[vox-tech] XF86Config Question

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Robert G. Scofield (rscofield at afes.com):

> I finally got X working.  I could never get XFree86 -configure to work.

See, that's using the rather rudimentary self-configuration abilities
provided inside the /usr/bin/X11/XFree86 binary.  That's always nice to
be able to fall back on, but there is often something better, provided
by the distribution itself.

> I played around trying to "apt-get" servers, and was told I could try
> 3 or 4 different ones.  So I ended up with xserver-xfree86.

Package xserver-xfree86 provides, among other things, the
/usr/bin/X11/XFree86 binary (the modular server/graphics-engine binary)
for XFree86 _4.x_.  In 4.x, that one "engine" binary is used, regardless
of your video chip.

Note that I said 4.x.  There's a reason I stressed that.

Other "server" packages you refer to were probably legacy XFree86 3.3.x
ones for various old chipsets.  It's necessary to keep those available
because 4.x-type modules have not yet been written for some old video
chipsets, and probably never will be.  (It's also important to know that
3.x and 4.x use quite different configuration-file formats.  You cannot
use one version's configuration file with the other's software.)

> That prompted me for the writing of a new config file.  I put in the
> wrong mouse info (stupidly copying SuSE entries), but managed to
> correct it.  Then I got an error message about fonts.  But Debian told
> me what font packages to apt-get.  And after I got those packages, X
> started.

If you ever need to re-do your version 4.x X11 server's configuration
for any reason, become the root user (with X _not_ running), and then do:

# dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

To review, the term "xserver-xfree86" in that command is the name of a
file.  "dpkg-reconfigure" means "Please once again put me through the
final configuration phase for the named package, the one I went through
when I initially installed it."

Among the reasons that will often work better than "XFree86 -configure" 
is that it can leverage the optional hardware-recognition packages I
listed in my earlier message.

Of course, if you didn't have package xserver-xfree86 installed at the
time you tried "XFree86 -configure" -- well, that's the reason why it
didn't work.  ;->

> Now I've got to set up KDE.

Intending no criticism, but your original post doesn't seem to have
mentioned which Debian branch this is.  (It cites just "this Debian Net
Install".)  But there should be a meta-package called "kde".   On the 
Debian-sarge box in front of me:

  Package: kde
  Priority: optional
  Section: kde
  Installed-Size: 40
  Maintainer: Debian Qt/KDE Maintainers <debian-qt-kde at lists.debian.org>
  Architecture: all
  Source: meta-kde
  Version: 5:42
  Depends: kde-core, kde-amusements, kdeaddons, kdeadmin, kdeartwork, 
   kdegraphics, kdemultimedia, kdenetwork, kdepim, kdeutils, kdewebdev
  Suggests: kde-i18n, x-window-system-core
  Filename: pool/main/m/meta-kde/kde_42_all.deb
  Size: 7068
  MD5sum: 53b4516d7c017ff8cb65ebc38984ed2b
  Description: The K Desktop Environment
   A metapackage containing dependencies for the official suite of KDE 
   including arts, kdeaddons, kdeadmin, kdeartwork, kdebase, kdeedu, 
   kdegames, kdegraphics, kdelibs, kdemultimedia, kdenetwork, kdepim, 
   kdetoys, kdeutils, and quanta.
   .
   Does not contain depends for Development packages.
  Task: desktop

You should be able to install that meta-package by typing "aptitude
install kde".



> I downloaded it the other night, but it seems not to be here anymore.

Again, intending no criticism, but I honestly cannot determine,
specifically, what the above means. 

Under ordinary circumstances, you should not need to manually download 
individual packages (or sets of packages) for a Debian box.

> Apt and Aptitude, or whatever it is, plays around with packages,
> removing "unused" ones, etc.

That's not a bug; that's a feature.  ;->

> So I'll download KDE again, and read about how to set it up.

I honestly would advise against:  I suspect you're solving the wrong
problem.  If you're getting odd results from trying to use the normal
package-management tools, it might be useful to describe those, so
people can help determine what if anything is wrong.

-- 
Cheers,                                      Hardware:  The part you kick.
Rick Moen                                    Software:  The part you boot.
rick at linuxmafia.com