X Configuration 04/09/14 20:56

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1. Introduction
2. About Linux If installing X, install it in "/usr/X11R6/…". '*"*) +-, +." /0&$*1& 2.#
3. Installation and 3%+4%& 5)*#" 678 29&)*%+:
getting started
4. Logging in and Configuration Files
out
5. Basic Linux /etc/X11/XF86Config
Commands
6. Linux Files and This file has the following sections. They are Files,
File Permissions ServerFlags, Keyboard, Pointer, Monitor, Device (may be
7. Linux Directory more than 1), and Screen (may be more than 1).
Structure
8. Finding Files Files, Keyboard and Pointer Sections:
9. Linux Help The files section sets up the paths for X to use for files
10. Setting Time that specify screen colors and fonts. If the directory
11. Devices specified here doesn't exist or is empty XFree86 will
12. Tips crash or generate error messages. The "Keyboard"
13. Accessing Other section specifies the keyboard protocol, usually standard,
Filesystems and key repeat rates. The "Pointer" section includes a
14. Accessing Protocol and Device line. The device is the mouse device
Removable such as /dev/mouse (This may be a softlink to another
Media device). The Protocol is one of BusMouse, Logitech,
15. Making and Microsoft, MMSeries, Mouseman, Mousesystems, PS/2,
Managing or MMHitTab.
Filesystems
16. Emergency The monitor section:
Filesystems and In the monitor section the Identifier can be any unique
Procedures identifier string to identify that particular monitor. The
17. LILO and VendorName and ModelName are for reference. The
Runlevels HorizSync is in Khz and may be one number, multiple
18. Init numbers separated by commas, or a range. Ex: 30-54. Ex
19. Environment, 31.5, 35.2. VertRefresh is in Hz and can be specified
Shell Selection, similar to HorizSync. VertRefreah and HorizSync
and Startu specify valid rates for your monitor. An example
20. Linux Kernel "Modeline is shown below:
21. Package
Installation and Modeline "1024X768" 65.00 1024 1032 1176 1344 768
Printing 771 777 806 –hsync –vsync
22. Configuration,
Logging and The name is "1024X768", an arbitrary string used to
CRON refer to the modeline in the screen section.
The dot-clock is 65.00 which is the video card's driving

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23. Keys and clock frequency in MHz for that resolution mode. It is
Terminal the rate that the video card should send pixels to the
Configuration monitor for that screen mode.
24. Sound The next four numbers 1024, 1032, 1176, and 1344 are
Configuration the horizontal values and the last four are the vertical
25. Managing Users values. These values specify when the monitor should
26. Passwords fire it's electron gun and when the horizontal and vertical
27. Process Control sync pulses occur.
28. Configuration Read the file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/VideoModes.doc.
and Diagnostic It explains how to configure this section. Also, the file,
Tools Monitors shows examples of modelines for specific
29. Overall monitors.
Configuration
30. Using PAM
31. Basic Network The device section:
Setup This section describes video cards. The Identifier, VendorName, BoardName
32. Tools and Terms and optional Chipset are strings and are only used for identification. The
33. Novell and VideoRam specifies the amount of video memory in Kb. The data in Clocks
Printing should come from the video board manual. The file Devices in the
34. Inetd Services documentation section should help with device setup. If your video card is
35. Xinetd Services found in the Devices file, that section may be copied into the XF86Config
36. Other Network file. Note: Sometimes the card may use a programmable clock chip, in which
Services case there may be a line specifying "ClockChip" rather than "Clocks". Some
37. FTP and Telnet cards may specify a "Ramdac" line. Some video cards also require other
38. Samba special options using an "Option" line. these options are described in the
39. Identd (auth) README file for the particular chipset.
40. X Configuration
41. X Use The screen section:
42. Using X The section, "screen" is where you can specify what XFree86 server runs with
Remotely your X server.
43. X EX:
Documentation
Section "Screen:
44. DNS Driver "accle"
45. DHCP and Device "Actix GE32+ 2MB"
BOOTP Monitor "Generic Monitor"
46. Apache SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
47. NFS Modes "640x480"
48. PPP ViewPort 0 0
49. Mail Virtual 1280 1024
50. Routing EndSubsection
51. IP Masquerading SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
52. Proxy Servers
Weight 565
and ipchains Modes "640x480"
53. UUCP ViewPort 0 0
54. News Virtual 1024 768
55. NIS EndSubsection
EndSection
56. Network
Security The values for driver can be Accel, SVGA, VGA16, VGA2, or Mono. Accel
57. Secure Shell supports XF86_S3, XF86_Mach32, XF86_Mach8, XF86_8514, XF86_P9000,
58. Text Processing
XF86_AGX, and XF86_W32 servers. SVGA supports the XF86_SVGA server. The
59. Shell
driver specifies the X server to use.
Programming
60. Emacs
Depth sets the number of pits per pixel. Modes displays a list of the video mode

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61. VI names defined in the ModeLine option in the Monitor section. The virtual option
62. Recommended specifies the virtual desktop size. Use this if you have enough RAM on the video
Reading card but a monitor that won't support the greater resolution. ViewPort defines the
63. Credits coordinates of the upper left corner of the virtual desktop when XFree86 starts. In
the Screen section, the driver name indicates the type of X server you are running.
Linux The X server is the program that runs with your monitor, mouse, and keyboard,
Operating Systems regardless of the platform or location. It could be running on the same machine, or
Home on another machine on a network or on a serial port. For example if I am running a
svga server program(XF86_SVGA), the screen section that will apply would be the
one labeled as follows in the screen section:

Driver "svga"

I believe the X server program that runs is determined by the "xserverrc" file either
in the user's home directory or in the directory "/usr/X11/xinit/". I do not believe
this is used anymore since the Xwrapper program is set up to be the X server
program on current systems. If it is used, it is used to pass parameters to the
Xwrapper program. On my system the X server falls through to the default "X" file
which is a link to the Xwrapper program. See the "How Linux Works CTDP Guide"
for more information.
You can use Ctrl-Alt-+ to change the resolution. X starts with the poorest one you
select (by default), you can change that manually by editing /etc/X11/XF86Config.

Configuration tools:
Programs to configure X are:

XF86Setup - A newer X configuration program with a GUI interface which

modifies the "/etc/X11/XF86Config" configuration file.
xf86config - An older X configuration program with a text based interface. It
also modifies the "/etc/X11/XF86Config" configuration file.
Xconfigurator - The Redhat tool used during system setup to configure X.
xvidtune - This program will test video modes on the fly without modification
to your X configuration. Read the usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/VideoModes.doc
file before running this program.
SuperProbe - A program that probes the video card to determine its type for
use with setting up X. xvidtune - This program will test video modes on the
fly without modification to your X configuration.

The programs reside in "/usr/X11R6/bin" and "/usr/bin/X11". The programs

XF86Setup, xf86config, and Xconfigurator modify the "/etc/X11/XF86Config"
configuration file. XF86Setup is the newer configuration program with a GUI
interface and xf86config is older with a text based interface. I advise users to use
XF86Setup when possible, but use xf86config when they have problems with
XF86Setup. To get it configured, you must provide information about your
keyboard, mouse, video card and monitor. You must also select a screen resolution
mode. Usually if you can't find a configuration for your video card you can select a
generic driver such as SVGA. Later to improve performance, you may want to
make manual modifications to your configuration with settings that more closely
match your video card. The main information about your video monitor includes the
maximum vertical and horizontal scan rates. You will want to refer to your
monitor's manual for this information. If you have problems with X and it won't
work, one thing to try is reducing your video mode from a higher to lower

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X Configuration 04/09/14 20:56

resolution. Ex: Change from 1200X1024 to 800X600. Usually if you can't use
higher resolution it is due to monitor scan frequencies. Your video card memory
determines a combination of your maximum resolution and maximum colors. For
example 1200X1024 with 65535 colors requires 1200 times 1024 times 2 bytes of
video memory which is 2.4576 M of video memory. Your video card needs 4M to
run this mode.

A handy program for determining your video card type and video RAM is
"SuperProbe". This program could crash your system, but should do no harm, other
than having to reboot and clean the system. It is recommended that you backup your
files prior to running this program, however.
The program xvidtune will let you test video modes on the fly without modification
to your X configuration. Read the /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/VideoModes.doc file
before running this program.
The instructions for configuring X are spread out over several text files. Check the
README, VideoModes.doc, README.Config, and README.Linux. Read the
man pages for Xconfig, XF86Config, XFree86, and Xfree86kbd. Many
documentation files for various packages are in "/usr/doc". Many of these files are
too in depth for the average user and describe many X Consortium standards.

Running in terminal mode in run level 5:

You can set the runlevel in the "/etc/inittab" program to run in runlevel 5, which
means you will have the X font server running. This way you can provide remote
services in X to other machines. If you want to boot into terminal mode, however,
you must modify the file "/etc/X11/xdm/Xservers". Comment out the line that
shows:
:0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X

To provide X services to a remote boot machine according to the Linux Terminal

Server Project (LTSP):
Modify the file /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfs. Modify two lines around 22 and 41:

Redhat 6.0
Change the lines that start with <daemon –check xfs su xfs –c \"xfs –port –1\"
–s /bin/sh> to <daemon –check xfs su xfs –c \"xfs –port 7100\" –s /bin/sh>
Redhat 6.1
Change the lines that start with "daemon xfs –droppriv –daemon –port –1" to
"daemon xfs –droppriv –daemon –port 7100
Change the file /etc/X11/XF86Config:
Change the line <FontPath "unix/:-1"> to <FontPath "tcp/localhost:7100">
Change the file /etc/X11/xdm/Xaccess at line 40
# * #any host can get a login window

Remove the first # to enable remote workstation access.

Configuring the Xresources file

In the script file xinitrc explained in the section on "How X works" in the "How
Linux Works" manual is a line like:

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userresources=$HOME/.Xresources

There is also a line like:

sysresources=/etc/X11/xinit/Xresources

These resource files are made available to the system with lines like:

xrdb -merge $sysresources

xrdb -merge $userresources

This section briefly explains the format of the Xresources file. Each X application
belongs to an application class. Applications use resources such as background,
foreground, font, and geometry. The X programs may have their own resources.
The manual page for X programs specify which resources they use. Resources are
also arranged into classes. A resource line in the Xresources file is in the form:

(ApplicationClass or ApplicationName)*(ResourceClass or ResourceName) : value

The xterm program belongs to the XTerm class.

A sample Xresources file follows:
! Defaults
XTerm*Foreground: white
Xterm*Background: blue
Clock*Geometry: 80x80+10+10
! Specifics
xterm-1*background: black

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