TITLE: Installing XFree86 4.1 LFS VERSION: 3.x AUTHOR: Matthias S. Benkmann SYNOPSIS: This hint describes how to install XFree86 4.1 without any special optimizations. If you want to use optimizations look at the x11 hint. Note however that at the time of this writing it is outdated and has caused problems for some people. As it does contain some information that is not in this hint (and this hint contains some information not in the x11 hint) you should probably read both. HINT: Download the newest zlib from http://www.gzip.org/zlib/ (unless you have zlib already installed). Install with ./configure --shared && make test && make prefix=/usr install && cp zlib.3 /usr/share/man/man3 && /sbin/ldconfig Download X410src-1.tgz X410src-2.tgz X410src-3.tgz from the xfree site (I guess that's ftp://ftp.xfree86.org) Install with (from inside the xc/ directory that the archives extract to): echo $'#define HasZlib YES\n' >config/cf/host.def && echo $'#define HasNCurses YES\n' >>config/cf/host.def && make World && echo /usr/X11R6/lib >>/etc/ld.so.conf && make install && make install.man && /sbin/ldconfig Configure XFree86 by doing export PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin #you will want to put this in .bashrc/.bash_profile cd /dev ln -s mouse # is the device for your mouse, #/dev/psaux for PS/2, /dev/ttyS0 for COM1 cd /etc/X11 XFree86 -configure #This will auto-detect your graphics hardware (black screen for several # seconds, don't panic. #It creates a file XF86Config.new. Make sure that #the information in it is correct (I had a crash that required reset # because I had /dev/mouse set up wrong so that it thought I had a #PS/2 mouse while I have a normal serial mouse. XFree86 -xf86config /etc/X11/XF86Config.new # This will test the server. You won't get anything but a flimmering # 640x480 screen with an annoying pattern and an X shaped moused cursor # that you can move (if the mouse works). # Press Ctrl-Alt-Backspace to exit mv XF86Config.new XF86Config Congratulations. You have installed X. But you'll probably want to do some more configuring in XF86Config. Read the XF86Config(5x) manpage. It won't tell you much, though. Maybe you should skip it and read /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.eg which is a well-commented example. Some things you will surely want to set are Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "keyboard" Option "XkbModel" "pc102" Option "XkbLayout" "" Option "AutoRepeat" "250 30" EndSection and Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Iiyama" ModelName "VisionMaster 450" HorizSync 27-102 VertRefresh 50-160 EndSection Of course you will need to enter the correct values for your monitor. If you set the right values you don't need to fiddle with modelines anymore (what a relief!) because XFree86 will choose an appropriate VESA mode with a high refresh rate. Just specify what mode you want like this: Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Card0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 16 SubSection "Display" Depth 16 Modes "1024x768" Virtual 1280 960 EndSubSection EndSection This is all it takes to get a nice virtual screen of 1280x960 with a real resolution of 1024x768 with eye-friendly 85Hz (on my system, it depends on your monitor's capabilities of course). Now read the XFree86-HOWTO you get from linuxdoc.org. It will give you an overview of how X is started. Read the scripts /usr/X11R6/bin/startx and /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc These scripts determine what happens when you type "startx". You can use the command startx now, to get X started with the default setup (twm and some xterms as you can see in .../xinitrc) Now you may want to do man /usr/X11R6/man/man*/* which will let you read all manpages in a row (just press q to go to the next manpage). Once you're through you know more about X than 99% of the people out there ;-)