Installing and using of XFree86 4.0 (6.4)

Support knowledgebase (cg_xfree4.0-6.4)
Applies to

SuSE Linux: Version 6.4
This article refers to an older version of SuSE Linux. Therefore some of the informations given in this article may be outdated or the article may contain stale links.

XFree86: Version 4.0

Request

You'd like to use XFree86 version 4.0 because you like to use one of the new features like multihead support. You don't know exactly how to proceed to install and configure the X-server.

Procedure

Installation of packages

You can find all the packages you need to install the X-server of XFree86 4.0 on the second CD of your SuSE Linux 6.4 CD-ROM set. Please insert the second CD-ROM in your CD-ROM drive and mount it. Please proceed as follows:

mount /cdrom
cd /cdrom/unsorted/XFree86-4.0
rpm -Uvh xf86_40-4.0-5.i386.rpm
rpm -Uvh sax2-4.0-0.i386.rpm
cd /
umount /cdrom

Please note that it is possible that the installation of the xf86 packages complains about not installed packages, for example perl_tk. You can install this missing package(s) with yast.

Configuration using SaX2

After installation of this two packages you can start the configuration process. Please enter the following command:

sax2
A dialog box appears asking for you confirmation of the selected video mode and resolution. If you like it you can click on okay and your XFree86 configuration is done. Please see below at troubleshooting on how to proceed if you cannot see the first dialog screen.

finetuning

If you are not satisfaied with the automatically selected resolution you can also do a manual configuration. Please click on "Enter SaX" and SaX will be started up. You are asked wether you like to do a custom style or an easy configuration. I'll describe the easy configuration in this article.

Graphics device setup

In this dialog you are able to configure your video card. The driver module supporting your video card is detected automatically. You are also able to select it manually with the "Driver" select box. If you use the wrong driver for your video card, it is very likly that this configured driver is unable to startup. The same applies to the bus-ID. This names the PCI/AGP slot where your card is plugged in. The slot where your video card is plugged in is detected automatically. You can also select "single" if you've only one video card in your system.

In the Expert dialog you can maually configure RAMDAC, video chipset and a clockchip on your video card. Normally a manual setup of this parameters is not necessary, this option is only available for special cases. The same applies to the special server options. You can select the option esw_cursor in here for example. All these options are changing the behaviour of the low level video card driver.

Desktop setup

You can configure your monitor in this dialog. Please select the desired color depth, resolution and horizontal and vertical refresh rate. You can also select the monitor as in the SaX for XFree86-3.3. Please click on to perform this task. If you are configuring the monitor manually you should take care about not entering to high values for horizontal and vertical refresh rate. Please note that it is possible to damage the monitor if you enter wrong values here.

If the X-Server is unable to start, but SaX aborts with an error message you are able to take a look at the cause of the error. SaX generates an error log into the file /var/log/SaX.log and the X-Server itself creates an error log in the file /var/log/XFree86.0.log. Please note that the log file format of the X-Server is very different to the previous versions and very verbose.

Troubleshooting

I need an optionm for the X-Server

If you've to use an option to get the X-Server up and running, for example the option sw_cursor because you cannot see the mouse cursor with the accelerated X-Server driver module. You can do the configuration with a generic vga driver module. This module is quite similar to the old VGA16 server. Please start SaX2 as follows:

sax2 -m 0=vga

SaX2 is forced to use the generic VGA driver. The configuration dialog appears in 16 color standard VGA mode with 640x480 pixels. Please select the correct driver module in the graphics device setup dialog. Please configure the necessary option in the Expert dialog.

The mouse pointer does not move

The mouse configuration is read from the variable GPM_PARAM from the file /etc/rc.config. First of all please try to configure your mouse using yast (Administration of system->configure gpm). If you are using an so called Intellimouse this is an important step bacause in most cases this mice won't work with the standard PS/2 driver.

You are also able to startup SaX2 in batch mode. If you've also problems with support of your video card you can combine this command line option with the one written in the paragraph I need an option for the X-Server. Let's assume you've a "Genius Netscroll" mouse connected to the PS/2 port of your computer. This is an intellimouse that works with the IMPS/2 driver of the X-Server. Please enter the following command to enter SaX2 in batch mode:

sax2 -b

The following message appears:

SaX: .
SaX: enter batch mode please wait
Linux SaX Version 4.0 startup level (init) (23/09/1999)
(C) Copyright 1999 - SuSE GmbH

SaX>

You can enter the mouse type IMPS/2 as follows. Please type the command exactly as written here at the SaX command prompt.

InputDevice->1->Option->Protocol=IMPS/2

Perhaps it is also necessary to configure the interface device file name. Please enter the following command for this task.

InputDevice->1->Option->Device=/dev/psaux

Please enter instead of /dev/psaux the corrosponding device file of the mouse device. The available devices and protocols in XFree86 are described in detail in the article Mouse: Overview about mouse types and in the man page XF86Config.

You can check the entered options with the SaX2 command see. You can see wether all options are entered correctly:

see InputDevice->1->Option

sould give you the following output:

Device           =  /dev/psaux
Protocol         =  IMPS/2

You can leave the batch mode by entering the command exit. You can complete the configuration in graphics mode.


Keywords: XFREE86, 4.0, 40, X-SERVER, MODULE, MULTIHEAD, SAX2

Categories: X Server

SDB-cg_xfree4.0-6.4, Copyright SuSE Linux AG, Nürnberg, Germany - Version: 24. Mär 2000
SuSE Linux AG - Last generated: 24. Mär 2000 by cg (sdb_gen 1.40.0)