Making XLibre to compile and run on DragonFly BSD

[fredvs]

This is an attempt to make XLibre work on DragonFly BSD.
Note that I have serious doubts about its feasibility, but certainly it is not ootb.

You will first need to install Xorg on the system.
Note that a patch is required for the keyboard to work under Xorg (oddly, by default, the keyboard will not work with a "legal" installation).

In console do this:

su
pkg install xf86-input-libinput
nano /etc/sysctl.conf

and add this line in /etc/sysctl.conf: kern.evdev.rcpt_mask=3

Check to see if your Xorg system is working.

Then install XLibre server:
First the dependencies:
pkg install pkgconf meson autoconf automake git libtool

Then Xlibre server:

git clone https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver.git
cd xserver
meson setup --prefix=/usr/local build -Dxnest=false -Dudev=false -Dudev_kms=false
ninja -C build
cd build
ninja install

Then the XLibre drivers:

Keyboard

cd $HOME
git clone --depth 2 https://github.com/X11Libre/xf86-input-keyboard.git
cd xf86-input-keyboard
./autogen.sh
./configure
make install

Mouse

cd $HOME
git clone --depth 2 https://github.com/X11Libre/xf86-input-mouse.git
cd xf86-input-mouse
./autogen.sh
./configure
make install

Vesa

cd $HOME
git clone --depth 2 https://github.com/X11Libre/xf86-video-vesa.git
cd xf86-video-vesa
./autogen.sh
./configure
make install

Create /etc/X11/xorg.conf
nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

And add this (first a simple for testing):

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "Layout0"
        Screen       0  "Screen0"
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
        ModulePath   "/usr/local/lib/xorg/modules"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "keyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Mouse0"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "auto"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/sysmouse"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Card0"
        Driver      "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
    Device "Card0"
    Monitor "Monitor0"
    DefaultDepth 24
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

After this swith as normal user and start the session with

startx

That should load the XLibre server.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get it to work yet. I keep getting the "no screens found" error...
Here's the result when I run startx:

(==) Log file: "/home/fred/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log", Time: Sun Aug 31 05:30:09 2025
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
(==) Using system config directory "/usr/local/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"

Fatal server error:
no screens found

Please consult the XLibre support 
         at https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver
 for help. 
Please also check the log file at "/home/fred/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.

(EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.
xinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: server error
xauth:  file /home/fred/.Xauthority does not exist
xauth: (argv):1:  bad display name "/unix:0" in "remove" command
xauth: (argv):1:  bad display name ":0" in "remove" command

and here part of the log file about the vesa driver

[2025-08-31 04:24:44]   ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 11.0
[2025-08-31 04:24:44] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[2025-08-31 04:24:44] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/vesa_drv.so
[2025-08-31 04:24:44] (II) Module vesa: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[2025-08-31 04:24:44]   compiled for 1.25.0, module version = 2.6.0
[2025-08-31 04:24:44]   Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[2025-08-31 04:24:44]   ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 28.0
[2025-08-31 04:24:44] (II) VESA: driver for VESA chipsets: vesa
[2025-08-31 04:24:44] (EE) No devices detected.

I did try also with the patch for vesa driver of @cepelinas9000 but it did not help.
Also I did try with vbox driver without luck.
Voila, brave hearts are welcome to help.

[cepelinas9000]

vesa driver need additional modification and mouse driver need review too (it behaves like input events have wrong structure size - moment you use scroll: suddenly firefox thinks you pressing back button multiple times).

Later i will post instructions. @fredvs my modifications: I set for compiler gcc13, for keyboard driver used evdev (note during configure added CFLAGS=-I/usr/include/compat flag ). vesa patch it just comment dirver check.

[fredvs]

@cepelinas9000 WOOOOOW, you are really too strong.
Congratulation, Champion.

[callmetango]

I concur! Kinda "ordered" just 7 hours ago in https://github.com/orgs/X11Libre/discussions/349#discussioncomment-14265660 and already done. That is what they call "express delivery". 😆😉

[fredvs]

I set for compiler gcc13,

Indeed, with their default compiler, errors occurred during compilation.
I configured to use the clang18 compiler and all the XLibre source compiled without problems.

pkg install llvm18
setenv CC /usr/local/bin/clang18
setenv CXX /usr/local/bin/clang++18
setenv CPP /usr/local/bin/clang-cpp18

[cepelinas9000]

Notes for dragonflyBSD

• sh as shell. Take attention at "export" environment variables - you need to do in same session
• using input usb devices worked correctly with dragonflybsd libinput driver: qemu switches -usb -device usb-mouse -device usb-kbd
• there blinking screen artifact when moving mouse (something with libinput, vesa driver and probably kernel)

install dependencies

pkg install -y xorg xfce vim nano  # install all necessary X dependencies and xfce environment 
pkg install -y git gcc pkgconf meson autoconf automake git libtool gcc cmake xorg-macros libmtdev libinput

export CC=gcc13

compile & install xserver

cd ~
git clone --depth 2 https://github.com/X11Libre/xserver.git
cd xserver
meson setup --prefix=/usr/local/xlibre build -Dxnest=false -Dxvfb=false -Dudev=true -Dudev_kms=false
(cd build && ninja install)

mkdir -p /usr/local/xlibre/var/log/

export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/usr/local/xlibre/lib/pkgconfig/

install input-libinput- drivers

cd ~
git clone --depth 2 https://github.com/X11Libre/xf86-input-libinput.git
CFLAGS="-I/usr/include/compat" meson setup --prefix=/usr/local/xlibre build
(cd build && ninja install)

vesa driver installation requires small patch

make file named: vesa-patch.patch

diff --git a/src/vesa.c b/src/vesa.c
index 1e69f4d..88d0f88 100644
--- a/src/vesa.c
+++ b/src/vesa.c
@@ -64,6 +64,16 @@
 #endif
 #include "compat-api.h"
 
+// took from hw/xfree86/os-support/misc/SlowBcopy.c
+/* The outb() isn't needed on my machine, but who knows ... -- ost */
+void
+xf86SlowBcopy(unsigned char *src, unsigned char *dst, int len)
+{
+    while (len--)
+        *dst++ = *src++;
+}
+
+
 /* Mandatory functions */
 static const OptionInfoRec * VESAAvailableOptions(int chipid, int busid);
 static void VESAIdentify(int flags);
@@ -480,8 +490,9 @@ VESAPciProbe(DriverPtr drv, int entity_num, struct pci_device *dev,
        VESAPtr pVesa;
 
        if (pci_device_has_kernel_driver(dev)) {
-           ErrorF("vesa: Ignoring device with a bound kernel driver\n");
-           return FALSE;
+           // Ignore for now
+           //ErrorF("vesa: Ignoring device with a bound kernel driver\n");
+           //return FALSE;
        }
 
        pVesa = VESAGetRec(pScrn);

compile and install vesa driver:

cd ~
git clone --depth 2 https://github.com/X11Libre/xf86-video-vesa.git
cd xf86-video-vesa
patch -p1 < ../vesa-patch.patch
./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr/local/xlibre CFLAGS="-I/usr/include/compat"
make install

system configuration (note: i'm novice user) configuration

pkg install xdm firefox
sed -i in-place 's/local\/bin\/X/local\/xlibre\/bin\/X/' /usr/local/etc/X11/xdm/Xservers

echo "xdm_enable='yes'" >> /etc/rc.conf

reboot

fastfetch works on correctly on xfce (see pictures below):

cd ~

git clone --depth 2 https://github.com/fastfetch-cli/fastfetch.git

mkdir fast
cd fast
cmake ../fastfetch
make -j4
./fastfetch

DragonflyBSD with Xlibre:

[callmetango]

@cepelinas9000 Very, very nize! Would you mind to share your liberated screen at Liberated Screens 02 · X11Libre · Discussion X11Libre/misc#358?

(Yes, this thread is new due to Uplift and split the Liberated Screens into smaller threads · Issue #355 · X11Libre/misc but therefore you could also be the first one there. 😉)

[cepelinas9000]

This one enough or make new screen ?

[callmetango]

The existing screens are good. Just post one over there for, er, the protocol. 😉

[b-aaz]

Considering that the Dragonfly DPorts are really similar to the FreeBSD port system, it should not be that difficult to port my project to it.
That would be nice because then they would be actual ports that can be integrated to the main tree.
I maybe start testing things with it soon.

[callmetango]

That would be very cool! ❤️

[b-aaz]

Today's update, I run DFBSD on real hardware so I started testing stuff right away.
There are a few differences between the DFBSD and FreeBSD port system architecture, things like the architecture names being different, so the ports do not work as expected out of the box. The port system issues aside there is a not so small amount of DFBSD specific patches and Makefile configs (~30 files).
These I should resolve and turn all of the possible ones into PR's on here.
One thing that could be a rode block in the future is that Cirrus CI (nor any other that I'm aware of) supports DFBSD, so there would be difficulty in creating a CI system as in my FreeBSD repo that can provide a testing binary repository.

[fredvs]

Hum, many things differs from FreeBSD now (DFBSD was originally a split from FreeBSD).
For example the dirent structure and many others are different, so only compile code that was ok on FreeBSD, in many case, needs lot of adjustments. And sadly the docs and help are very poor.

[callmetango]

@b-aaz In https://github.com/orgs/X11Libre/discussions/358#discussioncomment-14444109 you said:

The XLibre ports now support DragonFlyBSD! ... the first time the ports are running on it and they are running on real hardware too! The next step is going to be setting up a CI system that outputs a pkg repo like what we have on FreeBSD.

I would like to mention the DragonFly BSD dports in the "Third-party support" section of Are We XLibre Yet? · X11Libre/xserver Wiki with the status "Work in progress = 🏗️ . Nothing finalized, but like calling for contributions and testing. Do you think your dports are ready for this?

[callmetango]

Thank you! I've added the dports to the "Third-party support" section of Are We XLibre Yet? · X11Libre/xserver Wiki with status 🏗️ and a call to contribute at https://github.com/b-aaz/xlibre-ports/tree/dfbsd. The discussion link points to this discussion here.

[callmetango]

@fredvs

After extensive testing of DragonFly BSD with Xorg installed from their packages and DragonFly BSD with XLibre following the @b-aaz tutorial, the only difference is that with XLibre everything works much better.

Thank you for the extensive testing. Do you have one or two examples for what works better with XLibre?

[fredvs]

Well, I tested some of my applications using the msegui widget-set and for animation, for example, it's smoother.
StrumPract finally works perfectly on DragonFly; no more random crashes like with XOrg.
(You could, of course, argue not having the same setup with XOrg and XLibre, but what's certain is that DragonFly with XLibre is much better for my applications.)

[fredvs]

But yes, I admit it, I'm a new convert to XLibre so my opinion is very partial... ;-)

[callmetango]

Ok, thank you for the feedback!

[callmetango]

To give a heads up, quoting https://github.com/orgs/X11Libre/discussions/268#discussioncomment-14721413 of @b-aaz:

After around 150+ small commit and lots of time in CI hell, I have finally managed to setup a CI pipeline for DragonFlyBSD packages too.
Here is the latest index of packages