start page | rating of books | rating of authors | reviews | copyrights

Book HomeRunning LinuxSearch this book

10.3. Installing XFree86

The Linux binary distribution of XFree86 can be found on a number of FTP sites. On ftp://ftp.xfree86.org, it is found in the directory /pub/XFree86/3.3.3.1/binaries; there you will find systems for Intel, m68k, PPC, and Alpha AXP in subdirectories. (At the time of this writing, the current version is 3.3.3.1; newer versions are released periodically).

It's quite likely you obtained XFree86 as part of a Linux distribution, in which case downloading the software separately is not necessary. If you are downloading XFree86 directly, the following tables list the files in the XFree86-3.3.3.1 distribution.

One of the following servers is required (not all of those are available for all platforms, but all are available for Intel systems):

File Description
X8514.tgz Server for 8514-based boards
XAGX.tgz Server for AGX-based boards
XMa32.tgz Server for Mach32-based boards
XMa64.tgz Server for Mach64-based boards
XMa8.tgz Server for Mach8-based boards
XMono.tgz Server for monochrome video modes
XP9K.tgz Server for P9000-based boards
XS3.tgz Server for S3-based boards
XSVGA.tgz Server for Super VGA-based boards
XVG16.tgz

Server for VGA/EGA-based boards (needed for XF86Setup)

XW32.tgz Server for ET4000/W32-based boards
X3DL.tgz Server for boards with 3Dlabs chipsets
XI128.tgz Server for I128-based boards

All of the following files are required:

File Description
Xbin.tgz The rest of the X11R6 binaries
Xcfg.tgz Configuration files for xdm and xinit
Xdoc.tgz Documentation
Xlib.tgz Shared X libraries and support files
Xfnts.tgz Basic fonts
Xman.tgz Manual pages
Xset.tgz Configuration utility XF86Setup
XVG16.tgz VGA server; needed by configuration utility XF86Setup
preinst.sh Pre-installation script
postinst.sh Post-installation script
extract Extraction utility

The following files are optional:

File Description
Xlkit.tgz Server link kit for customization
Xf100.tgz 100-dpi screen fonts
Xfscl.tgz Scaled fonts (Speedo, Type1)
Xfcyr.tgz Cyrillic fonts
Xfnon.tgz

Other fonts (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and Hebrew)

Xfsrv.tgz Font server and configuration files
Xprog.tgz

X header files, configuration files, and libraries needed at compilation time

Xnest.tgz Nested X server
Xvfb.tgz X server that uses a virtual framebuffer
Xprt.tgz X Print server
Xps.tgz PostScript version of the documentation
Xhtml.tgz HTML version of the documentation
Xjdoc.tgz Japanese version of some documentation
Xjhtm.tgz Japanese HTML version of the documentation

The XFree86 directory should contain README files and installation notes for the current version.

Obtain these files and save them in the directory /var/tmp (you can use any other directory; just change the pathname accordingly in the following examples), and create the directory /usr/X11R6 as root. Copy the three files preinst.sh, postinst.sh and extract to /var/tmp. Change to the directory /usr/X11R6 and run:

sh /var/tmp/preinst.sh

Next, make sure the extract utility that you downloaded is executable:

chmod 755 extract

Now unpack the binaries by typing:

/var/tmp/extract /var/tmp/X*.tgz

Finally, run the post-installation script:

sh /var/tmp/postinst.sh

You need to make sure that /usr/X11R6/bin is on your path. This can be done by editing your system default /etc/profile or /etc/csh.login (based on the shell that you or other users on your system, use). Or you can simply add the directory to your personal path by modifying /etc/.bashrc or /etc/.cshrc, based on your shell.

You also need to make sure that /usr/X11R6/lib can be located by ld.so, the runtime linker. To do this, add the line:

/usr/X11R6/lib
to the file /etc/ld.so.conf, and run /sbin/ldconfig as root.



Library Navigation Links

Copyright © 2001 O'Reilly & Associates. All rights reserved.