GNet Solutions » FreeBSD Administration

I enjoy testing FreeBSD, and running it as a VM guest allows me to great flexibility in testing and development. This is a simple guide on how to install LXDE and X11 on a vanilla FreeBSD 10.2 VirtualBox guest.

Prepare the Environment¶

• Make sure the system is up to date:
  

  pkg update && pkg upgrade
  

• Install sudo
  

  pkg install sudo
  

• Add user to the sudo group:
  

  pw groupadd sudo
  pw usermod bob -G sudo
  

• Edit the sudo file:
  

  visudo
  

  • And uncomment the sudo group line:
    

    %sudo ALL=(ALL) ALL
    

Install Xorg and LXDE¶

• Install Xorg:
  

  pkg install xorg hal dbus
  

• Start and enable hald and dbus at boot:
  

  echo 'dbus_enable=”YES”' >> /etc/rc.conf
  echo 'hald_enable=”YES”' >> /etc/rc.conf
  service dbus start
  service hald start
  

• Install the lxde-meta package:
  

  pkg install lxde-meta
  

• Install the virtualbox-ose-additions package:
  

  pkg install virtualbox-ose-additions
  

• Start and enable vboxguest and vboxservice at boot:
  

  echo 'vboxguest_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf
  echo 'vboxservice_enable="YES"' >> /etc/rc.conf
  service vboxguest start
  service vboxservice start
  

• Log out of root:
  

  exit
  

• Create a xorg configuration file:
  

  sudo X -configure
  sudo mv /root/xorg.conf.new /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf
  

• Create a backup xorg.conf file and edit the existing xorg.conf file:
  

  sudo cp /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak
  sudo vi /usr/local/etc/X11/xorg.conf
  

  • And make sure the Device and InputDevice sections are correct:
    

    Section "Device" 
            ### Available Driver options are:-
            ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
            ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz" 
            ### [arg]: arg optional
            Identifier "Card0" 
            Driver "vboxvideo" 
            VendorName "InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH" 
            BoardName "VirtualBox Graphics Adapter" 
            BusID "PCI:0:2:0" 
    EndSection
    
    Section "InputDevice" 
            Identifier "Mouse0" 
            Driver "vboxmouse" 
    EndSection
    

• Create the .xinitrc file:
  

  echo '#!/bin/sh' >> ~/.xinitrc
  echo 'exec startlxde' >> ~/.xinitrc
  

• And make the .xinitrc file executable:
  

  chmod +x ~/.xinitrc
  

• Now start LXDE:
  

  startx
  

Resources¶

• https://antumdeluge.wordpress.com/2014/07/19/how-to-install-freebsd/
• https://wiki.freebsd.org/VirtualBox