Handbook WG - X11

[carlavilla]

Summary

Rewrite from zero the chapter. The information is stale, and at some point give users wrong instructions, like[1]

The X11 chapter is finished.
The Desktop chapter is finished.

[1] https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=258264
[2] https://carlavilla.es/freebsd/x11.html
[3] https://carlavilla.es/freebsd/desktop.html

[karels]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

80

Should we say that xorg is a meta-port containing many of the xorg components? I think that is useful information for anyone that wants to drill down.

823–824

I assume there is more coming here... It can probably be much more general than the old stuff.

[manu]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

59

For amdgpu/radeon it's there : https://www.x.org/wiki/RadeonFeature/
I'm sure there is some link somewhere on the wiki, we should keep the link.

80

Agreed.

427

Yes it is, you will not have graphics acceleration without being a member (I'm honestly surprised that it works for you).

[fernape]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

80

Yes, please.

427

In that case this shouldn't be in a warning block but be one more "normal" step in the configuration process.

566

I would move this paragraph just above the table itself, or alternatively, move the table just following this paragraph and after that showing how to know the card for you system.

611

"The Intel(R) driver" or maybe "Intel(R) drivers..." depending on the intention.

629

This probably shouldn't be a full stop but a comma and link the next sentence to this one.

670

For consistency, I would use the same phrasing as before. This is not loading the module, but adding the module to /etc/rc.conf so it can be loaded at boot time. The NVidia section uses correctly that phrasing.

825

"if starting X server results..." --> if starting _the_ X server results...
"or observe these..." --> or these values are observed...

[carlavilla]

I'm gonna upgrade the chapter finished and all comments fixed.

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

823–824

Fixed, my fault hehe

[carlavilla]

I fixed all the comments.

Also finished the X11 chapter. I know that we can improve the input devices and monitor section. But we can make this changes in further commits.

I also moved the GNOME, KDE Plasma and XFCE desktop instructions to a "new" chapter.
Right now GNOME, KDE Plasma, etc cannot be "associated" with X11, since they also support Wayland.

Therefore, I think the right thing to do is to move them to a "new" chapter.

(Well, not a new one, only I upgraded the title of the desktop chapter hehe)

[arrowd]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/desktop/_index.adoc

172

Typo "preferred".

184

This can be extended with information on sddm internationalization - sddm_lang var. Example: sddm_lang="ru_RU".

187

How about ... is by manually invoking man:startx[1]?

192

Here you talk about .xinitrc, but the command example appends to .xsession.

[arrowd]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

155

These two statements should be one.

211

Why use -f /etc/rc.conf argument there?

565–566

How about adding a sentence

Some desktop environments (such as KDE Plasma) provide a graphical UI for setting these parameters. Check it before resorting to manual config editing.

[carlavilla]

Fixed! @arrowd Thanks!
I'll try to finish the Desktop chapter this night.

Do you think there's something more we can add to the KDE Plasma section?

[arrowd]

This looks pretty good. Great job, @carlavilla !

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

210

I meant that whole -f /etc/rc.conf was extraneous, as sysrc acts on this file by default. The sysrc /etc/rc.conf ... line is now wrong.

[carlavilla]

Fix some bugs and add more desktops.
Started with the browsers section - WIP

[carlavilla]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

210

Sorry, I was on autopilot hahaha

And I took it from https://wiki.freebsd.org/Graphics/#Intel_Integrated_Graphics_.28aka_HD_Graphics.29

[jrm]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/desktop/_index.adoc

138

Changing applications to environments here seems strange to me, because of what the rest of the sentence says. How about something like this?

This chapter demonstrates how to install popular desktop environments as well as desktop application such as web browsers, productivity software, document viewers, and financial software.

[fernape]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

154

I would rephrase this avoiding in this way that feels more natural:

The following command can be used to identify which graphics card is installed in the system

177

Similarly as before

This command can be used to check the booting mode

227

The FreeBSD Project provides/maintains a matrix... ?

306–307

This warning is a duplicated of this one that appears earlier:

nvidia-modeset must be used only as an alternative to nvidia if starting X server results in a hang.

Probably just one of them (I would say this one) is enough.

575

I would use

... to configure the keyboard layout

But I don't have a very strong opinion here.

603

At some point in this section (probably at the end) we could add something like:

//If you want to know more about fonts, please read this article

[fernape]

A round of typos and small things.

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/desktop/_index.adoc

174

Typo

s/kde-meta-instal/kde-meta-install

293

Typo

s/gnome-meta-instal/gnome-meta-install

367

Typo

s/prefered/preferred

392

Typo
s/xfce-instal/xfce-install

467

Typo

s/mate-meta-instal/mate-meta-install

563

Typo

s/cinnamon-instal/cinnamon-install

638

Typo

s/lxqt-instal/lxqt-install

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

126

Typo:

s/Propietary/Proprietary

451

Typo (although not user visible)

s/x-config-video-cards-file-multple/x-config-video-cards-file-multiple

571

While common, probably s/config/configuration

[carlavilla]

Fixed typos

[carlavilla]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

451

Really good catch haha

[jrm]

These are suggestions based on our Matrix discussion. It lets readers know once at the beginning of the chapter that any package can be custom built from the port, but we only describe how to install the package for each application.

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/desktop/_index.adoc

54–57

While FreeBSD is popular as a server for its performance and stability, it is also well suited for day-to-day use as a desktop.
With over {numports} applications available in the FreeBSD ports tree, it is straightforward to build a customized desktop that can run a wide variety of desktop applications.

59–130

Prerequisites:

• Readers of this chapter should already understand how to either install either the crossref:x11[x11,X Window System] or crossref:wayland[wayland,Wayland] on FreeBSD.
• Readers are instructed throughout this chapter to install official packages. Refer to the section on crossref:ports[ports-using,using the ports collection] to build customized packages from ports.

111–113

Install KDE Plasma meta package

To install the KDE Plasma meta package with KDE Frameworks, Plasma Desktop and Applications execute:

119–128

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825–844

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[markmi_dsl-only.net]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

179

On aarch64 (a HoneyComb), booted via UEFI/ACPI, I get:

# sysctl machdep.bootmethod
sysctl: unknown oid 'machdep.bootmethod'

The specific material seems to be platform specific for a presumed (set of?) platform(s).

The context was:

# uname -apKU
FreeBSD CA72_16Gp_ZFS 14.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 14.0-CURRENT #90 main-n261544-cee09bda03c8-dirty: Wed Mar 15 20:25:49 PDT 2023     root@CA72_16Gp_ZFS:/usr/obj/BUILDs/main-CA72-nodbg-clang/usr/main-src/arm64.aarch64/sys/GENERIC-NODBG-CA72 arm64 aarch64 1400082 1400082

[grahamperrin]

documentation/content/en/books/handbook/x11/_index.adoc

1351

Losing sight of this NVIDIA-provided tool seems unfortunate.