Solved Installing CDE

P

Paolo_R

I am running FreeBSD in a VirtualBox VM and thanks to the support from the members of this forum have a basic X-Windows set up running. I would like to implement the CDE.

From various messages in the forum I'd assumed I would have to build CDE from scratch - see https://sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopenv/wiki/FreeBSDBuild/ however I did a 'pkg install cde' and CDE appears to have been installed on my system

This appeared immediately after the install (see screen shot below). Assuming I do this I presume I will be able to launch CDE.

Are there any issues that I need to be aware of before I embark upon this task?

Thanks
Paul
CDE Prereqs.png
 
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Paolo_R said:
From various messages in the forum I'd assumed I would have to build CDE from scratch - see https://sourceforge.net/p/cdesktopenv/wiki/FreeBSDBuild/ however I did a 'pkg install cde' and CDE appears to have been installed on my system
Click to expand...
I used source code from a GitHub project initially mentioned here. However, that project doesn't exist anymore. I have built it back in 2016, and it was straight forward. Here is the the screenshot. I don't see any issues, however, never investigated "unresolved security issues" reasonably mentioned in the post-install message.
 
aragats

As the GitHub project is no longer available I proceeded along the lines shown in the screenshot and the various entries were added to /etc/rc.conf.

However entering the line 'env LANG=C startx /usr/dt/bin/Xsession' didn't load CDE. I was just dumped back into text-mode UNIX (see screenshot). So no idea what I have to do now :-(

Paul
 

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Paolo_R said:
aragats

As the GitHub project is no longer available I proceeded along the lines shown in the screenshot and the various entries were added to /etc/rc.conf.

However entering the line 'env LANG=C startx /usr/dt/bin/Xsession' didn't load CDE. I was just dumped back into text-mode UNIX (see screenshot). So no idea what I have to do now :-(

Paul
Click to expand...

I've just realised that I might not have installed a binary pkg - I think I might have an uncompiled port. If so how do I go about 'building'CDE?

Paul
 
Paolo_R said:
I've just realised that I might not have installed a binary pkg - I think I might have an uncompiled port. If so how do I go about 'building'CDE?
Paul
Click to expand...
Well just checked - pkg info - and cde-2.2.3_1 is shown as installed so may be it is a binary version. Who knows? I don't :-)

Paul
 
pkg info -l cde shows the list of installed files. So, the mentioned above file has an incorrect path in the post-install message. In FreeBSD everything is installed in /usr/local, so the correct path is /usr/local/dt/bin/Xsession. However, if you open that script, you'll find that it needs shells/ksh93 as interpreter. Also, I guess, certain paths in the script have to be adjusted as well.
 
aragats

Thanks for the info. I've installed ksh93 but I'm afraid amending the Xsession script looks way beyond my capabilities :-(

Paul
 
You can build CDE using ports. It's simple, take a look in FreeBSD handbook.
Install the ports tree, then (as root)
Code: 
# cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/cde
# make
# make install
I'm doing it right now.
It correctly understands the dependency on shells/ksh93 and a couple of more packages and installs them as well.
 
aragats said:
You can build CDE using ports. It's simple, take a look in FreeBSD handbook.
Install the ports tree, then (as root)
Code: 
# cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/cde
# make
# make install
I'm doing it right now.
It correctly understands the dependency on shells/ksh93 and a couple of more packages and installs them as well.
Click to expand...

aragats

Many thanks. Did the make (wow, what a huge build) and make install. As I had already loaded cde earlier I did a make deinstall to get rid of that and then a make reinstall. I got the CDE (see screenshot) but I'm going to have to do something about screen resolution - I can only see the top half of the screen - I can't see the Front Panel which will make it difficult to do much :-)

Paul
 

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OK, I solved that issue. I needed to adjust the VirtualBox scale factor. Using the File Manager seems to have a problem - I keep getting 'folder name invalid'even though it's not. Also if Itry to open the Application Manager when I click on the Filing Cabinet in the Front panel I get a message "Invalid folder specification, /var/dt/appconfig/appmanager/paul-paul.dell.pc-0". So there seems to be a problem correctly identifying folders.

Paul
 

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Sorry guys, I'm a bit confused. Can anyone explain why I'm having the problem outlined above in relation to the File Manager and Application Manager not being able to corrcetly identify folders? Is there a fix?

Thanks
Paul
 
aragats

I see. So how do I get the github file into VirtualBox/UNIX since it isn't part of the official Ports collection? Sorry, I've never done this before hence the dumb questions.

Thanks
Paul
 
aragats

From another message I found, would this be how I start SSH?


sshd_enable="YES" in the /etc/rc.conf

/etc/rc.d/sshd start
 
Adding to /etc/rc.conf ensures starting sshd at boot.
The second line is okay, however, the regular way of (re)starting services manually is:
service sshd start
if it's not enabled in /etc/rc.conf, you'll have to use:
service sshd onestart.
 
aragats

Many thanks. I'll probably use service sshd onestart at least until or if I start to use github on a regular basis.

Can you show me what scp options I would have to set to transfer http://mikael.urankar.free.fr/github/cde-master.zip to FreeBSD? Ideally, if you could - as you did previously - show the sequence of commands I'd need to get the file from github, unzip it, put it in a directory. I think I can make and make install from there on in :-)

As I said, I'm a dummy when it comes to this sort of stuff so I rely on the generosity of people like you.

Thanks
Paul
 
Paolo_R said:
Can you show me what scp options I would have to set to transfer http://mikael.urankar.free.fr/github/cde-master.zip to FreeBSD?
Click to expand...
What is your host OS?
If you have already downloaded that file, from your host you do: scp cde-master.zip [I]<freebsd_user>[/I]@[I]<freebsd_guest_ip_addr>[/I]:~/. It will appear in you <freebsd_user> home directory.
Another way to get that file in your FreeBSD guest (without SSH):
in FreeBSD: fetch http://mikael.urankar.free.fr/github/cde-master.zip.
 
aragats

I used fetch http://mikael.urankar.free.fr/github/cde-master.zip and put the extracted folder in a tmp folder in my home directory. Now can I copy the contents of this tmp folder into /usr/ports/x11-wm/cde and overwrite the previous contents?

Then do a make and a make install ?

Thanks once again.
Paul
 
aragats

Muchas gracias, señor. Thank you so much for your patience and generosity (of time.) And thank you to acheron for making the 'fixed' version available.

I now have CDE working - what a cool desktop it is.

Thanks
Paul
 
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