LXQt Got Initial FreeBSD support.


Recently, PC-BSD developers just reminded us that there is an unmet need for a Qt desktop for BSDs. So, here you go. 🙂

LXQt-FreeBSD

As stated earlier, we’re not really Linux-centric. We support Linux better simply because we’re Linux users. Now with some help from several FreeBSD users, things can be different. I installed FreeBSD 10 in Virtualbox last week. After reading some docs and fighting with it we fixed some broken makefiles. Now the major components should work as expected.
Of course, there are still some Linux things which do not work (yet).

  • lxqt-powermanagement: this requires upower
  • lxqt-policykit: I haven’t test if policykit works for FreeBSD
  • volume control applet: currently it only supports ALSA and PulseAudio. I’m going to implement OSS support for it.
  • removable device applet: this requires udisks
  • Reboot/Shutdown from the menu: We use logind/consolekit now. Any good alternative for BSD?

Other parts should just work. We hope that we can improve FreeBSD support more. Of course, help from the BSD community is needed.

Cheers!

 


8 responses to “LXQt Got Initial FreeBSD support.”

  1. Kudos for you guys!

    It’s not a common atitude at the DE/GUI development have this kind of interaction with the BSD´s.

    Lets hope that OpenBSD put LXQt to their ports.

  2. Great to see that you’re working toward a better compatibility with other systems (even if I don’t use them) than GNU/Linux! Congratulations and big thanks!

  3. Very much appreciated. I will be installing LDQT today. The looming question in the room is now will it depend on the abortion that is systemd? I imagine not if BSD support is envisioned, but its good to ask anwyay. Keep up the great work!

  4. Enzzo, this is about support on BSD. Systemd will not be part of BSD for the foreseeable future.

  5. Support for OSS in the panel applet is much appreciated. I ran OSS a few times under linux, to go around a driver issue or to try it out ; no working volume applet was a big pain both in Gnome 2 / Mate and LXDE.

    OSS under linux can also possibly be a lighter alternative to ALSA + Pulseaudio while having a few more features than lone ALSA.
    In some cases I have Pulseaudio use a ton of CPU (just by launching “qsynth” and letting it idle), go figure.

  6. Are you sure direct OSS support really needed? PulseAudio for BSD already exists, and is standard on PC-BSD, and I’m not even sure OSS even supports software mixing without a sound server on top of it or if it can only serve one program by itself. I know alsa used to be that way, OSS may still be that way I’m not sure.