To controll the sound:
If you have kdemultimedia installed run kmix, if you don't have it, install it, then type kmix on the terminal and it will be easy for you.
If you prefer using the terminal like myself then type:
mixer vol 100
or
mixer pcm 100

I have chosen the volume to be max with the above commands, if you don't like it so loud then choose a value from 0-100

As about the touchpad install a program called gsynaptics and your touchpad will work as the usb mouse, but you have to modify the xorg.conf first. I will send you that one via email.

About your question that you couldn't find the xorg.conf: you have to configure it yourself but does't matter as long as you place the one I will send you it will work fine cause I've tested it on the x56 philips.

The kports does not install, well download the latest ports from freebsd website or any other mirror hereis a link for you

ftp://ftp.belnet.be/FreeBSD/ports/ports/ports.tar.gz

place it in the folder /usr after the download is finished.
First delete the old ports with the command rm -r /usr/ports
then after you have placed the freshly downloaded ports.tar.gz in /usr

type as root
cd /usr
tar -zxvf ports.tar.gz

Now wait till it decompresses the file.
after that you can install kports and do everything I said in previous posts, don't miss a step. This way you will make sure you will have a reliable and stable freebsd system.

I suppose you don't work as root all the time.
Just create a normal user
Run as root the command

adduser protonluke

and follow the steps.


To make it simple for you the installation of new software in freebsd install a program called portupgrade, after that's installed
run as root:

portupgrade -vRN k3b

where k3b is an example and it is a program for writting cd and dvd.
This way you can install any program that is in the ports.
portupgrade -vRN name_of_port

If you like using kde then a program called konq-plugins would ease your life.
portupgrade -vRN konq-plugins


The wifi will work after you will do the following:
Get the file wpi-freebsd.tgz which I will send by email
in the folder you have this file say /home/protonluke open the terminal and type:
tar -zxvf wpi-freebsd.tgz

enter the folder that gets created after the decompression
and type always as root
make && make install

then add the following lines to the file /boot/loader.conf
hw.psm.synaptics_support=1
miibus_load="YES"
if_wpi_load="YES"
hw.ata.atapi_dma="1"
wlan_acl_load="YES"
wlan_wep="YES"
wlan_ccmp="YES"
wlan_tkip="YES"
firmware_load="YES"
wpi_ucode_load="YES"


Now reboot your computer and everything you asked will work
Then start updating your software with kports and portmanager commands.

Another thing you should bear in mind is:

You cannot activate both ethernet or wireless
on the file /etc/rc.conf add the following to activate your wireless
ifconfig_wpi0="DHCP"

or just erase bothh lines
ifconfig_rl0="DHCP"
ifconfig_wpi0="DHCP"

and do it manually depending on your needs which internet port you want to activate

run as root on the console:

dhclient rl0
meaning activate ethernet port or

dhclient wpi0
meaning activate wireless port


Your usb key

add the following line on the file /etc/fstab

/dev/da0s1 /mnt/usb_storage msdosfs noauto,rw 0 0

then create a folder /mnt/usb_storage

give the permissions to read and write to everybody on the folder you created
chmod a+rw /mnt/usb_storage
then

mount /dev/da0s1

now your usb storage device is working as well.

Try google for other questions cause there is lots of information for freebsd on line.

Have fun with your UNIX system!

hi again


UBS ISSUES
**********

I followed your instructions for setting up the USB (I've only had time for this so far) and I'm afraid it's not going great:

when you get the the instruction:
# mount /dev/da0s1

here's what happens:

# mount /dev/da0s1
mount_msdosfs: /dev/da0s1: Operation not permitted

After this I went to system:/media in konqueror and found that I couldn't access any of my hard-drives either. Clicking on any of them resulted in the following error message:

Could not mount device.
The reported error was:
mount: /dev/ad4s1d: Operation not permitted

so now what do I do? Does this mean all my partitions are now screwed? They are called:
ad4s1a
ad4s1d
ad4s1e
ad4s1f
my USB drive is listed as
da0s1
and my CD-ROM as
acd0

Typing, for example,

# mount ads1d

doesn't help. It still means I can't access the content on that partition. Have I just wiped everything from that partition out? So if I reboot now, will everything go down the pan?

What's more is, I've just realised that my CD-ROM doesn't know how to read DVDs - how do I fix that?

Is setting up BSD frustrating or what!!

If I go to Konqueror and open /mnt/usb_storage the contents of my USB stick appear. So that's good. So on that level it worked.

I can save and open files to other partitions too.

However, if I go to storage media, why does it say that my partitions and my USB aren't mounted? How bad is this and what can I do about it?

... but if I remove the USB stick and stick it back in, it does not see the contents. I don't understand what is happening.

I tried looking for help on the internet but most of the advice there is by people who already seem to have got to grips with most of this and are looking to mount a second hard disk!

can you help please?

I rebooted and found that nothing has changed. Going to /mnt/usb_storage doesn't show the USB stick's contents anymore and also:

# chmod a+rw /mnt/usb_storage
# mount /dev/da0s1
mount_msdosfs: /dev/da0s1: Operation not permitted

Why aren't I permitted?

Just to be clear, this is my /etc/fstab:

# Device Mountpoint FStype Options Dump Pass#
/dev/ad4s1b none swap sw 0 0
/dev/ad4s1a / ufs rw 1 1
/dev/ad4s1e /tmp ufs rw 2 2
/dev/ad4s1f /usr ufs rw 2 2
/dev/ad4s1d /var ufs rw 2 2
/dev/acd0 /cdrom cd9660 ro 0 0
/dev/da0s1 /mnt_usbstorage msdosfs noauto,rw 0 0



I read the section in the FreeBSD Handbook on mounting things and I don't understand why typing

# mount -a

wouldn't mount all the drives/partitions listed in fstab.

Also, about 3 days ago I did

# portmanager -u

and it then took 2 days to do a hell of a lot of stuff! After that, my sound doesn't work. All I can hear is occassional beeping (very annoying when going on Firefox every time a new website comes up).
I repeated your instructions for uncompressing
sndkld_releng6_i386_lowlatency.tar.gz
again and this did not sort the sound out. My loader.conf file
still has the 2 lines you said I should put in.


Also, when I select the transparency option in KDE, on bootup I get


The Composite Manager crashed twice within a minute and is therefore disabled for this session.

Composite extension not found
You must use XOrg ? 6.8 for translucency and shadows to work.
Additionally, you need to add a new section to your X config file:
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection

I didn't have this before portmanager -u. What is composite manager, how can I use transparency without getting the error? Also how do I get sound back?

In summary:

- still no USB
- all sorts of things not mounted
- no sound anymore except beeping
- composite manager error
- no touchpad
- no DVD

I think you should install freebsd once more.
Careful with what you do.
Don't type the command and press enter without knowing what is going to happen,
because your system might go the wrong way once that command has been executed.
I'm always talking when you execute commands as root.

You should not have in your /etc/fstab what you have now.
That's because during installation you have chosen different partitions for different actions.
That type of configuration is good when you run servers and you just want to make it easy for yourself so do the following:

Let's say you want three partitions in your hard drive:

the first partition is your ntfs windows 22 Gb
second partition fat32 storage 36 Gb
third 165 ufs2 freebsd 20 GB



your storage partition where you keep music and movies etc it is preffered to be fat32 because windows and unix can
both have read write access on the drive.

Anyway to have the three partitions above active your /etc/fstab should look like this:


/dev/ad4s3b none swap sw 0 0
/dev/ad4s3a / ufs rw 1 1
/dev/acd0 /mnt/cdrom cd9660 ro,noauto 0 0
/dev/ad4s2 /mnt/data msdosfs rw 0 0
/dev/ad4s1 /mnt/windows ntfs ro 0 0
/dev/da0s1 /mnt/usb_storage msdosfs rw,noauto 0 0
/dev/da0 /mnt/floppy msdosfs rw 0 0



You should create the folders under your /mnt folder as they are named above.






mount_msdosfs: /dev/da0s1: Operation not permitted

That happens because you try to mount the device as normal user and not as root.

Unless you give the permissions to the normal user to execute a command or the write permissions
the normal user will not be able to execute the command or be abble to write anywhere but it's own home folder.

to give the permissions to the normal user just type as root:

chmod a+s /sbin/mount_msdosfs

that is for mounting msdos partitions, for ntfs partitions type:

chmod a+s /sbin/mount_ntfs



before you install fbsd backup all your config files after install put them back in their places.

I'm going to send you the config files and the path where you should put them via email.

Hi again.

Thank you for your continued patience. I've made the executive decision to move back to PC-BSD after all. Here are my reasons:

I am a newbie at Unix and with FreeBSD I felt like I was thrown in at the deep end. PC-BSD is automated, at least at the install stage. That doesn't mean that everything is autodetected, but more things are (e.g. internet, HD, Usb, touchpad...). I figured that since PCBSD is essentially FreeBSD with a more user-friendly approach, I can still rely on most of your advice there. And it's true. For example, I've followed your advice (thank you again) for setting the resolution to 1280x800 and for getting the sound going. And it's worked! My PC-BSD has the following all sorted out now:

KDE (auto)
Ethernet (auto but not wireless...yet)
Sound
Resolution
Touchpad (auto)
USB Mouse (auto)
USB pen drive (auto)
CD/DVD (auto)

Installing/uninstalling using PCBSD's PBI packages offers a user-friendly alternative and it means I can get going, whilst learning the more console driven stuff at my own pace. This is definitely the way to go for beginners.

I've had some unexpected problems, but a quick internet search told me how to sort them out (e.g. PCBSD doesn't allow root to log into KDE - but changing that is easy and in any case you don't do it very often).

I've even got Qemu to run a WinXP virtual machine! I'm feeling pretty good abount managing that one so early on in my UNIX life.

Listen, thank you for all your help. I've really benefitted from it under PCBSD, so please don't think all your effort has been wasted.

I do have a couple of questions still remaining perhaps you can help me with:

What software do you use to play DVDs? Kaffeine, VLC, etc all judder like crazy and often crash. mplayer does well but doesn't have GUI. gmplayer gives me an error - something about video output (-vo). Any ideas?

Also, is there a way of playing wmv files?
Is there a way of recording streaming audio/video?

Thanks again!

It is true pc-bsd is a user friendly freebsd so go for it.

vlc works fine for me and the mplayer has a gui quite extended actually but you have to compile mplayer with gui and x11 support flags.

Do not use skins flags when you compile mplayer because it fails for some unknown reason.

The wifi will be the same as I explained you for the freebsd, go through the steps and it should work.

Go into the folder /usr and if you find the folder ports all the commands I have told you to use in freebsd should be valid in pc-bsd.

First upgrade your ports tree through kports or any other program that pc-bsd have used for the software upgrade and so on.

to compile the mplayer again you should type the following:

whereis mplayer
mplayer: /usr/ports/multimedia/mplayer
cd /usr/ports/multimedia/mplayer
make config
here in this configuration step you will have to choose the flags that you want mplayer to have support for.
once again deselect skins because it makes it fail.
after the configuration type
make install clean

That's it, done.

For your root user issues try not to log in as root.
First of all you don't need to log in as root at all because you can do everything as a normal user you need only to open the terminal and type:

su root

after you identify yourself with the password you are logged in as root
without having to live your normal user.
Or if you prefer to have access to root's files then always as a normal user go in the kde menu select:
K-->System-->More Application-->File Manager - Super User Mode

to use the command "su" the normal user must be part of the group wheel, so if the user is not part of that group add it.

cd /usr/ports/multimedia/mplayer
pcbsd-1297# make config
┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Options for mplayer 0.99.10_5 │
│ ┌────^(-)────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │[X] OCFLAGS Use optimized compiler flags │ │
│ │[X] MENCODER Support encoding of multimedia files │ │
│ │[X] IPV6 Include inet6 network support │ │
│ │[X] X11 Enable X11 support for mplayer's video output │ │
│ │[X] GUI Enable GTK2 graphical user interface with X11 │ │
│ │[X] SDL Enable SDL video output │ │
│ │[X] VIDIX Enable VIDIX video output on supported archs │ │
│ │[ ] NVIDIA Enable experimental nvidia xvmc driver │ │
│ │[ ] SKINS Force dependency on mplayer-skins │ │
│ │[X] FREETYPE Use freetype for OSD fonts (TrueType!) │ │
│ │[ ] RTC Add support for kernel real time clock timing │ │
│ │[X] ARTS Enable KDE sound system support │ │
│ │[ ] ESOUND Enable GNOME esound support │ │
│ │[ ] JACK Enable JackIt audio server support │ │
│ │[X] POLYP Enable polyp sound server support │ │
├─└────v(+)────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘─┤
│ [ OK ] Cancel │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

pcbsd-1297# make install clean
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on file: /usr/local/live/liveMedia/libliveMedia.a - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on file: /usr/local/lib/libdts.a - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on executable in : gmake - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on file: /usr/local/bin/sdl-config - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on file: /usr/local/bin/intltool-extract - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on executable in : pkg-config - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: png.5 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: mp3lame.0 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: artsc.0 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: fribidi.0 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: lirc_client.1 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: twolame.0 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: mad.2 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: aa.1 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: theora.2 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: x264.50 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: polyp-0.7.0 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: audio.2 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: vorbis.3 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: xvidcore.4 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: faac.0 - found
===> mplayer-0.99.10_5 depends on shared library: speex.1 - not found
===> Verifying install for speex.1 in /usr/ports/audio/speex
===> Installing for speex-1.2.b1_1,1
===> speex-1.2.b1_1,1 depends on shared library: ogg.5 - found
===> Generating temporary packing list
===> Checking if audio/speex already installed
===> An older version of audio/speex is already installed (speex-1.0.5_1,1)
You may wish to ``make deinstall'' and install this port again
by ``make reinstall'' to upgrade it properly.
If you really wish to overwrite the old port of audio/speex
without deleting it first, set the variable "FORCE_PKG_REGISTER"
in your environment or the "make install" command line.
*** Error code 1

Stop in /usr/ports/audio/speex.
*** Error code 1

Stop in /usr/ports/multimedia/mplayer.
pcbsd-1297#

I'm not sure what to do now. The player doesn't work.

Right, forget that last post. I've re-installed mplayer according to your instructions. But I'm back where I started:

#mplayer

This gives me the following:
MPlayer 1.0rc1-3.4.4 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 CPU T5600 @ 1.83GHz (Family: 6, Model: 15, Stepping: 6)
CPUflags: MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled with runtime CPU detection.
Usage: mplayer [options] [url|path/]filename

Basic options: (complete list in the man page)
-vo <drv> select video output driver ('-vo help' for a list)
-ao <drv> select audio output driver ('-ao help' for a list)
vcd://<trackno> play (S)VCD (Super Video CD) track (raw device, no mount)
dvd://<titleno> play DVD title from device instead of plain file
-alang/-slang select DVD audio/subtitle language (by 2-char country code)
-ss <position> seek to given (seconds or hh:mm:ss) position
-nosound do not play sound
-fs fullscreen playback (or -vm, -zoom, details in the man page)
-x <x> -y <y> set display resolution (for use with -vm or -zoom)
-sub <file> specify subtitle file to use (also see -subfps, -subdelay)
-playlist <file> specify playlist file
-vid x -aid y select video (x) and audio (y) stream to play
-fps x -srate y change video (x fps) and audio (y Hz) rate
-pp <quality> enable postprocessing filter (details in the man page)
-framedrop enable frame dropping (for slow machines)

Basic keys: (complete list in the man page, also check input.conf)
<- or -> seek backward/forward 10 seconds
down or up seek backward/forward 1 minute
pgdown or pgup seek backward/forward 10 minutes
< or > step backward/forward in playlist
p or SPACE pause movie (press any key to continue)
q or ESC stop playing and quit program
+ or - adjust audio delay by +/- 0.1 second
o cycle OSD mode: none / seekbar / seekbar + timer
* or / increase or decrease PCM volume
x or z adjust subtitle delay by +/- 0.1 second
r or t adjust subtitle position up/down, also see -vf expand

* * * SEE THE MAN PAGE FOR DETAILS, FURTHER (ADVANCED) OPTIONS AND KEYS * * *

So I typed:
#mplayer dvd://1 -x 1280 -y 800

I can't seem to get it running with GUI though, and the resolution is not 1280x800.

Now, if I type
#gmplayer
it all kicks off, with GUI and all. However, I still can't get 1280x800 resolution. I get to watch the DVD in a smaller box than the size of my screen.

So I right-click and go to Preferences > Video and select gl or gl2. This makes the image the right size on the screen, but the image is very jittery (like with kaffeine or vlc). After a while it crashes with this message:

Mplayer interrupted by signal 11 in module: decode_video

If I run with xv nothing happens - I get an error message. If I run with x11 everything is fine, but only in the smaller image. xvidx doesn't work at all.

How do you have it set up?

I don't know why you are not getting mplayer's user's interface.
try installing kmplayer, which is a kde user interface for the mplayer.

Last night I did some testing with pc-bsd and the latest version to date is based on freebsd 6.1
Pc-bsd has a user friendly installer but in the end it is a freebsd system so all the things I explained to you about freebsd are valid for pc-bsd.
Get the ports.tar.gz and uncompress it in /usr wich I think you have done it already and go through all the steps.

Do the same things you did in freebsd to get the 1280x800 resolution, same for the sound and the wifi.

As for the mplayer the first things I took off were the skins and the graphical user interface, what I do is:
open a terminal say the movie I want to play is called movie.mpeg

type in terminal:
mplayer /path/to/movie.mpeg

it works fine but try playing movies with vlc that's quite a good player too.
Install bmpx, amarok, noatun, xmms, xine they are good multimedia players too.

Like I said, I already have the screen resolution and sound set up. I used your advice for getting it sorted under PCBSD. So all that's fine. I haven't tried wireless yet.

If I try to play DVD films using Xine, I get the following error:

The source seems encrypted and can't be read. Your DVD is probably crypted. According to your country laws you probably can or can't install/use libdvdcss to be able to read this disc, which you bought. (Media stream scrambled/encrypted).

So what can I do about that?


I tried kmplayer and the video quality is quite poor on DVD playback and again, I can't get full screen playback on 1280x800. The video plays in a smaller box (and it's not because I've not tried re-sizing, or anything). If you try to resize, you can get a bigger window, but the playback is still a smaller square within that window.

So I was hoping you could tell me how you have it set up. Maybe there's an option for dedicating more RAM to graphics for the x56?
I ask because when I play with mplayer and have the video setting in preferences selected for gl1, everything about the video is jittery - even the movement of the mouse cursor. So I'm thinking it's maybe a graphics memory issue. How do I increase graphics memory?

I never bothered to watch dvd from the disk. In case I need to rip a dvd then I use dvdrip then wach the movie from the file.
The little screen you are talking about depends on the quality of the
movie, if it is high resolution comes in a big window and if the resolution is low you get sh*t quality playback.

If you are into dvds and games try to stick to windows but in case you want to work and learn in your computer then use Unix.

I really don't think that it does depend on the quality of the movie. Like I said, the gl1 and gl2 settings provide the correct size, but all graphics then slow down, including stuff outside of the player.

Hence my theory about graphics memory.

Could you tell me more about dvdrip?