SDDM not installed following a rushed installation of FreeBSD

In VirtualBox, I downloaded then ran the script at the finishing stage of FreeBSD Installer for 14.4-BETA3 with FreeBSD-14.4-BETA3-amd64-dvd1.iso.

With the first boot of the installed system, I wondered why SDDM did not start.

I checked /etc/rc.conf and found:

  • the two lines for VirtualBox services
  • the line for dbus_enable
  • nothing for SDDM.

Closer inspection: SDDM was not installed, so I installed it (the package is available at the time of writing).

An afterthought, whilst drafting this report. During installation of FreeBSD, before the finishing stage:

  • I had chosen to not add a user.

If that's the explanation, then I guess that the desktop script could be enhanced to drop a hint when the operator is lazy. Encourage the operator to:

  1. add a user
  2. and then re-run the script?
Edited by Graham Perrin