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16. Installing X Window System

16.1 Creating missing symlink

On my system the symlink /lib/cpp that is supposed to point to /usr/bin/cpp was missing for some reason. Perhaps it never was there or I deleted it by mistake I don't know. Check if the link is in place on your system. If not, re-create it by running ln -s /usr/bin/cpp /lib/cpp

16.2 Installing X

During the compilation process you will encounter a few errors about the "makedepend" script not being able to find the stddef.h stdarg.h and float.h header files. The script just isn't as smart as the compiler is apparently, since the compilation itself does work fine without compilation errors. Though, creating a few temporary symlinks won't solve the problem; they only will cause more problems for some reason.

So you just ignore the many makedepend errors you most likely will be getting. Also errors similar to "pointer targets in passing arg x of somefunction differ in signedness". You can rewrite those files if you feel like it. I won't.

16.3 Creating /etc/ld.so.conf

Create a new file /etc/ld.so.conf containing the following:

# Begin /etc/ld.so.conf
 
/lib
/usr/lib
/usr/X11R6/lib
 
# End /etc/ld.so.conf

16.4 Modifying /etc/man_db.config

16.5 Creating the /usr/include/X11 symlink

16.6 Creating the /usr/X11 symlink

Often software copies files to /usr/X11 so it doesn't have to know which release of X you are using. This symlink hasn't been created by the X installation, so we have to create it by ourselves.

16.7 Adding /usr/X11/bin to the $PATH environment variable

There are a few ways to add the /usr/X11/bin path to the $PATH environment variable. One way of doing so is the following:

You need to login again for this change to become effective. Or you can update the path by running export PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11/bin manually

16.8 Configuring X

If the XF86Config file created by xf86config doesn't suffice, then you better copy the already existing XF86Config from your normal Linux system to /etc. Cases wherein you need to make special changes to the file which aren't supported by the xf86config program force you to do this. You can always modify the created XF86Config file by hand. This can be very time consuming, especially if you don't quite remember what needs to be changed.

16.9 Testing X

Now that X is properly configured it's time for our first test run.

The X server should start and display 3 xterm's on your screen. If this is true in your case, X is running fine.


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