Re: Software installasion (Was: Re: Wine without X)
Mel Flynn wrote: On Saturday 28 March 2009 13:06:44 Robert Huff wrote: Mel Flynn writes: Can I ask one more possibly really dumb question, to which I can find no answer: Is there a 'conventional', or sensible for one reason oranother, place to download application source to? Most systems I use or inherited use a variation of ~/src ~/cvs or ~/svn, where src are the tarballs + their extracted source and cvs/svn checkouts and/or exports. I have never done this, but if I were running a private ports tree I would be tempted to root it (if not on a separate partition) at /usr/priv_ports or something similar and have the structure minic /usr/ports whereever possible. The name would then be semi-intuitive, and a simple change of a few environment variables (perhaps in the login file of an account dedicated to working on those ports) would be all it took to change the framework. A private portstree (as in: uses the ports framework for compiling and installing software, including registering the port in /var/db/pkg) is best kept in /usr/ports/local. One needs to set VALID_CATEGORIES=local in /etc/make.conf and optionally add SUBDIR+=local in /usr/ports/Makefile.local if one cares about the ports ending up in the INDEX and make search. Ideally software not registering itself inside /var/db/pkg (as in software compiled by hand) should NOT be installed in $LOCALBASE (/usr/local by default) as there is no guarantee through the ports CONFLICTS mechanism, that a port overwrites files installed by your hand-compiled software. Many thanks to all who have helped on this one. I managed to get wine installed without X and it works :) However my application doesn't :( Most of the errors are concerned with MS Visual C++ libraries, which I have unconfirmed indications might be solved with 'winetricks' http://wiki.winehq.org/winetricks. However, I think using winetricks means I need X anyway. So, I will leave it for now and try again after a bit more research. Thanks for all the ideas about where to download/install custom apps - the one that appeals most at this stage is a jail, partly because I have never played with them, and I think I should progress my learning in that direction. However I find the other answers very useful insights too. Given that winetricks calls itself a 'quick and dirty script', along with the fact that the current wine port doesn't work, I think I see another manual installation coming on. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Wine without X
Paul Schmehl wrote: So, you *could* do this: su - to root Download the wine tarball and untar it Go in to the wine directory and type the following, in order: ./configure --without-x make depends make make install That will install wine on your system without X. Figuring out how to get your rendering binary to run is an exercise for you. :-) I left wine without x installed on my system. If you have questions, I *may* be able to help. Can I ask one more possibly really dumb question, to which I can find no answer: Is there a 'conventional', or sensible for one reason or another, place to download application source to? Presumably you don't want it mixed up in the ports distfiles, or in the system's source directory. I know this sounds very silly, and the answer might be 'wherever you like', but I do like to learn the conventions which usually have good reasons behind them. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Wine without X
I'm sorry if I'm asking in the wrong place, but I have tried elsewhere and go no response. I want to install wine, but without X on the system. Obviously trying to do this from ports drags in loads of X-related stuff. There doesn't seem to be a WITHOUT_X11 knob available for the wine port (presuambly because hardly anyone would want it). I guess that leaves me installing it the 'old-fashioned' way, but unfortunately my inexperience leaves me floundering here! Because FreeBSD has such a wonderful ports system, all documentation I can find for installing from source refers to ports, and I have not found a single one showing a layman how to install from source manually, and what problems I have to look out for. As you can probably tell, I lack a lot experience, so keep it fairly monosyllabic please! (In case you wonder what on earth I want this for, it is to run a 'render slave' which is Windows only, and simply runs in the background - it would not even count as a 'console application'. I have three very underused FreeBSD servers and they could do with some rendering work to keep them from getting bored, but I don't want X cluttering them up.) Any help gratefully received Thanks Barnaby Scott ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Wine without X
Bill Moran wrote: In response to Barnaby Scott b...@waywood.co.uk: I'm sorry if I'm asking in the wrong place, but I have tried elsewhere and go no response. I want to install wine, but without X on the system. Why would you expect this to be possible? The GUI is an integral part of MS Windows ... I can't imagine how wine would work at all without X installed -- which is probably why you're not getting any answers. Perhaps you should back up and consider what you're trying to accomplish. If you don't need a GUI, then what programs do you expect to run under wine, and is there some better way to get them? Thanks for your reply I know this is possible because I have seen discussion of it in Linux and wine forums. I'm just too inexperienced to know which bits of the instructions are OS-specific, and what other nightmares I might face. I might be able to figure it all out by weeks of trial and error, but that seems crazy if someone has been there before me! As for why I want it to run, that is because the application I want to run is a bolt-on to a specific bit of rendering software that we use, and there really is no viable non-Windows replacement in our situation - believe me, if there was, I'd be using it. (In case you care, we are talking about Vray for Rhino, which we use because we use Rhino, and because we use Rhino we chose RhinoCAM, and because we chose RhinoCAM I spent weeks writing software to make it talk to our CNC equipment, whose controller is inextricably Windows-based... you get the picture!) In answer to the other replies (thanks to you guys too): Yes, wine is fine with just the command prompt. It is somewhat confusing in that it offers a thing called wineconsole, but ironically that *does* appear to require X. Just using wine without X is fine, so long as the app does not attempt to open any sort of window, system tray etc. As for the 'cluttering' - I'm not so worried about disk space, that's cheap these days. It's more a question of updating ports. When I once made the mistake of installing X and various other things I turned out not to need, the process of updating everything became a nightmare - stuff breaking because I hadn't read the updating info for a bunch of fonts or something stupid like that. Multiply that by 3 servers, and, well, no thanks! ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Wine without X
Jeff Laine wrote: On Thu, Mar 26, 2009 at 05:12:17PM +, Barnaby Scott wrote: Bill Moran wrote: In response to Barnaby Scott b...@waywood.co.uk: I'm sorry if I'm asking in the wrong place, but I have tried elsewhere and go no response. I want to install wine, but without X on the system. Why would you expect this to be possible? The GUI is an integral part of MS Windows ... I can't imagine how wine would work at all without X installed -- which is probably why you're not getting any answers. Perhaps you should back up and consider what you're trying to accomplish. If you don't need a GUI, then what programs do you expect to run under wine, and is there some better way to get them? Thanks for your reply I know this is possible because I have seen discussion of it in Linux and wine forums. I'm just too inexperienced to know which bits of the instructions are OS-specific, and what other nightmares I might face. I might be able to figure it all out by weeks of trial and error, but that seems crazy if someone has been there before me! As for why I want it to run, that is because the application I want to run is a bolt-on to a specific bit of rendering software that we use, and there really is no viable non-Windows replacement in our situation - believe me, if there was, I'd be using it. (In case you care, we are talking about Vray for Rhino, which we use because we use Rhino, and because we use Rhino we chose RhinoCAM, and because we chose RhinoCAM I spent weeks writing software to make it talk to our CNC equipment, whose controller is inextricably Windows-based... you get the picture!) In answer to the other replies (thanks to you guys too): Yes, wine is fine with just the command prompt. It is somewhat confusing in that it offers a thing called wineconsole, but ironically that *does* appear to require X. Just using wine without X is fine, so long as the app does not attempt to open any sort of window, system tray etc. As for the 'cluttering' - I'm not so worried about disk space, that's cheap these days. It's more a question of updating ports. When I once made the mistake of installing X and various other things I turned out not to need, the process of updating everything became a nightmare - stuff breaking because I hadn't read the updating info for a bunch of fonts or something stupid like that. Multiply that by 3 servers, and, well, no thanks! wineconsole app seems working fine in terminal with no X at all. I ran it like this: ./wineconsole --backend=curses cmd OK thanks, I stand corrected (just shows how unreliable GOOGLING sometimes is!) If/when I can get this working I will check out wineconsole, though as I said, the app I want to run has no visible output at all, console or otherwise - it just talks to the main renderer over the network, but (dammit) is a Windows binary. Barnaby ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to freebsd-questions-unsubscr...@freebsd.org
Re: Absolute FreeBSD
cpghost wrote: On Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:48:19 -0800 Ted Mittelstaedt [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Joshua Isom Although I haven't looked much into any FreeBSD book, I wouldn't be surprised at all if FreeBSD's documentation combined with freebsd-questions would outweigh it. It's not the raw knowledge that is the power. It's the presentation. Newbies cannot digest the FreeBSD docs since the docs assume the user isn't a newbie. Right! One can't emphasize this enough. IMHO, computer books should be time savers, i.e. a guide highlighting the most important aspects of some topic in a unique way. Authors of such books shouldn't be afraid to tell readers to go RTFM after presenting an overview... unless it's a very narrowly focused book. A good tutorial beats a 350 pages book anytime; and a 350 pages book with the right mix of selected topics beats an 800+ pages reference-style all-rounder book as well, most of the time. -cpghost. I wasn't going to reply to this thread because I cannot answer the specific question - i.e. is this book worth it for someone who has read the first one - because I haven't read the first one. However, since no-one who has read the new one seems to have given an opinion of the book, I can at least do that. I have just finished it and I would say it does exactly what what Ted and cpghost suggests it should - there are plenty of sections where the author introduces what can be done with a particular tool or part of the OS, and suggests to the reader to investigate further options in the approriate manuals. It also quite openly acknowledges that there is plenty that is not covered at all. As someone with very limited experience (I'm not sure if I still classify as a *complete* newbie) I found the book an excellent and even entertaining read, which serves it purpose extremely well: to give an overview and introduction, but with enough detail in relevant places to be able to get real, useful stuff done. The detail is important because it provides enough 'immersion' in actual configurations, commands, protocols etc to begin to see patterns emerging, and to start to develop an instinct for how something you haven't seen yet is likely to hang together. However the overview aspect is also vital - I have always found it much easier to unearth detailed how-tos than to know which direction to go in in the first place! I would say he had the balance just about right. It is aimed pretty squarely at budding sysadmins, not desktop users (X is hardly even mentioned), but managed to be far from stodgy. As for the version covered, there are a few bits that explicitly mention version 7, but everything else seemed totally relevant to me on 6.2. Barnaby Scott ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Absolute FreeBSD
Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: -Original Message- From: Barnaby Scott [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 7:22 AM To: cpghost Cc: Ted Mittelstaedt; FreeBSD Mailing List Subject: Re: Absolute FreeBSD It is aimed pretty squarely at budding sysadmins, not desktop users (X is hardly even mentioned), We have many FreeBSD servers at my job that do many different things for people. Only 1 of them requires X in any form at all - and all it uses are the X libraries to do some graphics processing. It does not run a window manager. You can get a huge amount of useful work done on FreeBD without having anything to do with X. Ted It wasn't a criticism - I just wanted to point out the sort of audience the book speaks to: people who run servers - who, as you say, have little or no need for X. I wanted to learn exactly the sort of stuff the book focused on, and loved it. Barnaby ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Freebsd filesystem ( hard reboot )
Peter Schuller wrote: My understanding from the reading I have done is that in a situation like this where power outages are a danger (and presuably having the UPS signal the server to shut down gracefully is not practical), you need to make the file system as robust as possible in the first place, rather than rely on fsck -y after the event. Doesn't fsck -y rather sweep potential problems under the carpet? fsck is not sweeping potential problems under the carpet, as long as nothing unexpected goes wrong (software bug, hardware problem). The reason fsck works to begin with, is that it is designed to fix specific inconsistencies in the file system that are expected. The file system (takling about UFS here, and other non-journaled file systems that care about this stuff) is designed very carefully such that certain correctable inconsistencies happen, while preventing those that are not correctable. That is, under fully expected circumstances, UFS is intended to require fsck on reboot. But it is NOT intended that fsck find unexpected inconcistencies and ask for operator intervention. Exactly, which is why I thought that just bypassing all those interventions with -y was 'brushing under the carpet'. No? What happens in the event of write caching + power failure, software bug or hardware bugs, is that you end up with semi-random inconsistencies. fsck *may* be able to patch the situation enough for the file system to be usable, but fundamentally all bets are off. First step surely is to *disable* write caching if you have drives that are doing it? For UFS/reiserfs/xfs/jfs/ext3fs/ext2fs, yes. Then consider mounting the file system synchronously. Mind you, I don't know what the scale of the performance loss would be, and whether anyone does this nowadays! Synchronous mounting is not required for consistency (except perhaps for ext2fs; not sure). It is enough that the system does not break the file system's ability to guarantee ordering of certain critical operations, which is why write caching causes a problem (the drive re-orders writes for performance and you end up with B happening before A, but consistency depended on B happening AFTER A). I realise it would normally be excessively cautious to go for synchronous mounting, but what about for environments where power supply is such a major problem? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Freebsd filesystem ( hard reboot )
On Thu, December 6, 2007 4:42 pm, Randy Ramsdell wrote: Vince wrote: Randy Ramsdell wrote: We started using FreeBSD for some network monitoring, but have found that a hard reboot forces us to answer filesytem questions on boot. Is there a way to mount each filesystem without this? Or how can we use FreeBSD in a remote location without needing to intervene in situatutions like this? This is unusual in my experience, part of the charm of FreeBSD for me is how rarely I have had to interact with fsck thanks to the whole background fsck thing. What version of FreeBSD are you using? Assuming a 5.x or later since you say you've started to use FreeBSD. I am fairly sure it is v6.2 What is the value of background_fsck in /etc/rc.conf ? This isn't set. Was is supposed to be? So far, I have only installed applications we need. And everything seem fine except the reboot issue. This will be an offsite system so I do not want human intervention on boot for power outages or hard reboots. You can also try setting fsck_y_enable=YES in rc.conf (this will do fsck -y if the initial preen fails.) I will use this. Do you mean by try, that this will work? I assume so. Thanks Vince! I should first say that I am pretty new to all this, so my response is intended as a question as much as an answer! My understanding from the reading I have done is that in a situation like this where power outages are a danger (and presuably having the UPS signal the server to shut down gracefully is not practical), you need to make the file system as robust as possible in the first place, rather than rely on fsck -y after the event. Doesn't fsck -y rather sweep potential problems under the carpet? First step surely is to *disable* write caching if you have drives that are doing it? Then consider mounting the file system synchronously. Mind you, I don't know what the scale of the performance loss would be, and whether anyone does this nowadays! As I say, don't rely on my knowledge, but I was prompted to write by your latching on to a suggestion that was probably not intended to be the whole solution. Barnaby Scott ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dell PE4600 RAID5 server failing
I suspect I already know the answer to this, which is that the trouble I am having is nothing to do with the OS at all, but I have to ask, because I am otherwise up against a total brick wall! I bought a second-hand Dell Poweredge 4600 and installed FreeBSD 6.2 earlier this year. I had it set up with RAID5 using its PERC3/DC controller, with 7 x 73GB disks (+ 1 hot spare). So far so good, and it worked faultlessly as a Samba server for several months. At the beginning of October, it went down, reporting a mismatch between the configuration on the NVRAM and the disks. With help from Dell support, I managed to recreate the RAID array and it worked again for a month. In early November it happened again, and has kept happening since. At one point it appeared that the backplane was faulty, so I replaced that, but I cannot keep the server up for more than a day or so without this 'mismatch' poblem. What about diagnostics on the hardware you may ask? I have run all the diagnostic tools that Dell can supply - several times - and the server declares itself to be totally fault-free. My specific questions therefore: Is there any way at all that FreeBSD could be invloved with this problem? (I did notice for example that the Dell PERC3/DC controller was not in the list of supported hardware - but then again, why did it work for several months?) Can I use FreeBSD to tell me anything about the fault that Dell's diagnostic tools haven't found? (I do hope someone might be able to help - Dell are trying to get me to switch to a 'supported' OS!) Thanks Barnaby Scott ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Dell PE4600 RAID5 server failing
Derek Ragona wrote: At 09:00 AM 11/14/2007, Barnaby Scott wrote: I suspect I already know the answer to this, which is that the trouble I am having is nothing to do with the OS at all, but I have to ask, because I am otherwise up against a total brick wall! I bought a second-hand Dell Poweredge 4600 and installed FreeBSD 6.2 earlier this year. I had it set up with RAID5 using its PERC3/DC controller, with 7 x 73GB disks (+ 1 hot spare). So far so good, and it worked faultlessly as a Samba server for several months. At the beginning of October, it went down, reporting a mismatch between the configuration on the NVRAM and the disks. With help from Dell support, I managed to recreate the RAID array and it worked again for a month. In early November it happened again, and has kept happening since. At one point it appeared that the backplane was faulty, so I replaced that, but I cannot keep the server up for more than a day or so without this 'mismatch' poblem. What about diagnostics on the hardware you may ask? I have run all the diagnostic tools that Dell can supply - several times - and the server declares itself to be totally fault-free. My specific questions therefore: Is there any way at all that FreeBSD could be invloved with this problem? (I did notice for example that the Dell PERC3/DC controller was not in the list of supported hardware - but then again, why did it work for several months?) Can I use FreeBSD to tell me anything about the fault that Dell's diagnostic tools haven't found? (I do hope someone might be able to help - Dell are trying to get me to switch to a 'supported' OS!) Thanks Barnaby Scott It doesn't sound like any OS issue as you set up the RAID outside the OS. It may be a bad drive or drive(s). Most RAID drives have RAID information written to the drives, and if this becomes unreadable you will have RAID faults. Another likely culprit is heat. Overheating drives often fail. Are you sure the temperatures in the drive enclosure is OK? If you can, run diagnostics on the drives, this usually requires running these with the drives taken out of the RAID array though. -Derek Thanks for replying - as I said, this is a long shot trying to see if there is any OS involvement. The drives are fine - I have used two different tools to analyse them while the computer is booted from a live CD and the RAID configuration cleared on the controller. Besides, you would expect one drive to fail at a time, and if this happened, the hot spare would surely be pressed into service. Nothing like this has happened though - the controller is reporting several drives (not always the same ones) failed simultaneously, but when the array is re-created from the disks, everything works fine. Problem is, it goes down again a day or so later. As for heat, there is nothing being reported there and the fans that cool that area are working. Any other ideas gratefully received! Barnaby Scott ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Gradual move to own mail server - strategy for noob
Hi, I'm trying to replace my current arrangement for email, and though I have read as much as possible on it, I just want to check if I am on the right lines with what I'm planning. (Is that a legitimate use of this list?) It's the same old story, when you're a beginner it is very hard to take even small steps until you have a grasp of the 'big picture', and know what direction you should be going. So I'd be glad of any opinions, pointers, or How-Tos that I may not have spotted. If you read the rest of this, you may think that I'm trying to implement something way too heavyweight for what I need at the moment, and you'd be right! However, I want to learn, and enjoy trying to master the big boys' toys. OK, so here's where I am: 8 users 3 or 4 Windows machines including a laptop - users may use any/all of these New FreeBSD server so far only operating as a Samba server (PDC). Email is downloaded by individual clients from ISP via POP3 - user must be at specific machine to access their local mail folders. If elsewhere, they must use webmail, but of course sent messages, replied flags etc are then inconsistent, besides which messages are only left on the (ISP) server for a limited time. Here is where I want to get to: IMAP server on my FreeBSD box (and using Maildir is my instinctive preference.) Ultimately, but not yet, I want to start using the FreeBSD machine as a proper mailserver - i.e. get a static IP address and point the MX record hosted by my provider at it. For now though I am happy to fetch from the existing mailboxes that they host for me. Again, not necessarily now, but when I am fully up and running, run spam and virus checking (that's done for me now, but inevitably could be improved on.) What I _think_ I want to do is this: Install Fetchmail to get mail from my various hosted mailboxes Configure Sendmail, which I accepted as the default mailer Install Procmail to deliver messages in Maildir format (to users' home directories?) Install Courier IMAP as the IMAP server Ultimately, then drop Fetchmail and reconfigure Sendmail for receiving mail directly, and add anti- spam and virus tools. Have I got this about right? Do I really need 4 separate tools to do this? Have I overlooked something more obvious/elegant? Where are my big pitfalls going to be? If replying, please keep in mind my embarrassing level of inexperience!! Thanks Barnaby Scott ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PERC 3/DC RAID controller
I have recently aquired a server which is a Dell PowerEdge 4600 with a PERC 3/DC RAID controller. I was just about to start intalling FreeBSD 6.2, but noticed the hardware notes mentions practically every other Dell RAID controller except this one! Does anyone know if it will work? I have a horrible suspicion I will be back with plenty of questions in the coming weeks as I wrestle with this, my first ever server, and my first 'for real' use of FreeBSD! However I am reading all I can, especially the FreeBSD handbook. Thanks Barnaby Scott ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: NFS Server and MS Windows
On Mon, June 19, 2006 9:17 pm, DSA - JCR wrote: Hi all I am mounting a NFS server (FreeBSD 6.1 amd64) for a MS Windows Network for a customer and I see that I can not see the NFS server from windows boxes. Must I install Samba for that? or anything in the MS Windows boxes? I thougth that Windows understand NFS but seems to be not. best regards and thanks in advance Juan Coruña Desarrollo de Software Atlantico I've never actually done this, but I read about it because it is something I want to do, at least temporarily, as I migrate from Windows to FreeBSD. (Ironically all the Microsft documentation on the subject assumes you are migrating the other way!) However, I think you need to search Microsoft's site, and look up how to install their 'Client for NFS' (or 'Gateway for NFS' depending on your network) ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Gtk-Warning **: Cannot open display
John Nielsen wrote: On Tuesday 16 May 2006 17:07, Barnaby Scott wrote: Kevin Kinsey wrote: Barnaby Scott wrote: So, I installed Firefox from ports, having made sure everything was bang up to date. Evrything seemed to go perfectly well, but lo and behold, first attempt to use it and I get this: (firefox-bin:582): Gtk-Warning **: Cannot open display What the..? I have searched for this problem and found plenty of references similar error messages, but none of it seems to apply in my case. I am not trying to run Firefox as root, I am not doing it from a remote terminal, I am not standing in a bucket of water, I have the computer plugged in. I think these are Good Things(tm), 'though I have been able to operate a browser whilst standing in a bucket of water. Q: Are you running an X display at the time this message is given, or are you attempting to run Firefox from the console? Kevin Kinsey I have tried both. It is running from the console that gives the message quoted - if I am running an X display at the time it fails with no message at all. This is a Firefox oddity. It needs to be run as root one time after it is installed (or [sometimes] upgraded). Do this from an xterm: cd su cp .Xauthority /root firefox Assuming the browser window comes up, you can just close it. You should be able to run it as a regular user afterwards. JN Thanks for both bits of advice - one of them worked, though I'm not sure which! So now I can strat Firefox from an xterm, but 2 things still puzzle me though: 1) Forgive my stupidity, but why can I not start Firefox from the console? Or rather, what could I do to make it do so with a single command? 2) I thought Firefox wasn't going to start from the xterm, but really it just took ages - far longer than I am used to with my old OS (same machine). Is there something I am missing here too? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Gtk-Warning **: Cannot open display
On Thu, May 18, 2006 2:51 pm, Kevin Kinsey wrote: Barnaby Scott wrote: So now I can strat Firefox from an xterm, but 2 things still puzzle me though: 1) Forgive my stupidity, but why can I not start Firefox from the console? Or rather, what could I do to make it do so with a single command? I'm perfectly willing to be wrong, flamed, and corrected, but my counter question (and it seems a good one to me): how do you expect to run a graphical program in a non-graphical environment? I'm certainly not going to flame or correct you! I'm afraid it shows the profundity of my ignorance at this stage, but at least I have browser functionality without rebooting back into Windows now, so looking up solutions and sorting my own problems just got a whole lot easier. I guess my beginner's reasoning was something like this: if a program needs a gui to work, then maybe it has a mechanism to fire one up when needed, in the same way it will look for and use whatever libraries or resources it needs. Oh dear, looks like I have loads more reading to do. Thanks for your help If you wish, you could add firefox to your ~/.xinitrc or (? .Xresources ?) file, and then firefox would be called when you called startx to invoke X Windows. 2) I thought Firefox wasn't going to start from the xterm, but really it just took ages - far longer than I am used to with my old OS (same machine). Is there something I am missing here too? I couldn't say. I've used firefox, and more often the entire Mozilla suite (which is now 'Seamonkey'). It probably starts slower and hangs more often than any other program I run on FreeBSD, (with the possible exception of the xrayswarm screen saver) but I can't say why or that I've even done much investigating. I did build a 'debug' version of Seamonkey last time, but I've not yet done anything with it. FWIW, it seems a tad less prone to some of the behavior I saw with Mozilla (which seems strange, perhaps). Of course, I use it heavily, so perhaps that characterization is flawed. Kevin Kinsey ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Gtk-Warning **: Cannot open display
Oh dear! I thought I was getting somewhere, but progress is painfully slow until I can istall a browser and get it to work, so that I can look up solutions to the avalanche of 'challenges' that seem to befalling this newbie! So, I installed Firefox from ports, having made sure everything was bang up to date. Evrything seemed to go perfectly well, but lo and behold, first attempt to use it and I get this: (firefox-bin:582): Gtk-Warning **: Cannot open display What the..? I have searched for this problem and found plenty of references similar error messages, but none of it seems to apply in my case. I am not trying to run Firefox as root, I am not doing it from a remote terminal, I am not standing in a bucket of water, I have the computer plugged in. Any clues? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Gtk-Warning **: Cannot open display
Kevin Kinsey wrote: Barnaby Scott wrote: So, I installed Firefox from ports, having made sure everything was bang up to date. Evrything seemed to go perfectly well, but lo and behold, first attempt to use it and I get this: (firefox-bin:582): Gtk-Warning **: Cannot open display What the..? I have searched for this problem and found plenty of references similar error messages, but none of it seems to apply in my case. I am not trying to run Firefox as root, I am not doing it from a remote terminal, I am not standing in a bucket of water, I have the computer plugged in. I think these are Good Things(tm), 'though I have been able to operate a browser whilst standing in a bucket of water. Q: Are you running an X display at the time this message is given, or are you attempting to run Firefox from the console? Kevin Kinsey I have tried both. It is running from the console that gives the message quoted - if I am running an X display at the time it fails with no message at all. Barnaby ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: very slow boot (newbie)
Many thanks to all who have helped me on this one - I won't post a message in response to every suggestion, but they have all helped - thank you! It turns out it was sendmail causing the delay, so now my /etc/rc.comf reads: hostname=frankbruno ifconfig_re0=DHCP keymap=uk.iso linux_enable=YES moused_enable=YES saver=logo usbd_enable=YES sendmail_enable=NONE (Someone asked what was in this file). The last line that I have just added does cure the problem. But... ...it does not cure the problem for me if I decide that I do want sendmail! I could cross that bridge when I come to it, but I would prefer to gain some insight here if anyone can bear any more on this topic. Adding 127.0.0.1 frankbruno to /etc/hosts did not cure the problem. Could that be because the lookup that causes the delay is a reverse one? If so, it would be trying to find a name for 192.168.0.4 (I think that's the one I have been getting recently) which is still not in hosts. I would rather not mess with the IP allocation if possible - having it automatic is much more useful and means I cannot create condradictory records in different places. Looking in /var/run/dmesg.boot turned up nothing obvious to me at least, booting in Safe Mode made no difference, and verbose logging turned up nothing. However, I did discover a tip posted a couple of years ago, and that was to press ^T when the boot stalled. God knows what this does, but it turned up the following response: load: 0.85 cmd:sendmail 454 [kqread] 0.00u 0.01s 0% 1912k I thinks that answers all the things that were suggested - can anyone see a way of reinstating sendmail without the stalled boot process, and without having to reserve specific IP addresses for each computer? Barnaby Scott ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: very slow boot (newbie)
Gerard Seibert wrote: Daniel Bye wrote: On Sat, May 13, 2006 at 07:28:06PM +0100, Barnaby Scott wrote: It turns out it was sendmail causing the delay, so now my /etc/rc.comf reads: sendmail_enable=NONE This is fine, but according to rc.sendmail(8) `NONE' is deprecated and will be removed in a future release (but, to be honest, it's been going to be removed in a future release for quite some time now... ;-). It's more typing, but the preferred way to disable sendmail these days is this: sendmail_enable=NO sendmail_submit_enable=NO sendmail_outbound_enable=NO sendmail_msp_queue_enable=NO This prevents any of the various sendmail daemons from starting. In that case, what handles the delivery of mail locally? At the moment I have the slightly perverse, but workable, situation whereby we send internal mail via the internet - it all goes through my hosting company's SMTP servers. In these days of always-on conections it is not as stupid as it sounds, and they offer such a good service that before I get to grips with FreeBSD myself, it suits me very well. (BTW they use FreeBSD, and deserve any bigging-up going: www.gradwell.com) ...it does not cure the problem for me if I decide that I do want sendmail! I could cross that bridge when I come to it, but I would prefer to gain some insight here if anyone can bear any more on this topic. I would suggest you look at ssmtp in the ports. It is a very simple mail forwarding daemon, that you configure with the IP address of another, full MTA to which ssmtp will send all your outgoing messages. Your ISP probably runs a suitable server for their customers' use. It means you won't have to worry about your IP address and DNS resolution and all the other things that go with running a full MTA, like sendmail, exim or postfix. Adding 127.0.0.1 frankbruno to /etc/hosts did not cure the problem. Could that be because the lookup that causes the delay is a reverse one? If so, it would be trying to find a name for 192.168.0.4 (I think that's the one I have been getting recently) which is still not in hosts. No, it wouldn't help at all - you should return that entry to localhost. I would rather not mess with the IP allocation if possible - having it automatic is much more useful and means I cannot create condradictory records in different places. Fair enough. KDK's suggestion of using a wrapper script will certainly get you round this if you decide you need/want to use a more full- featured MTA. Dan -- Daniel Bye ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: very slow boot (newbie)
Daniel Bye wrote: On Fri, May 12, 2006 at 01:12:28AM +0100, Barnaby Scott wrote: Thanks for your reply. It didn't occur to me to look at the next line - I thought it must still be doing the Configuring syscons thing! Anyway, the next line is: Initial i386 initialization:. Armed with this knowledge, I just found this post: http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/htdig/freebsd-questions/2004-April/043478.html (although I don't know where the rest of the thread went). However it doesn't leave me much the wiser! The hostname is mentioned earlier in the sequence, so presumably the OS is already aware of that, and as for DNS server, what DNS server? The fact that the operating system knows what the machine is called, does not necessarily mean that the name is in the DNS. You can put an entry in your /etc/hosts file (take a look at the file for the format), which will allow sendmail and other daemons to start. OK, I looked in /etc/hosts and only 127.0.0.1 localhost appears there. How do I put another entry in here though, when I don't know in advance the IP address that will be allocated to this machine by the DHCP server (provided by my router)? The odd thing is that the system knows exactly what IP address has been assigned, because I can see that transaction taking place during the boot sequence long before the point where it stalls. You should also check that your hostname is in the DNS. You might find something like DynDNS or ZoneEdit useful if your machine is on a dynamically assigned domestic range, such as you'd get from NTL or Telewest. Do I really want it in the DNS? I'm not sure exactly what this means in the context of my little network, but if it means people outside my network being able to look for my computer by name, I certainly don't want that. In case it is important, I should say that during installation I was asked to configure my NIC and that was where I put a hostname, but I *didn't* enter a domain name. Should I have put something here - if so, what? As for the DNS server, you need to tell FreeBSD where to go to resolve names to IP addresses. You do this by putting the IP addresses of your ISP's name servers in your /etc/resolv.conf (yes, there really is no 'e' on the end of resolv). The format is 'nameserver IP.add.re.ss', without the quotes (man 5 resolv.conf will give you more detail). /etc/resolv.conf appears to contain one entry: 'nameserver 192.168.1.1' which is the address of my router. I have never put in the ISP's namesevers before, and yet DNS resolution seems to happen OK! (Presumably when I update or install stuff, the system accesses the relevant FTP servers by name rather than IP address?) You should also check in /etc/nsswitch.conf to make sure that you have an entry that looks like this: hosts: files dns Yes it does, but with my particular setup, should I actually change this? This tells your local resolver library to consult /etc/hosts before it goes to the DNS. If I am teaching Grandma how to suck eggs, I apologise - I got the impression from the tone of your post, though, that you are quite new to all this UNIX stuff! Don't worry - this particular Grandma wouldn't know an egg if she swallowed one, and she hasn't sucked anything in years! I am very grateful for all the help I can get. I am hampered by not only being a Unix virgin, but my only network experience is with a small peer to peer network of Windows machines (plus only what I have read). I feel rather like someone who trying to teach himself to fly an advanced fighter jet with nothing but the technical manual. So far I am still trying to operate the ladder to get in the cockpit! I'm determined to get there though. HTH Dan ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
very slow boot (newbie)
I have mangaged to install version 6.0 and have had a bit of a play, but not before re-installing because the boot had been so slow, I thought I must have mucked it up! However it was just a slow point in the boot sequence - but one which I still can't believe is normal. The boot sequence all goes smoothly, telling me all sorts of things I never thought I'd need to know, and frankly don't understand, until it gets to the following line: Configuring syscons: keymap blanktime screensaver. and then stops! I have timed it - it stops for between 4 and 5 minutes every time. Can this be normal? If not, what do I do? (Words of one syllable only please!) Thanks Barnaby Scott PS I am conscious that I don't really know the etiquette around here too well (apart from not mentioning the logo!) - I don't want to clutter the list with messages of thanks when help is given, but at the same time I don't want to seem ungrateful - which is right? (Thanks by the way to all who helped me with my last question about interacting with a headless Windows box.) ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: very slow boot (newbie)
Kevin Kinsey wrote: Barnaby Scott wrote: The boot sequence all goes smoothly, telling me all sorts of things I never thought I'd need to know, and frankly don't understand, until it gets to the following line: Configuring syscons: keymap blanktime screensaver. and then stops! I have timed it - it stops for between 4 and 5 minutes every time. Can this be normal? If not, what do I do? (Words of one syllable only please!) Might be more good to check what goes *next*. A thing oft seen is the M-T-A can't solve its add. Check the hosts file. === Or can I actually use multi-syllable words? A common hangup is Sendmail, which needs to er, find itself, and if the machine's IP isn't available from DNS or the hosts file (/etc/hosts), or *perhaps* if there's no/dumb hostname, it'll time out trying to get resolution of the IP address So, what does console say *after* the 5 minute wait? I've not watched a system boot for a while, having configured the splash console Kevin Kinsey Thanks for your reply. It didn't occur to me to look at the next line - I thought it must still be doing the Configuring syscons thing! Anyway, the next line is: Initial i386 initialization:. Armed with this knowledge, I just found this post: http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/htdig/freebsd-questions/2004-April/043478.html (although I don't know where the rest of the thread went). However it doesn't leave me much the wiser! The hostname is mentioned earlier in the sequence, so presumably the OS is already aware of that, and as for DNS server, what DNS server? Barnaby Scott ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: very slow boot (newbie)
Parv wrote: ... and then stops! I have timed it - it stops for between 4 and 5 minutes every time. Does your screen goes blank just after the above message? If so, press [Enter] key, you should see the boot being continued, and login: waiting for input at the end. No the screen still has all the previous clutter on it, and pressing [Enter] just makes a new line PS I am conscious that I don't really know the etiquette around here too well (apart from not mentioning the logo!) - I don't want to clutter the list with messages of thanks when help is given, but at the same time I don't want to seem ungrateful - which is right? I think everybody appreciates the message when OP tells when/if the problem is solved. IMO, there is really no need to generate a message for each person; a combined (if applicable) public thank you note should be enough. Thanking people who have helped you give them the incentive to keep on helping you others. - Parv Thanks! ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
newbie wanting to switch to FreeBSD - planning stage question
I am new to FreeBSD (or any other Unix operating system) but am very keen to make the switch. I have read as much as I can over the last couple of years, and am very nearly ready to ditch the various Windows versions on my network - however there is one Windows-only application I really cannot find a replacement for, and that is Rhino3D (http://www.rhino3d.com/). Looking at the CAD section of the ports collection does not offer any alternative that is at all comparable, so I fear I'm stuck with it. I believe Rhino does not work with any Windows emulators either, so I imagined I had only 2 options left - have completely separate computers and retain Windows on one - no good because my desk is cluttered enough already, or to go for a dual-boot one - no good either as I would constantly be rebooting (or would in practice revert to Windows and never get to learn FreeBSD which is what I want to do!) However, I don't mind having a Windows machine running somewhere on the network out of the way, but would want to use the keyboard, monitor and mouse attached to my FreeBSD machine. Does anyone know if it is possible in principle to drive a Windows program on a Windows machine, but from a Unix computer? If this is not an idiotic question, and this sort of thing is possible, where would I find some fairly idiot-proof instructions on how to set it up, or at least some reading to get me started? I realise that a common bit of advice is to try stuff out and see, but if I cannot see a way forward, the time invloved in installing and learning FreeBSD would be very hard to justify, so please bear with me - I would be grateful for any advice at this stage. Many thanks, Barnaby Scott ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Boot loader won't start windows on other HD
I know questions like this have been asked before, but I can't find a straight answer! Forgive me though if I have missed one. I have a Windows 2000 machine into which I wanted to put an extra hard disk to run FreeBSD. In my pre-installation reading, I noticed that FreeBSD offers a mechanism to boot alternative operating systems, so I opted to put the new FreeBSD disk as 0, and move the original Windows one to position 1. Installation went fine, and I opted to install with the bootloader, and sure enough, on startup I get a little menu saying: F1 FreeBSD F5 Disk 1 If I press F1, FreeBSD boots as expected. However, if I press F5 (it seems I have to do this twice otherwise I get FreeBSD again), I get a prompt saying Default: 0:ad(0,a)/boot/loader boot: Now what? It doesn't seem to matter what I put here, it won't make Windows start. Is there something particular I should enter? Have I missed something else? Please, if you reply, go easy with me - there is a strong chance I won't understand! If you want to suggest that I copy something to somewhere for instance, or install something, *please* spell out in words of one syllable how. I dont' want to be spoon-fed for ever, but I haven't even got off the initial prompt after login yet!! Thanks ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
