)

gnu-libtool-1.5.20 Generic shared library support script (GNU unmodified)

gnupg-1.4.2.2 The GNU Privacy Guard

gnutls-1.2.10_1 GNU Transport Layer Security library

gpgme-1.0.3_1 A library to make access to GnuPG easier

gsfonts-8.11_2 Fonts used by GNU Ghostscript (or X)

gtar-1.15.1_2 GNU version of the traditional tar archiver

gtk-2.8.12_1 Gimp Toolkit for X11 GUI (current stable version)

hicolor-icon-theme-0.5 A high-color icon theme shell from the FreeDesktop project

imake-6.9.0 Imake and other utilities from X.Org

jackit-0.100.0_1 A low-latency audio server

jasper-1.701.0_1 An implementation of the codec specified in the JPEG-2000 s

jpeg-6b_4 IJG's jpeg compression utilities

kde-3.5.1 The "meta-port" for KDE

kdeaccessibility-3.5.1_1 Accessibility applications for KDE

kdeadmin-3.5.1_1 KDE applications related to system administration

kdeartwork-3.5.1_1 Additional themes, sounds, wallpapers and window styles for

kdebase-3.5.1_2 Basic applications for the KDE system

kdebase-kompmgr-3.5.1 Utility needed to enable XComposite support in KDE

kdeedu-3.5.1 Collection of entertaining, educational programs for KDE

kdegames-3.5.1_1 Games for the KDE integrated X11 desktop

kdegraphics-3.5.1_2 Graphics utilities for the KDE3 integrated X11 desktop

kdehier-1.0_8 Utility port which installs a hierarchy of shared KDE direc

kdelibs-3.5.1_1 Base set of libraries needed by KDE programs

kdemultimedia-3.5.1_1 Multimedia utilities for the KDE integrated X11 desktop

kdenetwork-3.5.1 Network-related programs and modules for KDE

kdepim-3.5.1_1 Personal Information Management tools for KDE

kdesdk-3.5.1_1 KDE Software Development Kit

kdetoys-3.5.1_1 Small applications for KDE

kdeutils-3.5.1_1 Utilities for the KDE integrated X11 desktop

kdevelop-3.3.1_1 IDE for a wide variety of programming tasks

kdewebdev-3.5.1_1,2 Comprehensive html/website development environment

koffice-1.4.2_3,1 Office Suite for KDE3

lcms-1.14_1,1 Light Color Management System -- a color management library

libIDL-0.8.6_2 A library for creating trees of CORBA Interface Definition

libXft-2.1.7_1 A client-sided font API for X applications

libart_lgpl2-2.3.17_1 Library for high-performance 2D graphics

libaudiofile-0.2.6 A sound library for SGI audio file

libdrm-2.0_1 Userspace interface to kernel Direct Rendering Module servi

libgcrypt-1.2.2 "General purpose crypto library based on code used in GnuPG

libglut-6.4.1 A graphics library similar to SGI's OpenGL

libgmp-4.1.4_2 A free library for arbitrary precision arithmetic

libgpg-error-1.1 Common error values for all GnuPG components

libgsf-1.13.3_1 An extensible i/o abstraction for dealing with structured f

libiconv-1.9.2_2 A character set conversion library

libidn-0.6.2_1 Internationalized Domain Names command line tool

libltdl-1.5.22 System independent dlopen wrapper

libmad-0.15.1b_2 Libmad library (part of MAD project)

libmal-0.40 A library encapsulating malsync

libmng-1.0.9 Multiple-image Network Graphics (MNG) reference library

libogg-1.1.3,3 Ogg bitstream library

libpaper-1.1.14.3 A library providing routines for paper size management

libsamplerate-0.1.2_1 Secret Rabbit Code: a Sample Rate Converter for audio

libsndfile-1.0.14_1 Reading and writing files containing sampled sound (like WA

libtheora-1.0.a4_1 Theora video codec for the Ogg multimedia streaming system

libungif-4.1.4_1 Tools and library routines for working with GIF images

libusb-0.1.10a_2 Library giving userland programs access to USB devices

libvorbis-1.1.2,3 Audio compression codec library

libwpd-0.8.4_1 Tools for importing and exporting WordPerfect(tm) documents

libxml2-2.6.23_1 XML parser library for GNOME

libxslt-1.1.15_1 The XSLT C library for GNOME

linc-1.0.3_5 A library for writing networked servers & clients

linux_base-8-8.0_14 Base set of packages needed in Linux mode (for i386/amd64)

lua-5.0.2_1 Small, compilable scripting language providing easy access

m4-1.4.4 GNU m4

mDNSResponder-107.1_2 "Apple's mDNSResponder"

mysql-client-4.1.18_1 Multithreaded SQL database (client)

nas-1.7b Network Audio System

neon-0.25.4_1 An HTTP and WebDAV client library for Unix systems

net-snmp-5.2.2_1 An extendable SNMP implementation

open-motif-2.2.3_2 Motif X11 Toolkit (industry standard GUI (IEEE 1295))

openldap-client-2.2.30 Open source LDAP client implementation

openslp-1.2.1_2 Open-source implementation of the Service Location Protocol

pango-1.10.3_1 An open-source framework for the layout and rendering of i1

pcre-6.6_1 Perl Compatible Regular Expressions library

perl-5.8.8 Practical Extraction and Report Language

pilot-link-0.11.8_4,1 PalmPilot communications utilities (backup/restore/install/

pkgconfig-0.20 A utility to retrieve information about installed libraries

png-1.2.8_3 Library for manipulating PNG images

popt-1.7_1 A getopt(3) like library with a number of enhancements, fro

portaudio-18.1_2 Portable cross-platform Audio API

postgresql-client-7.4.12 PostgreSQL database (client)

postgresql-libpqxx-2.5.5 A new C++ interface for PostgreSQL

python-2.4.2 An interpreted object-oriented programming language

qca-tls-1.0_1 SSL/TLS plugin for Qt

qt-3.3.5 Multiplatform C++ application framework

samba-libsmbclient-3.0.21b Shared libs from the samba package

shared-mime-info-0.16_2 A MIME type database from the FreeDesktop project

speex-1.0.5_1,1 An open-source patent-free voice codec

subversion-1.3.0_4 Version control system

t1lib-5.1.0_1,1 A Type 1 Rasterizer Library for UNIX/X11

taglib-1.4_2 Library for manipulating ID3 tags and Ogg comments

tidy-20000804_2 Fixes and tidies up HTML files

tiff-3.8.0_1 Tools and library routines for working with TIFF images

urwfonts-1.0_1 Another font package for X

urwfonts-ttf-1.0.7b18 Unicode TrueType fonts from URW extended by Valek Filippov

wv2-0.2.2_2 A library providing routines to access Microsoft Word files

xorg-clients-6.9.0_2 X client programs and related files from X.Org

xorg-documents-6.9.0 Documentation of X11 protocol and libraries from X.Org

xorg-fonts-100dpi-6.9.0_1 X.Org 100dpi bitmap fonts

xorg-fonts-75dpi-6.9.0_1 X.Org 75dpi bitmap fonts

xorg-fonts-cyrillic-6.9.0_1 X.Org Cyrillic bitmap fonts

xorg-fonts-encodings-6.9.0_1 X.Org font encoding files

xorg-fonts-miscbitmaps-6.9.0_1 X.Org miscellaneous bitmap fonts

xorg-fonts-truetype-6.9.0 X.Org TrueType fonts

xorg-fonts-type1-6.9.0 X.Org Type1 fonts

xorg-fontserver-6.9.0_1 X font server from X.Org

xorg-libraries-6.9.0 X11 libraries and headers from X.Org

xorg-manpages-6.9.0 X.Org library manual pages

xorg-nestserver-6.9.0 Nesting X server from X.Org

xorg-printserver-6.9.0 X Print server from X.Org

xorg-server-6.9.0_1 X.Org X server and related programs

xorg-vfbserver-6.9.0 X virtual framebuffer server from X.Org

xpdf-3.01_2 Display PDF files, and convert them to other formats

xterm-206_1 Terminal emulator for the X Window System



As you can see, just those few ports/packages add a lot of stuff! I also followed the recommendation in the handbook for Using Fonts In X. Wonder if that will make stuff look better?

Luckily, all the hard work on my xorg.conf didn't go to waste. I just pasted the copy from my posting into /etc/X11 and I had my dual monitor set up and ready to go. But I still have a massively annoying problem here as I did with PC-BSD - double clicking the "System" icon on my desktop hangs my machine! I have no idea what that is. But there doesn't seem to be the system lockup after about 10 minutes, at least I haven't noticed it so far. I'm going to have to try and track down that freeze problem though.

(A little later) Actually, I take it back. I'm still seeing the intermittent hang/freeze. I have no idea what that could be. I'm going to try and cut back on the peripherals I have plugged in and see if that helps. I wonder if the "System" icon hang and this one are related? I let memtest86+ from The Ultimate Boot CD run for a couple of hours and it didn't find anything wrong with my memory, so that natural culprit is out.