install of xfce4 from ports collection on FreeBSD 6.1 failed - Maurice

Warren Block wblock at wonkity.com
Sun Nov 29 19:38:39 UTC 2009


On Sun, 29 Nov 2009, Maurice wrote:

> The only reason I have chosen FreeBSD 6.1 is because I am installing 
> on a Rocketraid 1520 Raid controller and 6.1 is the latest version of 
> FreeBSD that they had a driver module for. If there was a way around 
> this limitation I would take it (I suppose I could buy a newer raid 
> controller, but this was already the 3rd one I tried and chose it 
> because it is an older model, just as my PC is...) In any case, 
> building a driver module myself, I am afraid is beyond my current 
> skill set, though I don't even really know how difficult that would 
> be.

[Please don't top-post because it makes reading and replying to your 
messages more difficult.]

When you're shopping for hardware for FreeBSD, it usually easier to 
check what is supported by FreeBSD rather than the other way around. 
http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi will let you do an apropos search 
through the man pages, so you can search by manufacturer or model 
number.  I don't see anything for the 1520, although maybe one of the 
other RocketRAID drivers will work.  In my experience, depending on 
manufacturer-supplied drivers makes you a hostage of that manufacturer. 
They can drop support at any time, and leave you with useless hardware. 
Actually, that may be what has already happened with that controller.

> The first thing I did after installing the kernel was fetch an updated 
> version of the ports, so this is an inconsistancy between the kernel 
> version and the ports. The version of the libdrm port  under 
> /usr/ports/graphics/ is 2.4.12.

I don't understand what you're saying there.  The ports aren't tied to 
the kernel--two different things.  But you clearly have old versions of 
the ports installed (not the ports tree, the applications themselves), 
and they will have to be updated to work with what's in the current 
ports tree.

> I am going to be using this box as a webserver, so I would like to go 
> with that most stable solution to this.

The obvious solution is to not install X on a webserver at all.  X isn't 
needed for that and brings other concerns.  But it sounds like this 
machine won't be just a web server.

> Should I try with version 2.4.12?

If you want xfce4, there's no choice.  But it won't just be libdrm, 
it'll be lots of other things that will be needed by the newer libdrm 
and xfce4.

An easier way would be to update the ports tree, delete all of your 
installed ports with "pkg_delete -a", and start installing applications 
from scratch.  That will bring in the proper dependencies and not have 
any conflicts with old versions (because there won't be any).  However, 
I'm not sure that all of what you need for xfce4 will work on FreeBSD 
6.1.

> Are there other lightwieght desktop environments that do not have a 
> libdrm dependency?

Window managers, sure.  fluxbox is popular.

> Do you think a 6.1 rocketraid driver module would work just as well 
> with FreeBSD 7.2 or 8?

Maybe; have you checked with the manufacturer?

> Can this driver compatibility issue be resolved some how by building a 
> custom kernel?

Probably not.

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA


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