no user interface

[mailist at whoweb.com]

As others have eluded to, FreeBSD does not provide a windows based user 
interface after an installation.  The graphics you do eventually setup on the 
system will be based upon X windows (see www.xfree86.org).  Unlike Microsoft, 
there are numerous options for graphical windows interfaces that can be 
installed and used on unix machines.  Therefore, there is no "standard" or 
default windows configuration after installation although arguably there 
could be and people could change it later on.  The Freesbie 
(www.freesbie.org) have done some nice work related to automating the process 
of detecting graphics cards and their parameters for X.

The X configuration procedure can be daunting for a novice user, so be 
prepared to spend some time doing it and asking lots of questions.  But 
you'renot done yet even if you get X working.  You are most likely going to 
want a "desktop environment" like KDE (www.kde.org) or GNOME (www.gnome.org) 
based upon what I *think* you might be looking for.  This is another layer of 
software that interacts with X to "manage" your desktop windows and provide 
easy interfaces for adding background images, changing colors, fonts, etc.  
Once you get here, your average person would have a hard time looking at the 
monitor and telling you what operating system was running on the system.  The 
current KDE desktop environment is very user-friendly and looks alot like 
what you are used to with Microsoft.

You can select X and a desktop environment as part of the FreeBSD 
installation.  Unless you have very specific needs I suggest you select the 
package option that gives you everything.  I don't recall the exact wording, 
but it's something like "all sources, docs, games, and X".  Your 10gig is 
plenty big enough for all of this.  At some point during the installation you 
will be offered the opportunity to select a windows manager and you can 
select which one you want.  I use KDE only because when I was in your 
situation someone pointed me to KDE and I just stuck with it.  If they had 
told me about Gnome, I'd probably still be using that one.  There are many 
other desktop software packages available as well.  If you have the time, I 
suggest you do a search for unix desktop software or unix window manager
and check out all the options.  Most have screenshots available on their 
respective web sites.

To get where you want to go, you need to:
1) Install FreeBSD
2) Install X
3) Install kde, gnome, or some other desktop manager
4) Configure X for your specific graphics card and monitor.  You'll need to 
know EXACTLY which model graphics card you have and the technical specs of 
your monitor.
5) Run "startx" after logging in, or configure the system to start X and let 
your desktop manager take care of the login process.

It's a lot of work, but the results are worth it.    I've gotten to the point 
where I use my FBSD/KDE desktop for 95% of my needs.  No cost, no licenses.
Just take it one step at a time and you'll get to where you want to go.  The 
latest iterations of xfree86 and kde web sites have gotten very good with 
their install and configure documentation so there is lots of info available 
to start you off.



On Tuesday 24 August 2004 06:19 pm, james heck wrote:
> I just installed 5.2.1 via download onto cdr media. I left about 10 gigs
> open for freebsd, and left 9 for my win2000. the dual boot works fine on my
> dell laptop, however when i go to load freebsd 5.2.1, i cant get into a
> graphical interface. Instead it stays in a "dos-like" interface with
> commands only. It recognizes my user name and the admin name of root, but
> there is only a command line and no background. i installed cd1, i have a
> boot only and a second disc which i have not installed. please point me in
> the correct direction
>
> james heck
>
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