There are two ways to install GNOME on FreeBSD. One way is to use packages, and the other way is to use ports.

To install GNOME from packages, use the command:

This will download the latest GNOME packages from the FreeBSD FTP site, and proceed to install them on your system.

To build and install GNOME from ports, you should first cvsup the latest ports tree. Then:

# cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome
# make clean
# make install clean
	    

After installing GNOME, you might consider adding the following to /etc/make.conf:

WITH_GTK=yes
        

This is an optional step, but will allow certain ports, such as Vim, to take advantage of the Gtk+ widget set.

Building from ports is the preferred method for installing GNOME on FreeBSD.

The majority of GNOME compilation problems can be solved by making sure all the necessary GNOME components are up-to-date. All GNOME applications require the following core components to build:

pkg-config
glib
gettext
gtk+
ORBit
Imlib
esound
gnomelibs
gnomecore
            

Verify all those components are up-to-date, then try building GNOME or your GNOME application again. You may see compiler errors relating to pthreads (POSIX threads), such as:

undefined reference to 'strerror_r'
            

To fix thread related errors, make sure you have the following compiled into your kernel:

options     _KPOSIX_PRIORITY_SCHEDULING
            

And make sure if you are tracking -stable or -current, that you do not have NOLIBC_R set in /etc/make.conf. If you do, remove it, then rebuild world.

Ports such as devel/pth and devel/ngpt can also cause pthread-related problems when compiling GNOME. If you do not need these ports installed, it is recommended that you remove them.

If you still have trouble, please send email to &email;@FreeBSD.org with the output of the failed compilation.

Only the core components, and a few extras, are included in the gnome package. There is another meta-port called gnome-fifth-toe that includes some more popular (and bigger) GNOME applications. gnome-fifth-toe includes Galeon, Pan, Gnumeric, AbiWord, GNUCash, Evolution, Gimp, Dia, and more.

To install gnome-fifth-toe from packages.

# pkg_add -r gnome-fifth-toe
	    

To build gnome-fifth-toe from ports:

# cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome-fifth-toe
# make clean
# make install clean
	    

A full list of GNOME applications that have been ported to FreeBSD can be found here.

I find that /usr/ports/sysutils/portupgrade works really well. For example:

This will upgrade pkgconfig and every other port that depends on it (that needs updating).

However, sometimes so much changes that it becomes necessary to do a little housekeeping first. In that case, this usually works:

# pkg_delete -rf pkgconfig\*
# cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome
# make clean
# make install clean
	    

These steps will remove all the GNOME 1 and 2 components and applications from your machine, but only reinstalls the GNOME 1 desktop. You should be aware, that if it comes to this, you will need to reinstall your applications after reinstalling the desktop. Fortunately, this extreme measure is only rarely needed.

GNOME and KDE are both desktop environments. GNOME is based on the GTK+ widget set, and is primarily written in C. KDE on the other hand is based on the QT widget set, and is primarily written in C++.

Both environments offer a wide range of applications from toys and games to full-blown office suites. Both are actively developed and ported to FreeBSD. If you are trying to decide which one to call your own, try them both, and see which one you like better.

You can read more about KDE on FreeBSD at http://freebsd.kde.org.

If you are tired of the default themes that come with GNOME, you do have options. First, FreeBSD's ports collection comes with a rather large collection of GTK themes for GNOME. To install these from packages, run:

To install the themes from ports, do:

# cd /usr/ports/x11-toolkits/gtk-engines-collection
# make clean
# make install clean
	    

If you want even more themes, checkout http://art.gnome.org/. Note, you will probably need to install the gtk-engines-collection before using any of the pixmap themes.

The gnome meta-port installs the Sawfish window manager by default. However, there are other window managers you can use with GNOME. These include:

• Enlightenment
• FVWM2
• WindowMaker
• Afterstep
• IceWM
• XFce

Short answer is you can. The problem is most likely that you have Launch Feedback (xalf) enabled. xalf is a FreeBSD shared object, and as such cannot be loaded by Linux applications. When you try to load a Linux application, nothing will happen, and something like the following will show up in ~/.gnomerc-errors or on stdout:

/usr/local/Acrobat4/Reader/intellinux/bin/acroread: error in loading shared 
libraries: /usr/X11R6/lib/libxalflaunch.so.0: ELF file OS ABI invalid.
	    

To fix this problem you need to install the linux-xalf port. This port (or package) installs the Linux version of libxalflaunch.so.0 in /compat/linux/usr/X11R6/lib, and will be used instead of the FreeBSD binary when launching Linux applications. You may see the following error after installing linux-xalf:

/usr/libexec/ld-elf.so.1: Shared object "libkrb.so.3" not found
        

This can be safely ignored.

Well, it depends on the point of view. Of course both GNOME and KDE are still far from perfection or even completeness and could hardly be compared to commercial offerings in terms of user-friendliness. But at the same time it is a huge step in the right direction. It should also be noted that both GNOME and KDE are still very young and the situation is likely to improve as they mature (does anybody remember what sort of crap Windows 3.11 was?).

Yes! There are two things you will need to accomplish this, however. First, you will need to be running XFree86 4.0 or higher (4.1 or higher is recommended). Then, you will need the x11/gdkxft port. That's it! You do not need to recompile any of your GNOME applications.

If you run into problems, have a look at the gdkxft website or send email to &email;@FreeBSD.org.

If you have any questions, please send them to &email;@FreeBSD.org.

To enable Java support in the Mozilla web browser you need to install the Java Development Kit available from the java/jdk13 port (version 1.3.1p6 or later is required) and restart the browser. Please note that if the version of the Mozilla package installed on your computer is less than 0.9.8_2,1 then you also need to use the following command to create the symbolic link required for the Java plugin to work:

# ln -sf /usr/local/jdk1.3.1/jre/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so \
	/usr/X11R6/lib/mozilla/plugins/libjavaplugin_oji.so
	    

You can verify that the Mozilla has picked the Java plugin by selecting About Plug-ins from the Help menu after restarting Mozilla. You should see /usr/local/jdk1.3.1/jre/plugin/i386/ns600/libjavaplugin_oji.so in the list of available plugins, indicating that Java support is enabled.

If you built Galeon against the full version of Mozilla, then the Java plugin will also work for it. Just make sure that Allow Java in the Settings menu is checked.