Re: Installing, then installing CDE

[Liam Proven <lproven%gmail.com@localhost>]

On 18/08/2026 2:03 pm, Stephen Borrill wrote:

Thanks for the reply!

> > 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?

No -- after a long interval it went back to a text screen with an error 
about X11, I think. (It was getting late!)

> > 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?

I added a line to the bottom about starting `dtlogin`, saved, and rebooted.

> 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

Well, it seems I can! :-(

In I think my previous post on this list, I killed my bare-metal NetBSD 
10 install by trying to update to 10.1. I have not had much luck with 
NetBSD so far; it took multiple generations of VMs to get a vague hang 
of it and about half a dozen attempts to achieve that bare-metal install.

I have lots of Unix experience, going back to SCO Xenix 286 on an actual 
IBM PC AT in 1988, but these days I am mostly a Linux type, not a BSD 
boffin.

My day job is the FOSS reporter at The Register and I want to write a 
story about the 11 release. Since almost no Linux distros include CDE, I 
thought that would make a great screenshot. And if I can learn how to do 
it in a VM, I will nuke my hardware install and reinstall 11 with CDE in 
place of Xfce.

I like Xfce, but it's not great as an illustration because it looks 
almost identical on every OS it supports. Whereas I suspect many of my 
readers barely know what NetBSD is, and a picture of ctwm carries a 
subtext of "you do not want to even try this".


> but you can make it fail to come up multi-user if rc errors out (e.g. if 
> it cannot mount filesystems).

I am not sure where I went wrong. I edited in vi, added a line, saved, 
quit, and typed `reboot`.

Maybe the reboot command is wrong? It said it was flushing and 
unmounting cleanly...

> 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.
You misunderstand me. It says something is wrong with the entire file.

The green startup messages change to grey and it says:

````
/rtc/rc.conf is not configure. M<ultiuser boot aborted.
Enter pathname of shell or RETURN for /bin/sh:
````

No matter. It's a disposable VM. I will just delete and reinstall.


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