FreeBSD 7.1 Content

[Marian Hettwer]

Hej Guido,

On Thu, 4 Sep 2008 17:07:36 +0200, Guido Falsi <mad at madpilot.net> wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 04, 2008 at 08:58:27AM -0600, Dan Allen wrote:
>>
>> I hope everyone realizes that I am not trying to "de-server" FreeBSD.  I
>> just remember how daunting it was for me to get X setup when all I
>> wanted to use was a web browser when I was new to it all.
>>
>> The early BSD releases had a simple check box to add X support and it
>> all just worked.  That was COOL.  That is what I am hoping to get back
>> into BSD.
> 
> But setting X up now is perhaps even harder than what it used to be, and
> common user expectation are higher. You can't get away by just
> installing a vesa server...People would telle you it's slow, they would
> expect the system to already accelerated drivers, if available.
>
Ah, I have to disagree.
The last few times I installed a FreeBSD with xorg, I was really pleased
how good xorg was in guessing my hardware in comparison to the olde days of
XFree86.
It was really, install xorg, run xorg -configure, take the config, install
the nvidia driver from ports and nvidia settings too, then replace "nv"
with "nvidia" in xorg.conf and with some clicks in the nvidia settings I
was up and running dual screen.
I thought to myself afterwards, Wow! that was easy. Used to be harder...
 
> Sure Vesa Xserver is more than enough for firefox....But newbies need to
> understand they will have to manually tweak xorg.conf anyway if they
> want a really working X setup.
>
And really, place a warning "You're using Vesa 'cause we couldn't find a
correct video driver" and off you go.
In fact, I would be surprised if the ubuntu folks would do it different.
Sometimes (hello newer ATI) you're lost in xorg land with some strange
graphic boards.

Cheers,
./Marian

PS.: am I the only one, thinking that this thread should move to -chat?