README for XFree86 3.1.2 on FreeBSD 2.1 Rich Murphey, David Dawes 20 January 1995 [Last Updated: 14 October 1995] 1. What and Where is XFree86? ------------------------------ XFree86 is a port of X11R6 that supports several versions of Intel- based Unix. It is derived from X386 1.2, which was the X server distributed with X11R5. This release consists of many new features and performance improvements as well as many bug fixes. The release is available as source patches against the X Consortium X11R6 code, as well as binary distributions for many architectures. See the Copyright Notice (COPYRIGHT.html). The sources for XFree86 are available as part of the FreeBSD 2.1 distribution, or by anonymous ftp from: ftp.XFree86.org:/pub/XFree86/current (ftp://ftp.XFree86.org/pub/XFree86/current) Binaries for XFree86 on FreeBSD are also available as part of 2.1 or from: ftp.XFree86.org:/pub/XFree86/current/binaries/FreeBSD-2.0 (ftp://ftp.XFree86.org/pub/XFree86/current/binaries/FreeBSD-2.0) XFree86.cdrom.com:/pub/XFree86/current/binaries/FreeBSD-2.0 (ftp://XFree86.cdrom.com/pub/XFree86/current/binaries/FreeBSD-2.0) Send email to Rich-Murphey@Rice.edu or XFree86@XFree86.org if you have comments or suggestions about this file and we'll revise it. 2. Installing the Binaries --------------------------- In the FreeBSD 2.1 distribution, XFree86 comes in 3 major sections: "basic" distributions, fonts and servers. At the minimum, you will need the binaries and libraries from the basic distribution, the "misc" fonts collection and at least one server. The smallest usable distribution is around 9MB. If you can't decide what to pick and you have 52Mb of disk space, it's safe to unpack everything. What follows is a description of the various distribution files comprising XFree86. If you are installing this as part of FreeBSD 2.1 then there's no need to use these files directly: You may simply check the desired components off the installation menus provided for that purpose. If you're installing this manually, then the following information should prove useful: Required (6.7Mb): X312bin.tgz all the executable X client applications and shared libs X312fnts.tgz the misc and 75 dpi fonts X312lib.tgz data files needed at runtime Required unless you have already customized your configuration files: X312xicf.tgz customizable xinit runtime configuration file X312xdcf.tgz customizable xdm runtime configuration file Choose at least one server ( 2.3Mb): X3128514.tgz 8-bit color for IBM 8514 and true compatibles. X312AGX.tgz 8-bit color for AGX boards. X312Mch3.tgz 8 and 16-bit color for ATI Mach32 boards. X312Mch8.tgz 8-bit color for ATI Mach8 boards. X312Mono.tgz 1-bit monochrome for VGA, Super-VGA, Hercules, and others. X312P9K.tgz 8, 16, and 24-bit color for Weitek P9000 boards (Diamond Viper). X312S3.tgz 8, 16 and 24-bit color for S3 boards (#9 GXE, Actix GE32, SPEA Mercury, STB Pegasus) X312SVGA.tgz 8-bit color for Super-VGA cards. X312VG16.tgz 4-bit color for VGA and Super-VGA cards X312W32.tgz 8-bit Color for ET4000/W32, /W32i and /W32p cards. X312nest.tgz A nested server running as a client window on another display. Optional: X312doc.tgz (.5Mb) READMEs and XFree86 specific man pages X312man.tgz (1.7Mb) man pages except XFree86 specific ones in etc archive X312ctrb.tgz (1.0Mb) Contributed clients like ico, xeyes, etc. X312f100.tgz (1.8Mb) 100dpi fonts X312fcyr.tgz (1.8Mb) Cyrillic fonts X312fscl.tgz (1.6Mb) Speedo and Type1 fonts X312fnon.tgz (3.3Mb) Japanese, Chinese and other non-English fonts X312fsrv.tgz (.3Mb) the font server and it's man page X312prog.tgz (3.9Mb) config, lib*.a and *.h files needed only for compiling X312link.tgz (7.8Mb) X server reconfiguration kit X312pex.tgz (.5Mb) PEX fonts and shared libs needed by PEX applications. X312lbx.tgz (.2Mb) low bandwidth X proxy server and libraries. Note that there is no longer a separate xdm archive. FreeBSD 2.0 and later handles this in shared libraries now, so that the xdm binary does not itself contain des and there is no more need for us to provide separate tar balls. 2.1. Full Install: ------------------- [ Note: Unless you're installing XFree86 3.1.2 manually, that is to say not as part of the FreeBSD 2.1 installation, you may skip to section 2.3 ] 1. You must be logged in as root to unpack the archives because several executables are set-user-id. Otherwise the server may abort if you unpack it as an ordinary user. You must also use a ``umask'' value of 022 because the X server requires special permissions. % su # umask 022 2. If you have 52Mb free in the /usr partition ``cd /usr'' and skip to no. 3. Otherwise, create a directory on another partition and sym link it into /usr: # cd /usr/local # mkdir X11R6 # ln -s /usr/local/X11R6 /usr/X11R6 3. Unpack everything: If you are using sh (as root usually does): # for i in X312*.tgz; do # tar -xzf $i # done Else, if you are using csh: % foreach i (X312*.tgz) % tar -xzf $i % end 4. Create a symbolic link ``X'' that points to the server that matches your video card. The XF86_* man pages list which vga chip sets are supported by each server. For example, if you have an ET4000 based card you will use the XF86_SVGA server: # cd /usr/X11R6/bin; rm X; ln -s XF86_SVGA X 2.2. Minimal Install: ---------------------- First do numbers 1 and 2 above. Then unpack the required archives: # for i in bin fnts lib xicf; do # tar -xzf X312$i.tgz # done Then unpack a server archive corresponding to your vga card. The server man pages, X11R6/man/man1/XF86_*, list the vga chip sets supported by each server. For example, if you have an ET4000 based card you will use the XF86_SVGA server: # tar -xzf X312SVGA.tgz # cd /usr/X11R6/bin; rm X; ln -s XF86_SVGA X 2.3. After either Full or Minimal Install above: ------------------------------------------------- Add /usr/X11R6/bin to the default path for sh in /etc/profile and for csh in /etc/csh.login if they are not already there: # echo 'set path = ($path /usr/X11R6/bin)' >>/etc/csh.login # echo 'PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin' >>/etc/profile Or make sure all who use X put /usr/X11R6/bin in their shell's ``path'' variable. Next either reboot or invoke ldconfig as root to put the shared libraries in ld.so's cache: # ldconfig /usr/lib /usr/local/lib /usr/X11R6/lib If you had already configured X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/xinitrc or X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/* omit the xinit-config or xdm-config archive or unpack it separately and merge in your customizations. The fscl and f100 archives are optional and can be omitted if you are short on space. The optional link archive allows you to reconfigure and customize a X server binary. The optional prog archive is needed only for writing or compiling X applications. The optional pex archive contains pex clients and libraries for building 3D graphics applications. NOTE: You don't need to uncompress the font files, but if you uncompress them anyway you must run mkfontdir in the corresponding font directory; otherwise your server will abort with the message ``could not open default font 'fixed'''. 3. Installing The Display Manager (xdm) ---------------------------------------- The display manager makes your PC look like an X terminal. That is, it presents you with a login screen that runs under X. The easiest way to automatically start the display manager on boot is to add a line in /etc/ttys to start it on one of the unoccupied virtual terminals: ttyv4 "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm on secure You should also make sure that /usr/X11R6/bin/X is a symbolic link to the Xserver that matches your video card or edit the file Xservers in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm to specify the pathname of the X server. The change to /etc/ttys won't take effect until you either reboot or ``kill -HUP 1'' to force initd to reread /etc/ttys. You can also test the display manager manually by loging in as root on the console and typing ``xdm -nodaemon''. 4. Configuring X for Your Hardware ----------------------------------- The XF86Config file tells the X server what kind of monitor, video card and mouse you have. You must create it to tell the server what specific hardware you have. If you are installing XFree86 as part of FreeBSD 2.1, you may invoke XF86Config automatically from the FreeBSD configuration menu. You should still read this document first, however, as it contains valuable information on mouse and VGA card selection below. XFree86 3.1 uses a new configuration file format. Consult the XF86Config man page and the general INSTALL (INSTALL.html) file for instructions. If you have a Xconfig file for XFree86 2.x, use reconfig to translate part of it into the new format: # reconfig XF86Config and complete the rest according to the XF86Config man page and the XF86Config.sample file as a template. In order to protect your hardware from damage, the server no longer will read XF86Config files from a user's home directory, but requires that it be in /etc/XF86Config, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.hostname or /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config. You'll need info on your hardware: o Your mouse type, baud rate and it's /dev entry. o The video card's chipset (e.g. ET4000, S3, etc). o Your monitor's sync frequencies. Bus Mice: In FreeBSD, the bus mouse is generally found on /dev/mse0. Specify /dev/mse0 when asked, and in case of failure ensure that your Bus mouse was indeed "probed" when the system was booted. To make sure of this, type: % dmesg | grep mse If you do not see something like this: mse0 at 0x23c irq 5 on isa then it means that your bus mouse was not detected properly and you should reboot with the `-c' flag and verify that the device entry for mse0 matches your bus mouse settings. If the mouse is probed properly but still fails to function then you might double check that the /dev entry for the bus mouse exists. Use the script /dev/MAKEDEV to create the entry if it doesn't already exist, e.g: % cd /dev % sh MAKEDEV mse0 Serial Mice: The easiest way to find which port your mouse is plugged into is to use ``cat'' or ``kermit'' to look at the output of the mouse. Connect to it and just make sure that it generates output when the mouse is moved or clicked. If your mouse is plugged into the first serial port (COM1), for example, you could do this: % cat < /dev/cuaa0 Where /dev/cuaa0 represents the first serial port, /dev/cuaa1 the second, /dev/cuaa2 the third and so on. If you can't find the right mouse port then use ``dmesg | grep sio'' to get a list of serial devices that were detected at boot time: % dmesg|grep sio sio0 at 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 on isa The presence of sio0 will indicate that COM1 was found. If you see sio1, sio2 or sio3 then it means that a serial port was found at one of the other com addresses and you should use the appropriate /dev/cuaa device entry to talk to it. If things still aren't working then double check that the /dev entries corresponding to these devices exist. Use the script /dev/MAKEDEV to create entries if they don't already exist, e.g: % cd /dev % sh MAKEDEV cuaa0 [cuaa1, cuaa2, etc..] If you plan to fine tune the screen size or position on your monitor you'll need the specs for sync frequencies from your monitor's manual. 5. Running X ------------- 8mb of memory is a recommended minimum for running X. The server, window manager, display manager and an xterm take about 8Mb of virtual memory themselves. Even if their resident set size is smaller, on a 8Mb system that leaves very space for other applications such as gcc that expect a few meg free. The R6 X servers may work with 4Mb of memory, but in practice compilation while running X can take 5 or 10 times as long due to constant paging. The easiest way for new users to start X Window System is to type ``startx >& startx.log''. Error messages are lost unless you redirect them because the server takes over the screen. To get out of X Window System, type: ``exit'' in the console xterm. You can customize your X by creating .xinitrc, .xserverrc, and .twmrc files in your home directory as described in the xinit and startx man pages. 6. Rebuilding Kernels for X ---------------------------- The GENERIC FreeBSD 2.x kernel supports XFree86 without any modifications required. You do not need to make any changes to the GENERIC kernel or any kernel configuration which is a superset. For a general description of BSD kernel configuration get smm.02.config.ps.Z (ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/BSD/manuals/smm.02.config.ps.Z). It is a ready-to-print postscript copy of the kernel configuration chapter from the system maintainers manual. Alternatively, you can read the kernel configuration section of the FreeBSD handbook (http://www.freebsd.org/handbook). If you do decide to reduce your kernel configuration file, do not remove the two lines below (in /sys/arch/i386/conf). They are both required for X support: options XSERVER #Xserver options UCONSOLE #X Console support The generic FreeBSD 2.x kernel is configured by default with the syscons driver. To configure your kernel similarly, it should have a line like this in /usr/src/sys/i386/conf/GENERIC: device sc0 at isa? port "IO_KBD" tty irq 1 vector scintr The maximum number of virtual consoles can be set using the MAXCONS option: options "MAXCONS=4" #4 virtual consoles Otherwise, the default without a line like this is 12. You must have more VTs than gettys as described in the end of section 3, and 4 is a reasonable minimum. The server supports several console drivers: pccons, syscons and pcvt. The syscons driver is the default in FreeBSD 1.1.5 and higher. They are detected at runtime and no configuration of the server itself is required. The pcvt console driver is bundled into FreeBSD and may be enabled by changing the `sc0' line in your kernel configuration file to `vt0'. See /sys/i386/conf/LINT for more details. The XFree86 servers include support for the MIT-SHM extension. The GENERIC kernel does not support this, so if you want to make use of this, you will need a kernel configured with SYSV shared memory support. To do this, add the following line to your kernel config file: options SYSVSHM # System V shared memory options SYSVSEM # System V semaphores options SYSVMSG # System V message queues If you are using a SoundBlaster 16 on IRQ 2 (9), then you need a patch for sb16_dsp.c. Otherwise a kernel configured with the SoundBlaster driver will claim interrupt 9 doesn't exist and X server will lock up. S3 cards and serial port COM 4 cannot be installed together on a system because the I/O port addresses overlap. 7. Rebuilding XFree86 ---------------------- The server link kit allows you to build an X server using a minimum amount of disk space. Just unpack it, make the appropriate changes to site.def, type ``./mkmf' and ``make'' to link the server. See README.LinkKit (LinkKit.html) for more info. The source tree takes about 114Mb before compiling and an additional 100Mb after ``make World''. You should configure the distribution by editing xf86site.def and site.def in xc/config/cf before compiling. By default, the config files are set up to build shared libraries. If you are running a version of FreeBSD that doesn't include shared library support, add the following line to site.def: #define BuildBsdSharedLibs NO If your system doesn't have support or SYSV shared memory (for example, if you don't have the header), you should disable the MIT-SHM extension by adding the following line to site.def: #define HasShm NO To compile the sources on FreeBSD 1.1 and later, type: make World 8. Building Other X Clients ---------------------------- The easiest way to build a new client (X application) is to use xmkmf if an Imakefile is included with it. Type ``xmkmf -a'' to create the Makefiles, then type ``make''. Whenever you install additional man pages you should update whatis.db by running ``makewhatis /usr/X11R6/man''. Note: Starting with XFree86 2.1 and FreeBSD 1.1, the symbol __386BSD__ no longer gets defined either by the compiler or via the X config files for FreeBSD systems. When porting clients to BSD systems, make use of the symbol BSD for code which is truly BSD-specific. The value of the symbol can be used to distinguish different BSD releases. For example, code specific to the Net-2 and later releases can use: #if (BSD >= 199103) To ensure that this symbol is correctly defined, include in the source that requires it. Note that the symbol CSRG_BASED is defined for *BSD systems in XFree86 3.1.1 and later. This should be used to protect the inclusion of . For code that really is specific to a particular i386 BSD port, use __FreeBSD__ for FreeBSD, __NetBSD__ for NetBSD, __386BSD__ for 386BSD, and __bsdi__ for BSD/386. 9. Thanks ---------- Many thanks to: o Pace Willison for providing initial *BSD support. o Amancio Hasty for 386BSD kernel and S3 chipset support. o David Greenman, Nate Williams, Jordan Hubbard for FreeBSD kernel support. o Rod Grimes, Jordan Hubbard and Jack Velte for the use of Walnut Creek Cdrom's hardware. o Orest Zborowski, Simon Cooper and Dirk Hohndel for ideas from the Linux distribution. $XConsortium: FreeBSD.sgml,v 1.3 95/01/23 15:34:41 kaleb Exp $ Generated from XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/sgml/FreeBSD.sgml,v 3.10 1995/01/28 16:01:28 dawes Exp $ $XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/READ.FreeBSD,v 3.12 1995/01/28 16:19:37 dawes Exp $