Re: Installing, then installing CDE

[Stephen Borrill <netbsd%precedence.co.uk@localhost>]

On Tue, 18 Aug 2026, Liam Proven wrote:
> I am trying out NetBSD 11 (x86-64) in a VirtualBox VM.
>
> As I have encountered before, I somehow failed to install the `pkgin`
> command. I don't know how. I managed to bodge it into place somehow,
> and installed CDE.
>
> I found this helpful:
>
> https://groups.google.com/g/comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc/c/7eGksS80DfI
>
> Is there a better guide anywhere?

I don't know of a better guide to CDE. I'll see if I can get it working 
(currently stuck finding that X11 doesn't work at all on a uEFI-booted VM 
on XenServer).

> I managed to install it, and _try_ to launch it with `startcde` but it
> shows a full-screen splash message, then dies with an error.

Do you have the error?

> The default X11 WM (`ctwm`?) but CDE won't start.
>
> I tried editing /etc/rc.conf but somehow killed my VM and now it won't
> boot at all. I am hoping for some pointers or guidance before I start
> from scratch.

What changes did you make to rc.conf? What happens when you try to boot 
it?

rc.conf will be read after init starts and runs /etc/rc after the kernel 
has initialised. So you cannot make a machine not boot by editing rc.conf,
but you can make it fail to come up multi-user if rc errors out (e.g. if 
it cannot mount filesystems).

If you are stuck in single-user mode, you should be able to mount -a and 
then use vi to edit rc.conf to undo your changes.

--
Stephen