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desktop-installer(1)	    General Commands Manual	  desktop-installer(1)

NAME
       desktop-installer - Quickly configure a FreeBSD desktop system

SYNOPSIS
       desktop-installer

DESCRIPTION
       The  FreeBSD  desktop  configuration  process  requires installing many
       ports/packages and configuring many different subsystems, which can  be
       a daunting task for all but the most seasoned users.

       The  desktop-installer  script  automates  the process of configuring a
       FreeBSD machine as a desktop system running any desktop environment  or
       simple  window manager in the FreeBSD ports tree.  More than a dozen of
       the most	popular	desktops are explicitly	supported and any other	can be
       configured using	the "Custom" option.

       To use "Custom",	you need only know the category/portname of the	 desk-
       top  you	 want,	and the	command	for starting the desktop from xinit or
       xsession, e.g. start-lumina-desktop for the Lumina desktop.  This  com-
       mand  can  be found in category/portname/pkg-plist.  The	only other ad-
       vantage to explicitly supported desktops	is automatic installation of a
       few common utilities, such as qpdfview  and  coreterminal  for  Lumina.
       You  can	 easily	 install the utilities you want	using "pkg install" or
       "auto-admin" after a Custom desktop install.

       Desktop-installer is a post-install script, i.e.	one that you run AFTER
       doing a standard	operating system and booting the new installation  for
       the first time.	( See details below. )

       Desktop-installer  installs  all	 the software necessary	for the	chosen
       desktop as well as common desktop-independent packages  such  as	 CUPS,
       Firefox,	LibreOffice.org, etc.

       It  also	 configures  system services and settings to facilitate	conve-
       nient use of CD/DVD drives, USB ports, etc.

MOTIVATION
       This script is meant to provide a middle-ground between totally	manual
       configuration  and  complete  distributions  such as GhostBSD or	Ubuntu
       Linux.

       The post-install	script approach	has some advantages over complete dis-
       tributions.  The	post-install script itself is far easier  to  maintain
       and  unlike  separate  distributions, the resulting desktop system is a
       nearly pristine FreeBSD system with minimal differences	from  the  de-
       fault install.  The system can therefore	be maintained and upgraded us-
       ing  traditional	 FreeBSD  command-line	tools  (pkg  install, adduser,
       freebsd-update, etc.), or stock tools of	the chosen desktop suite.

       For easy	management of common system settings, try the auto-admin menu.

       Desktop-installer supports all CPU architectures	that run  FreeBSD  and
       all  supported  FreeBSD	versions,  whereas distributions are generally
       limited to one version on AMD64.

BASIC USE
       To use desktop-installer:

       1. Install a basic FreeBSD system.

       The recommended install options are a basic user	system including:

       All binaries
       Docs in your preferred language(s)
       Source code

       Installing the ports tree from the installation media  is  a  waste  of
       time.  It will be replaced with a git clone by desktop installer.

       If  you	neglect	to install the source tree, desktop-installer will in-
       stall it	for you	automatically.

       It is best to use desktop-installer on a	pristine FreeBSD installation.

       Desktop-installer can also be used to upgrade all the  software	on  an
       existing	 system,  but  there are too many possibilities	for failure to
       support here since it is	impossible to predict  what  kinds  of	system
       hacks  it might encounter.  Also, it's generally	a good idea to back up
       your data, wipe your disk clean,	and  reinstall	everything  every  few
       years,  since data on magnetic disks can	fall victim to "bit rot" (mag-
       netic polarity fades over time) and read	errors will eventually occur.

       Desktop-installer can install software from source or from binary pack-
       ages (pkg install).  Binary packages install much faster	 (seconds  per
       package,	vs minutes or hours per	port built from	source).  However, in-
       stalling	 from  ports allows you	to install on systems for which	binary
       packages	are not	maintained.

       If you enjoy a simple life,  install  a	-RELEASE  or  -STABLE  version
       rather  than -CURRENT.  If you would like to help the project move for-
       ward by testing the latest changes, run -CURRENT.

       If you do not choose to install software	from source, desktop-installer
       installs	most packages  over  the  network  using  "pkg	install",  but
       falling back on build-from-source where necessary.  (e.g. some software
       cannot be distributed as	a binary package for licensing reasons.)

       2. Install desktop-installer:

	   pkg install desktop-installer

       or (if you have a ports tree installed)

	   cd /usr/ports/sysutils/desktop-installer
	   make	install

       or if you want the latest development version of	desktop-installer, in-
       stall from the latest freebsd-ports-wip:

	   pkg install auto-admin
	   auto-freebsd-wip-checkout
	   wip-reinstall-port auto-admin
	   wip-reinstall-port desktop-installer

       3. Run desktop-installer:

	   rehash  # If	using tcsh and just installed desktop-installer
	   desktop-installer

SEE ALSO
       auto-admin

AUTHOR
       J. Bacon
       Acadix Consulting, LLC

							  desktop-installer(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=desktop-installer&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+14.3.quarterly>

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