FreeBSD 13 - xorg server will not load any desktop except for fluxbox
 

Hello

Prior to freebsd 13, I was able to install and get any desktop manager to load.

I tried xfce4, kde5, mate and ratpoison. Neither will load from the xorg server. All I get is a black screen. No icons or anything but a mouse pointer.

The only desktop that will start via xorg server is fluxbox.

These four desktops used to worked in freebasd 11 and under.

I've install virtualbox-ose-addtions and enabled them.

I added myself to the wheel group for X11.

dbus and hald is enabled. Proc filesystem is added to /etc/fstab.


In closing, only fluxbox works. The rest don't.

Any ideas or solution is appreciated. Thanks

i installed the xf86-video-vmware driver as virtualbox ver 6.1.26 uses VMSVGA for the display adaptor.

xserver starts now, but all I get is a bare bone X environment with three terminals.

I tried these two settings for .xinirc

exec ck-launch-session startxfce4, next I tried exec /usr/local/bin/startxfce4

I did the same for .xsession as well. Same thing.


On a positive note, xfce4 worked in openbsd 6.9.

I mean, freebsd is supposedly the bigger, more popular of the BSDs. Weird...

Nothing wrong with FreeBSD - it will run any window manager or desktop you'd like, including those with Wayland, although I never understood why, but that is another topic. There is an issue with your set up probably. I don't run FreeBSD with X so can't really help in that regard. Perhaps ask the question over at the FreeBSD Forums.

GhostBSD comes with Mate preinstalled....

You waited until the fourth paragraph before dropping it in there that you're running FreeBSD in some crap x86 VM solution...

A lot of these big bloated desktops require hardware accel and/or other services such as dbus, the /proc file systen or whatever else - and even then they're designed for systemd/Linux. Hence why fluxbox or simple window managers will work whereas those may not.

It's not clear whether you're using a display manager or issuing startx from a terminal?

enigma9o7, GhostBSD is irrelevant.

OP tried openbsd cuz he couldnt get a window manager running, so he wasnt stuck on freebsd or something, and mate was one of the desktops he tried. So ghostbsd might possibly be an option, you're not OP are you, so how would you know what might be relevant? Plus its freebsd based... if OPs purpose was to make sure something compiles or runs under freebsd, it would be fine.

Anyways OP your issue is probably cuz of using VMSVGA in Virtualbox... instead use VboxSVGA, it recommends in the wiki...
https://wiki.freebsd.org/VirtualBox
https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/ha...est-virtualbox

Xfce4 and Mate are not heavy desktop managers like KDE plasma or gnome. And xfce4 works in openbsd ver 6.9 with dbus and proc enabled.

In the VM, I gave 3GB for ram and 3 CPUs for freeebsd.That's enough for a freebsd system.

Openbsd worked fine with xfce4, dbus and proc enabled and with just 2GB ram and 2 CPUs.

Like I said, these desktops worked fine in freebsd 11 and under. :scratch:

I tried to use the other display adapters like VBoxSVGA and VBoxVGA but it defaults back to VMSVGA.

When I select VBoxSVGA or VBoxVGA and click OK, The VM shows VMSVGA as the default. It doesn't let me change the adapter type.

And, I'm using the latest version of virtualbox and it's extension pack.

Weird...lol

P.S I never tried ghostbsd. The only BSDs I ever tried were freebsd, openbsd, netbsd and pcBSD.

I used these BSDs in VM mostly as linux is my main OS.

If there is no solution then I'll stick to fluxbox in freebsd or use openbsd instead.

OpenBSD does not have a /proc structure. It did at one time, but it was problematic, unmaintained, and was removed more than 7 years ago.

X failures, if any, should be listed in /var/log/Xorg.0.log

There's no reason you shouldn't be able to change it, unless you're trying to do it while the VM is running or something. Set it to VboxSVGA and give it 128MB VRAM should be ok....

I only change the display type when the OS is not running.

Anyway, it doesn't keep the change I made. I changed it to VBoxSVGA, then I click OK.

I double check to see if it kept the change, and it doesn't. It reverts back to VMSVGA.

I did a reinstall of virtualbox awhile back and it still reverts back to VMSVGA.


It could be a bug, or virtualbox doesn't work well in linux Mint 22.

PS" I changed the VRAM to 128MB and it kept that change. Virtualbox keeps the changes for other settings, but it won't keep the display setting. Weird?????

Anyway, even with 128MB of VRAM, freebsd 13 still won't load xfce4. I still get the bare bones X environment with three terminals.

fluxbox and blackbox are the only ones that work.

Thanks to all here for the replies and suggestions.

I spend many hours and tried many suggestions I found online and nothing worked.

I have removed freebsd 13 from the VM and will stick to openbsd 6.9 for now.

Hopefully, a future release like freebsd 14 or higher may work.

Again, thanks to all.

I fixed the issue. It wasn't freebsd 13. The culprit was having 3D acceleration enabled.

If 3D acceleration is enabled. It will not let me use VBoxVGA nor VBoxVGA. It reverts back to VMSVGA.

Once I disabled 3D acceleration. I can now use VboxSVGA. And it finally keeps that setting.

Now xfce4 loads up in FreeBSD.

Having 3D acceleration enabled and VMSVGA is no problem with linux as a guest OS. I have to remind myself that FreeBSD is not linux. Linux supports more drivers and features.

On the other hand, OpenBSD worked with 3D acceleration enabled and with VMSVGA. And it loaded xfce4.

Weird...lol

For the record, you should still be able to enable acceleration on that driver; I have it enabled on my ghostbsd VM. But I dunno if its actually working or not; it does work on xp but only with old version of virtualbox (not 6.1; i think only 5.x?) so back when I was testing games on windows I used another version of virtualbox for that.... but anyways unless yer playing games in VM tho 3D doesnt really matter much.

I don't know what the developers are doing with virtualbox.

At least with my version of virtualbox 6.1.26, if 3D is enabled I cannot use VBoxSVGA nor VBoxVGA. It will revert back to VMSVGA. For me to use VBoxSVGA/VBoxVGA, I need to disable 3D.

The weird part is that openBSD worked with 3D and VMSVGA on. And xfce4 loaded as well.

PS: I don't do gaming in virtual machines, it's resource intensive. I do gaming on my linux host using MAME. I love the old classic MAME arcade games. :)