The .xinitrc file.
Forum: Laptops
Topic: The .xinitrc file.
started by: Rapidweather
Posted by Rapidweather on Jan. 08 2005,03:45
If you include a .xinitrc file in your remaster, then no choices are presented byxsetup.sh on bootup. Problem is, your remaster then has no way to use the
laptop "fb800x600" since the .xinitrc file will override it, unless of course you
are remastering just for a laptop. I made the mistake of using a xvesa 800x600,
two button mouse 16 bpp color .xinitrc in a remaster of DSL 0.6.2, and then trying to use it on a laptop. Knoppix 3.4, which I also remaster, will work ok, since
it determines the X settings automatically, and you can tell it what you want or need on the boot: prompt. So, now I have to cook up another remaster of DSL, and leave out the /home/damnsmall/.xinitrc file. Then, on bootup, xsetup.sh will run to
ask the user what settings are wanted. At that point, one remaster will do for both
desktops and laptops.
Today I downloaded DSL 0.9.2, the syslinux version, and found it to be very nice,
especially since it has Firefox in there, and that will boot very fast, compared to the
add-on method used in 8x dsl's. I lamented the absence of wvdial, however.
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Posted by Rapidweather on Jan. 08 2005,14:27
Whoops! Wrong file. It's not the .xinitrc file, it is the .xserverrc file.---
That's what I get for working too hard on all this stuff!
Anyway, if you add this line to your filetool.lst, then the screen resolution, mouse, color depth will be used when you restore at the boot prompt.
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home/dsl/.xserverrc
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Then you won't have to go through the xsetup.sh screens at bootup. As mentioned before, when moving your CD and pen drive to a laptop, you need to make a new restoration file on the pen drive, as the .xserverrc file will contain desktop computer settings, and you most likely will want to use fb800x600 for the fbdev X server for a laptop screen, or you will get a blank screen.
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Sorry again for the mixup, I woke up in the middle of the night, and said to myself, "It's .xserverrc, not .xinitrc!".
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I have been busy with remastering Knoppix 3.4, and have used the icewm window manager, and that is much lighter on my laptop with a PII and 160 MB Ram. On that, you don't use a .xserverrc file as we can/do in DSL, so I had gotten out of touch with the requirements of DSL. One important difference is that one can restore anytime (after bootup) in DSL, but you have to restore at bootup in Knoppix.
