Re: XF 4.x config (was RE: [PLUG] how do you change resolution setting after the install)

[Jeff Dean <jdean@ieee.org>]

Since my original post, I've installed XFree86 v4.0.1 on a RH6.0 box.
After the installation, you're instructed by Xinstall.sh to run 

  XFree86 -configure

to generate an initial config file.  This worked as far as detecting mouse
and graphics card and yielded a basic working XF86Config.  However, it
didn't handle the mode issues to increase resolution.

With 4.0.x you no longer need to offer modelines to set the graphics modes
- all of the standard VESA modes are already known by the server.  Instead,
you need to provide monitor capabilities.  I used xf86cfg, a graphical
utility, that comes with the distribution.  It starts the server and
presents a graphic of a mouse, keyboard, monitor, and card, sort of tied
together in a block diagram.  There's some guesswork, because nothing's
labeled unless you hover over it, but it does offer keyboard alternatives
to make the mouse cursor move in case you're stuck.  Just like
Xconfigurator, the monitor widget had a generic configuration option, in my
case 1280x1024 @ 60hz (I wish I had a faster monitor).  It wrote the new
file in /root/XF86config.new.  After copying that to /etc/X11 the server
started in the correct resolution using startx.

After that I had three gotchas - my KDE setup wasn't started using the
default startx, xfs wouldn't start with the RH startup script, and it
looked like I was running with a shallow bitplane depth (as indicated by
color palette gyrations upon starting applications).  I checked the man
pages for the 4.0.1 version of xinit, and it indicated that it looked for
.xinitrc for a list of client programs to start (including the window
manager).  Under 3.x on my RH system, the convoluted RH X configuration
files used .Xclients, but v4 didn't look for it, and so the RH scripts fell
back on twm.  So, after linking .xinitrc -> .Xclients, KDE started normally.

I still haven't fixed xfs, since I'm still scratching my head on exactly
what applications need it.  It seems to start cleanly by hand, so I haven't
worried about it.  However, the startup hangs using the existing script, so
I needed to undo the xfs startup for all runlevels.

This left the bitplane problem, which I didn't have in v3.  After looking
through the man pages for the NVidea driver (I have a 16MB TNT) I noticed a
little note that indicated that 8 bits per pixel was the default - yuch!  I
added an optional "DefaultDepth 24" to the Screen section of
/etc/X11/XF86Config, and all was well.

I preserved my v3.3.6 installation by copying /etc/X11 and /usr/X11R6 to
/etc/X11_3 and /usr/X11R6_3, respectively.  I then used links to switch
back and forth between v3 and v4.

v4.0.1 is now working nicely for me, and it is noticably faster than 3.3.6.

jd


At 09:18 AM 8/31/00 -0400, you wrote:
>> On Wed, 30 Aug 2000, Jeff Dean wrote:
>> > At 08:39 AM 8/30/00 -0400, you wrote:
>> > >You can also run Xconfigurator.
>> > Is there an Xconfigurator for XFree 4.0.x?
>> > 
>
>Actually, Xconfigurator is a RedHat product.  You'll need to go to
>RedHat to see if they have one available yet.  
>
>On the XFree86 side, XFree86 4.0 didn't have much in the way of
>configuration tools, except for the X -configure option.  XFree86 4.0.1
>is supposed to have a working xf86config and new graphical xf86cfg
>tool.  I haven't tried it yet myself.  Info on these is available from
>http://www.xfree86.org.


Jeff Dean
jdean@ieee.org


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