XFree86 is a freely redistributable open-source implementation of the X Window System. XFree86 provides a client/server interface between display hardware (the mouse, keyboard, and video displays) and the desktop environment while also providing both the windowing infrastructure and a standardized application interface (API).
Download (FTP): ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.3.0/source/
Download size: 64 MB
Estimated Disk space required: 633 MB
Estimated build time: 13.8 SBU
The following packages are included in the XFree86 package, however they are updated more often than the XFree86 package and are highly recommended: expat-1.95.6, FreeType-2.1.5 and Fontconfig-2.2.1
Note: If you choose to not install these separate packages, the host.def file below will have to be modified to instruct XFree86 build them.
There are several files that need to be fetched from the download location:
X430src-1.tgz
X430src-2.tgz
X430src-3.tgz
X430src-4.tgz
X430src-5.tgz
X430src-6.tgz
X430src-7.tgz
You should also download the patch file: ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.3.0/fixes/4.3.0-4.3.0.1.diff.gz
The first three packages are the XFree86 programs, the fourth and fifth are fonts, the sixth is normal documentation, and the seventh is hardcopy documentation. There are also two packages doctools-1.3.1.tgz, which contain programs to regenerate hardcopy documentation, and utils-1.1.0.tgz, which contain GNU TAR and zlib which are already installed on an LFS system.
To check your downloads for integrity, download the SUMS.md5sum file. Then:
md5sum X430src* > md5sums && diff md5sums SUMS.md5sum |
The fixes subdirectory also has a SUMS.md5sum and this can be checked against the patch file:
md5sum 4.3.0-4.3.0.1.diff.gz |
After unpacking the X430src-?.tgz files, change to the xc directory and run:
gunzip 4.3.0-4.3.0.1.diff.gz && patch -Np1 -i 4.3.0-4.3.0.1.diff |
If you have an Intel P6 (Pentium Pro, Pentium II and later) it is recommended that you compile MTRR (Memory Type Range Registers) support into the kernel. The kernel can map Cyrix and AMD CPUs to the MTRR interface so selecting this option is useful for those processors also. This option is found in the "Processor type and features" menu. It can increase performance of image write operations 2.5 times or more on PCI or AGP video cards.
In the "Character Devices" section, enable AGP Support and select the chipset support on your motherboard. If you do not know the chipset, you may select all the chip types at the expense of extra kernel size. You can usually determine your motherboard's chipset by doing:
cat /proc/pci |
In the "Character Devices" section, disable Direct Rendering Manager unless you have a Direct Rendering Infrastructure (DRI) supported video card. A complete list of DRI supported video cards can be found at http://dri.sourceforge.net in the Status section. Currently, supported cards include those from 3dfx (Voodoo, Banshee), 3Dlabs, ATI (Rage Pro, Rage 128, Radeon 7X00, Radeon 2), Intel (i810, i815), and Matrox (G200, G400, G450). Additionally NVidia provides their own closed source binary drivers. If you do enable DRI here, make sure you select the video card(s) you want to support as a module.
If you made any changes to the kernel configuration, recompile with
make dep && make bzImage && make modules && make modules_install |
Copy /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage and /usr/src/linux/System.map to /boot, edit /etc/lilo.conf appropriately and run lilo. If you use grub, edit /boot/grub/grub.conf and add the new kernel to the boot menu.
Note: If you build XFree86 in a chroot environment, make sure the kernel version of the base system and the target system are the same. This is especially important if you enabled DRI support as a module as instructed above.
Although XFree86 will compile without a host.def file, the following file is recommended for customizing the installation. Start from the xc directory.
Note: The host.def file is a C file, not the usual configuration file. If you make any changes, be sure the comment characters (/* and */) are balanced. Most of the entries in the file below are commented out with the default settings shown.
cat > config/cf/host.def << "EOF"
/* Begin XFree86 host.def file */
/* System Related Information. If you read and configure only one
* section then it should be this one. The Intel architecture defaults are
* set for a i686 and higher. Axp is for the Alpha architecture and Ppc is
* for the Power PC. Note that there have been reports that the Ppc
* optimization line causes segmentation faults during build. If that
* happens, try building without the DefaultGcc2PpcOpt line. **************/
/* #define DefaultGcc2i386Opt -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -march=i686 */
/* #define DefaultGcc2AxpOpt -O2 -mcpu=ev6 */
/* #define DefaultGcc2PpcOpt -O2 -mcpu=750 */
/* The following definitions are normally set properly by XFree86's scripts.
* You can uncomment them if you want to make sure. ************************/
/* #define HasMTRRSupport YES */ /* Enabled in kernel see kernel docs*/
/* #define HasMMXSupport NO */ /* Any i586 or above */
/* #define HasKatmaiSupport NO */ /* PIII SSE instructions */
/* #define Has3DNowSupport NO */ /* AMD instructions */
/* This setting reduces compile time a little by omitting rarely used input
* devices. You can find the complete list in config/cf/xfree86.cf ********/
#define XInputDrivers mouse void
/* VIDEO DRIVERS ***********************************************************/
/* If you are sure you only want the drivers for one or a few video cards,
* you can delete the drivers you do not want. *****************************/
#define XF86CardDrivers mga glint nv tga s3 s3virge sis rendition \
neomagic i740 tdfx savage \
cirrus vmware tseng trident chips apm \
GlideDriver fbdev i128 nsc \
ati i810 AgpGartDrivers DevelDrivers ark \
cyrix siliconmotion \
vesa vga \
dummy XF86OSCardDrivers XF86ExtraCardDrivers
/* FONT SERVER AND LIBRARY SETTINGS ****************************************/
/* These settings are the defaults ***************************************/
/* #define BuildFontServer YES */ /* For Ghostscript Print Server*/
/* #define SharedLibFont YES */
/* #define CompressAllFonts YES */
/* #define GzipFontCompression YES */
/* These settings ensure we use our libraries ******************************/
#define HasFreetype2 YES
#define HasFontconfig YES
#define HasExpat YES
#define HasLibpng YES
#define HasZlib YES
/* The font path can be redefined in the XF86Config file *******************/
/*
#define DefaultFontPath $(FONTDIR)/misc/,$(FONTDIR)/75dpi/,\
$(FONTDIR)/100dpi/,$(FONTDIR)/Type1,$(FONTDIR)/local,\
$(FONTDIR)/TrueType,$(FONTDIR)/CID,$(FONTDIR)/Speedo
*/
/* INTERNATIONAL FONTS. Change to YES if you need any of them. These are
* the defaults. ***********************************************************/
/* #define BuildCyrillicFonts NO */
/* #define BuildArabicFonts NO */
/* #define BuildISO8859_6Fonts NO */
/* #define BuildGreekFonts NO */
/* #define BuildISO8859_7Fonts NO */
/* #define BuildHebrewFonts NO */
/* #define BuildISO8859_8Fonts NO */
/* #define BuildKOI8_RFonts NO */
/* #define BuildJapaneseFonts NO */
/* #define BuildJISX0201Fonts NO */
/* #define BuildKoreanFonts NO */
/* #define BuildChineseFonts NO */
/* DOCUMENTATION SETTINGS **************************************************/
/* These setting are the defaults. *****************************************/
/* #define BuildLinuxDocHtml NO */ /* X Docs in Html format */
/* #define BuildLinuxDocPS NO */ /* PostScript format */
/* #define BuildAllSpecsDocs NO */ /* Various docs */
/* #define BuildHtmlManPages NO */
/* GENERAL SETTINGS: You generally want to leave these alone when
* building X on an LFS system *********************************************/
#define GccWarningOptions -pipe /* Speed up compiles */
#define TermcapLibrary -lncurses
#define XprtServer YES /* Needed by realplayer */
#define XnestServer YES
#define XAppLoadDir EtcX11Directory/app-defaults
#define VarLibDir /var/lib
#define XFree86Devel NO
#define FSUseSyslog YES
#define ThreadedX YES
#define HasPam NO
#define SystemManDirectory /usr/share/man /* Instead of /usr/man */
#define HasLibCrypt YES
#define InstallXinitConfig YES
#define InstallXdmConfig YES
#define ForceNormalLib YES
#define BuildSpecsDocs NO
/* End XFree86 host.def file */
EOF |
Edit the file for your hardware and desires.
Install XFree86 by running the following commands:
WORLDOPTS="" make World 2>&1 | tee xfree-compile.log && make install && make install.man && ln -sf /usr/X11R6/bin /usr/bin/X11 && ln -sf /usr/X11R6/lib/X11 /usr/lib/X11 && ln -sf /usr/X11R6/include/X11 /usr/include/X11 |
If you have one of the supported DRI cards and have enabled DRI kernel modules as explained above, you now need to update the kernel modules to ensure they are compatible with the current version of XFree86. To do this, perform the following:
cd programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/os-support/linux/drm/kernel &&
make CC=/opt/gcc-2.95.3/bin/gcc -f Makefile.linux &&
mkdir -p /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/drm/ &&
cp gamma.o radeon.o sis.o r128.o i810.o i830.o mga.o tdfx.o \
/lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/drm/ &&
depmod -a |
| Warning |
If you recompile or upgrade your kernel, you will need to re-copy the appropriate driver module(s) to the kernel module library and rerun depmod. |
Note: If you created AGP support as a module when compiling the kernel, you may have to add a line to /etc/modules.conf to ensure the agpgart module is loaded. For instance, the AGP version of the Radeon video card will use the radeon.o driver. It will need to have the line
in /etc/modules.conf to enable DRI support.
WORLDOPTS="" make World 2>&1 | tee xfree-compile.log: This command runs multiple makefiles to completely rebuild the system. WORLDOPTS="" disables the default setting to continue after encountering an error. 2>&1 redirects error messages to the same location as normal output. The tee command allows viewing of the output while logging the results to a file.
Note: When rebuilding XFree86, a separate command that may be used if only minor changes are made to the sources is make Everything. This does not automatically remove generated files and only rebuilds those files or programs that are out of date.
ln -sf /usr/X11R6/bin /usr/bin/X11, ln -sf /usr/X11R6/lib/X11 /usr/lib/X11, and ln -sf /usr/X11R6/include/X11 /usr/include/X11: These commands are present to enable other (broken) packages to build against XFree86. We do this even though the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard says: "In general, software must not be installed or managed via the above symbolic links. They are intended for utilization by users only."
make CC=/opt/gcc-2.95.3/bin/gcc -f Makefile.linux: This builds the XFree86 compatible kernel modules using the same compiler used to compile the kernel.
cp gamma.o radeon.o sis.o r128.o i810.o i830.o mga.o tdfx.o /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/drm/: Put the kernel module(s) where the kernel can find them. You only need to copy the driver you need to support your video card.
depmod -a: Update the modules.dep file for module management.
Edit /etc/ld.so.conf and add /usr/X11R6/lib. Run
ldconfig |
Add /usr/X11R6/bin to your PATH environment variable in .bash_profile. The statement should look something like PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin and be placed before the export PATH statement.
Run
source ~/.bash_profile |
Set up your mouse:
cd /dev ln -s psaux mouse |
Create the XF86Config file with
cd ~ XFree86 -configure |
Edit XF86Config.new to suit your system. The details of the file are located in the man page man XF86Config. Some things you may want to do are:
Section "Files". Change the order of the font paths searched. You may want to put 100dpi fonts ahead of 75dpi fonts if your system normally comes up closer to 100 dots per inch. You may want to remove some font directories completely.
Section "Monitor". Specify the VertRefresh and HorizSync values if the system does not automatically detect the monitor and its values.
Section "InputDevice". You may want to change the keyboard autorepeat rate by adding Option "Autorepeat" "250 30".
Section "Device". You may want to set some of the options available for your selected video driver. A description of the driver parameters is in the man page for your driver.
Section "Screen". Add a DefaultDepth statement such as: DefaultDepth 16. In the SubSection for your default depth, add a modes line such as: Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768". The first mode listed will normally be the starting resolution.
Test the system with
XFree86 -xf86config ~/XF86Config.new |
Move the configuration file to its final location
mv ~/XF86Config.new /etc/X11/XF86Config |
Create .xinitrc
cat > ~/.xinitrc << "EOF" # Begin .xinitrc file xterm -g 80x40+0+0 & xclock -g 100x100-0+0 & twm EOF |
Start X with
startx |
The XFree86 package contains the X Window System for Linux (and other operating systems). It includes the X server, fonts, xterm, a simple window manager (twm), various utilities, video output drivers, and various input drivers including the mouse and keyboard.
XFree86 also contains libraries and header files for development of the X Window System programs.
Note: The following list of programs is not comprehensive. The full list is in /usr/X11R6/bin. For additional information about these programs, see the respective man page.
xf86config is an interactive program for generating an XF86Config file for use with XFree86 X servers.