Newbie to Unix and my head hurts trying to boot it

[electronicsfreak]

First off , let me state I am a complete newbie to Unix. Ive been wanting to learn it for years and now finally getting around to it. I installed it following the manual ( at least I think ive got it installed lol).

Anyway I loaded up, logged in as root, then typed this down following the manual

SET BOOT_OSFLAGS A
SET BOOT_FILE ''
SET BOOTDEF_DEV DKC0
SET AUTO_ACTION BOOT

Well I entered those, it didnt throw any errors just went back to space. So I tried the other command it had for starting the boot

BOOT DKC0

That one brings up "command not found"

What am I doing wrong here? Thanks

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[burtsbees]

If you logged in as root, then the OS is booted already. What OS?
Also, to bring it down gracefully, type
init 0
and if it is Solaris, it will bring you to the OBP prompt, where it will allow you to set boot flags and such.

Burt

 

[electronicsfreak]

The os is freebsd. I was trying to get into like a visual part.

Something like this

http://www.osnews.com/img/5821/freebsd1.png

Or is it all dos prompt looking?

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[geirendre]

Have you checked the FreeBSD handbook?

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/

HTH

 

[electronicsfreak]

Yes, I mentioned above that is what I was following. The command it gave me is not working.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[petrosky]

Hi,

Have you tried typing Startx at the command prompt?

Peter.

Remember- It's nice to be important,
but it's important to be nice

 

[electronicsfreak]

not yet but ill try that. Thanks

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[macd68]

You need to configure X and start X services. The handbook has all the info you need on this.

 

[Tack24]

If you didn't download your xorg and kde/gnome desktops during the installation process you will need to either type:
cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg and type the following command 'make && make install clean' without the apostrophes, the same for either kde or gnome desktop environments, type: cd /usr/ports/x11/kde3 or, if you want gnome just place kde3 with gnome
and do that same command above.
word of advice, when you manually install these programs it can take hours upon hours, the reason for that is because it is building specifically for your machine for optimal performance, if you don't want to wait that long type this command at the prompt 'sysinstall' again without the apostrophes, make sure you are logged in as root
go to configure--->packages------->x11 and grab xorg and either kde or gnome and get the highest version number, and then install, when you get done exit install and then type xstart, if all goes well, it will start up with no problems, but if it breaks or throws up errors then you will need to configure your xorg server
best way that i found was graphically, type: xorgcfg at the prompt it will start up into a user graphic configuration environment, pick your monitor specs, mouse and mouse port, and then keyboard, then graphics controller(card), click quit, then save it, go back to prompt and type startx if you did it properly it will start right up

Hope this helps.

 

[Tack24]

word of advice" should be "word of caution", just so no one gets confused there

 

[Tack24]

Redo, fixing errors

If you didn't download your xorg and kde/gnome desktops during the installation process you will need to either type:
cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg and type the following command 'make && make install clean' without the apostrophes, the same for either kde or gnome desktop environments, type: cd /usr/ports/x11/kde3 or, if you want gnome just replace kde3 with gnome
and do that same command above.
word of caution, when you manually install these programs it can take hours upon hours, the reason for that is because it is building specifically for your machine for optimal performance, if you don't want to wait that long type this command at the prompt 'sysinstall' again without the apostrophes, make sure you are logged in as root
go to configure--->packages------->x11 and grab xorg and either kde or gnome and get the highest version number, and then install, when you get done exit install and then type startx, if all goes well, it will start up with no problems, but if it breaks or throws up errors then you will need to configure your xorg server
best way that i found was graphically, type: xorgcfg at the prompt it will start up into a user graphic configuration environment, pick your monitor specs, mouse and mouse port, and then keyboard, then graphics controller(card), click quit, then save it, go back to prompt and type startx if you did it properly it will start right up

Just fixing some errors in what i wrote, i know you're a newbie at Unix, don't want to confuse you.

Hope this helps.

 

[electronicsfreak]

Well that does look pretty straight forward. It will be a short while before I can get back to it. I will post back soon as im able to get to it. I appreciate the help from everyone. I know windows very well but due to personal interest and also my field, decided to start widening my horizon by learning more os's beginning with unix.

So if I happen to do something stupid and post something that seems dumb lol, have patience.

Either way thanks to all who are helping! Will post back with progress soon as I have a chance to mess with it.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[Tack24]

You will need a text editor too, as a person who is new to Unix, you may not want to use vi or vim right off the bat, they're very complicated for someone who is new, you can use an editor called 'pico' by typing sysinstall at the shell and then configure---->packages-->editors
when using pico all you have to do is hit the ctrl button on your keyboard and the preferred letters at the bottom of the pico program, you'll know what i mean when you see them.
pico isn't as sophisticated as vi or vim, but it'll do the job quickly and besides you can always learn vi or vim later.

By the way, when you get xorg completely configured there is one thing you will have to do and that is create an .xinitrc file in your root directory.
Type at the shell "after you logged into root of course."
type: pico .xinitrc remember to add the '.'(period/full stop) in front of xinitrc
then type: echo "exec startkde" > ~/.xinitrc in it and then save.
"The preceding command was for the kde desktop environment, the next command is for gnome.

If you got gnome instead you need to type: pico .xinitrc
type in the file:
echo "/usr/local/bin/gnome-session" > ~/.xinitrc and then save

one last thing you need to do is enable graphical user login if that will be your preferred method of logging in, you need to type: pico /etc/ttys at the shell and modify your ttyv8 line don't worry it's not that far down in the file

for kde's kdm modification edit the proceeding line as so

ttyv8 "/usr/local/bin/kdm -nodaemon" xterm on secure

you want to turn it 'on secure' without the apostrophes

for gnome's gdm do the follow

"The next line I'm copying and pasting from FreeBSD's handbook.

"The easiest way to start GNOME is with GDM, the GNOME Display Manager. GDM, which is installed as a part of the GNOME desktop (but is disabled by default), can be enabled by adding gdm_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf. Once you have rebooted, GNOME will start automatically once you log in -- no further configuration is necessary."

For a detailed explanation, you should always refer to the freebsd handbook. on the "5 The X Window System" section in the book on freebsd's website

http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/index.html

Hope that helps you too, and no worries, we were all newbies once too.

Don't forget to read the man pages too, here is one to get you started, type at the shell: man commands

 

[electronicsfreak]

When I type "cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg and type the following command 'make && make install clean'" it starts working then comes up with an error

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m40/ELECTRONICSFREAK/error1.jpg

Stop in /usr/ports/graphics/dri.
*** Error code 1

Stop in /usr/ports/x11/xorg.

Also, when I tried to find the package you instructed me, it was not listed or I didnt do it right. I took a screenshot of it as well.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m40/ELECTRONICSFREAK/cantfind.jpg

What am I doing wrong here? Thanks!

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[Tack24]

Try cd /usr/ports/x11/kde
or alternatively you can cd to /usr/ports/x11 and type 'ls' at the shell to verify that kde is there if so then type cd /kde while you are in the x11 directory.

for the first error message, i'm not really sure why it's doing that, you will have to resolve that first before you attempt to download and install kde I'm assuming.

why don't you try sysinstall? just type sysinstall at the shell and go to configure------->packages------->x11 and then grab xorg and kde that way, see if that will do it

 

[Tack24]

when you want to see all of the directory in x11 just hit your scroll lock and then your up and down arrow keys