xfree86

Forum: DSL Ideas and Suggestions
Topic: xfree86
started by: nickelplated

Posted by nickelplated on May 12 2005,16:28

I was wondering if it were possible to make the xfree86 package a one-click kinda thing. I know it's pretty easy to make it work just wondering if it could be made easier.

Posted by mikshaw on May 12 2005,17:13

I think the only way to make it one-click is if there was a post-install script feature in mydsl, which there isn't. Another issue is that Xfree configuration is specific to a user's hardware...different monitors, keyboards, video cards, mice on every system. There's no way for the package to know what settings to use.

However, Xvesa has a default setup in DSL, which i suppose could be carried over to Xfree. That at least could let the user start off with something basic which could be modified at his convenience.

Posted by nickelplated on May 13 2005,11:31

I haven't had to configure xfree86 in other distributions, so I assume that there's some kind of a detection/configuration script already in place on those systems. Would it be possible to adapt the work that's already been done in those scripts into a dsl package that focuses on most common configurations?

Posted by RoGuE_StreaK on May 15 2005,04:10

Someone recently(ish) mentioned that they were working on the auto-detect/configure tool, can't remember who or what the details were, but looked like there could possibly be movement in that area...

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on May 15 2005,04:13

Quote (mikshaw @ May 12 2005,12:13)

However, Xvesa has a default setup in DSL, which i suppose could be carried over to Xfree. That at least could let the user start off with something basic which could be modified at his convenience.

Not likely.

Kdrive (Xvesa Xfbdev) is configured completly by command-line switches, while Xfree is controlled by a static text file.

Take a look at your .xserverrc while running Xvesa to see what I mean.

Posted by mikshaw on May 15 2005,05:17

yeah, I see what you mean. I was thinking maybe a generic XF86Config file could be installed into /etc/X11...something that contains a very simple config that might work on a majority of systems, then the user could edit or replace that file at his convenience.
I have no idea if this would work.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on May 15 2005,05:28

Eh, there are so many different variables (refresh rate, mouse port, resolution, color depth, etc) that having an XF86Config-4 in base DSL would be a waste of time. We have lots of nice premade fires with the extension already, as well as instructions for how to put it into place.

Posted by dougvega on May 15 2005,13:56

thanks for the instructions and the people that put them together but for a newbie they are hard to follow thats why there are so many people interested in an easy to install extention , bear in mind that most of us are not linux gurus and
a lot of the how-tos are put toguether by users that know linux inside out .

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on May 15 2005,14:23

Not really, I wrote many of them myself.

Not the XFree instructions, but they are very simple.

You have to copy one text file to /etc/X11 and edit another.

Not that complicated, and as near to a one-click install as you will find.

Posted by dougvega on May 15 2005,19:16

it must be just me then , I could not get my box going with Xfree so I apt-got the metapackage from debian and got it going that way I still have problems whit my serial mouse after that but I gess
I can live with that.

Posted by davide on May 16 2005,09:01

I did the xfree86 install and it worked quite well (as installation)
nowI do not have any xfree server working on, but I know (for having been working on this on debian previously) that it just a pain itself. it's simply hard to tune your xfree86 for old hardware and in dsl you don't have the debian xfreesetup, that could helop a lot.
it takes, time and pacience, just that. but for newer hardware thare should not be any problem, i suppose..

Posted by Epsilon on May 17 2005,02:59

i dont understand, i have knoppix 3.4 installed on hard disk and it have xfree, and it was auto detected, so knoppix have an autodetection system, that means which in some point on the transition of knoppix to dsl, this autodetection was stripped.
And the script to install the nvidia driver of knoppix works great, so, you can copy that.

As a suggestion, .dsl files can have an script inside that must be executed on load. This script can install anything.
Another suggestion if you split all the content of the current dsl iso in .dsl modules, you can have a module for the current X used for dsl and another optional for Xfree86, and if the user wish, another optional to the nvidia specific driver.

bye.