FreeBSD GNOME Project: GNOME 2.2 FAQ

There are two ways to install GNOME 2.2 on FreeBSD. One way is to use packages, and the other way is to use ports. Before doing either installation, you should first familiarize yourself with the GNOME 2.2 release notes.

To install GNOME 2.2 from packages, use the command:

This will download the latest GNOME 2.2 packages from the FreeBSD FTP site, and proceed to install them on your system.

To build and install GNOME 2.2 from ports, you should first cvsup the latest ports tree. Then:

# cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome2
# make clean
# make install clean
       

For the best GNOME 2 experience, you should install from ports, after adding the following macros to your /etc/make.conf file:

WITH_FAM=  yes
WITH_LAME=  yes
       

WITH_FAM enables file alteration manager support which allows Nautilus to update its file lists in real-time as well as allows all GNOME components to detect config file changes without needing to restart GNOME. Note, in order for FAM to work properly, you also need to add the following to /etc/rc.conf then reboot:

For FreeBSD 4.x:
portmap_enable="YES"

For FreeBSD 5.x:
rpcbind_enable="YES"

WITH_LAME adds MP3 support, enabling you to play MP3s directly in Nautilus.

These options may cause build errors on certain platforms, and thus they are not enabled by default.

The majority of GNOME 2.2 compilation problems can be solved by making sure all the necessary GNOME 2.2 components are up-to-date. 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. If you still have trouble, please send email to freebsd-gnome@FreeBSD.org with the output of the failed compilation. It is also helpful to include the config.log from the port's work directory.

Ports such as devel/pth and devel/ngpt can also cause pthread-related problems when compiling GNOME 2.2. If you do not need these ports installed, it is recommended that you remove them.

Only the core components, and a few extras, are included in the gnome2 package. While you can still run GNOME 1.4 applications under GNOME 2.2, a number of applications have already been ported to GNOME 2.2.

The applications that have been ported are included in the gnome2-fifth-toe meta-port. Note, some of these applications are still in the early development stages, and may not be very stable.

To install gnome2-fifth-toe from packages:

# pkg_add -r gnome2-fifth-toe
           

To install gnome2-fifth-toe from ports:

# cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome2-fifth-toe
# make clean
# make install clean
       

Right now, the GNOME project is still very much in flux. Work still must be done to the GNOME ports infrastructure in order to get things working cleanly. However, if you have GNOME 1.4, and you want to upgrade to GNOME 2.2, first familiarize yourself with the official upgrade instructions from the GNOME site. Next, make sure your GNOME 1.4 ports are up-to-date, then remove the following GNOME 1.4 packages from the system:

gnomecore
sawfish
gnomeapplets 
gnomemedia
gtop
libgtop
nautilus
gedit
xalf
bugbuddy
gnomeaudio
gnomegames
gnomeutils
gdm
eog
ggv
      

After those packages are removed, you can build GNOME 2.2 per the instructions listed above.

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/gnome2
# 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 2 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.

Sure! Note, however, certain ports assume you are running either the GNOME 1 or GNOME 2 desktop. That is, they rely on certain desktop features such as the gnome-panel. To ensure that a port does not overwrite your current preferred desktop, set the GNOME_DESKTOP_VERSION variable to either 1 or 2 (depending on your desktop version of choice) in /etc/make.conf. Then just install the GNOME port you wish.

The website art.gnome.org has been setup as a general GNOME theme repository. They offer some gtk+-2, metacity, sawfish, nautilus, icon, and gdm themes, as well as some backgrounds.

A new theme site called The Theme Depot has just been launched. This site contains themes for GNOME 2 as well as KDE and quite a few window managers.

A good site for some cool GNOME icons (some stock, some new) is jimmac's Icons site.

See the instructions on the website for installing the themes. If you feel inclined to port a few of them, you will not be turned away ;-).

The gnome2 meta-port installs the metacity window manager by default. Another popular window manager that works well with GNOME 2.2 is sawfish. Sawfish is distributed as part of the x11/gnome2-fifth-toe meta-port.

To switch between metacity and sawfish in GNOME 2, you will need to do the following:

killall metacity; sawfish &
gnome-session-save --gui

The gnome-session-save is important. Without it, the window manager will revert back to the one previously configured upon next login. To switch back, simply reverse sawfish and metacity.

Yes! Anti-aliasing requires XFree86 4.x with freetype2 support. To add freetype2 support to X, make sure you have the following modules loaded in your XF86Config file under the Modules section:

Load   "freetype"
Load    "type1"
       

Then, simply checkout the Fonts capplet under Applications->Desktop Preferences. If you want a good set of TrueType starter fonts, install the x11-fonts/webfonts port.

Sometimes, after adding new fonts to the system, it is necessary to teach fontconfig about them. If you find that newly added fonts are not made available even after restarting GNOME 2, run the following command as root.

# fc-cache -f -v
       

If you have any questions, please send them to freebsd-gnome@FreeBSD.org.

GNOME 2.2 makes use of Xft and fontconfig to handle anti-aliasing. Fontconfig is a very powerful XML-based font configuration package. You can create a ~/.fonts.conf file that controls virtually every aspect of fontconfig. For example, if you do not want to anti-alias fonts smaller than 16 point, create a ~/.fonts.conf with the following contents:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>

<match target="font">
        <test name="size" compare="less_eq">
                <double>16</double>
        </test>
        <edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
                <bool>false</bool>
        </edit>
</match>
</fontconfig>
               

Refer to fonts-conf(5) for more information.

You need to use Nautilus to edit your GNOME 2 menus. If you want to edit any menu other than Favorites, you must be root.

To edit the menus, launch Nautilus, and enter the URL applications:///. From there you should be able to edit your entire application menu.

GNOME 2 applications get their GTK+ 2 resources from themes and the corresponding theme engine. If you would rather run your GTK+ 2 applications in a non-GNOME environment then you will need to create a file named ~/.gtkrc-2.0.

To use the widgets from a GTK+ 2 theme when in a non-GNOME environment, simply include the theme's gtk-2.0/gtkrc in your ~/.gtkrc-2.0. For example:

include "/usr/X11R6/share/themes/Crux/gtk-2.0/gtkrc"

If you prefer, you can use the same GTK+ 1.2 theme for both GTK+ 1.2 and GTK+ 2 applications, which will give your GTK+ programs a consistent look. For the most part, you can transfer your settings from your ~/.gtkrc file (used for GTK+ 1.2) with a couple of caveats.

1. If you have any theme engine references, you will have to make sure there is a corresponding GTK+ 2 theme engine. Otherwise, remove the engine entries.
2. The default font specification should be outside of any style blocks and should be specified with the gtk-font-name keyword. For example:

   gtk-font-name = "Verdana 11"
   

Install sysutils/gnomecontrolcenter, then invoke gnomecc from the command line to bring up the GNOME 1.4 control center.