16. Installing X Window System

16.1 Installing X

• Unpack the X archive
• Compile the package by running make World

During the compilation process you will encounter a few errors about the "makedepend" script not being able to find the stddef.h stdarg.h and float.h header files. The script just isn't as smart as the compiler is apparently, since the compilation itself does work fine without compilation errors. Though, creating a few temporary symlinks won't solve the problem; they only will cause more problems for some reason.

So you just ignore the many makedepend errors you most likely will be getting. Also errors similar to "pointer targets in passing arg x of somefunction differ in signedness". You can rewrite those files if you feel like it. I won't.

• Install the package by running make install
• Install the man pages by running make install.man

16.2 Creating /etc/ld.so.conf

Create a new file /etc/ld.so.conf containing the following:

# Begin /etc/ld.so.conf
 
/lib
/usr/lib
/usr/X11R6/lib
 
# End /etc/ld.so.conf

• Update the dynamic loader cache by running ldconfig

16.3 Modifying /etc/man_db.config

• Edit the /etc/man_db.config file and look for this line: MANDATORY_MANPATH /usr/man
• Under that line put the following one: MANDATORY_MANPATH /usr/X11R6/man

16.4 Creating the /usr/include/X11 symlink

• In order for the pre-processor to find the X11/*.h files (which you encounter in #include statements in source code) create the following symlink: ln -s /usr/X11R6/include/X11 /usr/include/X11

16.5 Creating the /usr/X11 symlink

Often software copies files to /usr/X11 so it doesn't have to know which release of X you are using. This symlink hasn't been created by the X installation, so we have to create it by ourselves.

• Create the /usr/X11 symlink by running ln -s /usr/X11R6 /usr/X11

16.6 Adding /usr/X11/bin to the $PATH environment variable

There are a few ways to add the /usr/X11/bin path to the $PATH environment variable. One way of doing so is the following:

• Create a new file /root/.bashrc with it's contents as follows: export PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11/bin

You need to login again for this change to become effective. Or you can update the path by running export PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11/bin manually

16.7 Configuring X

• Configure the X server by running xf86config

If the XF86Config file created by xf86config doesn't suffice, then you better copy the already existing XF86Config from your normal Linux system to /etc. Cases wherein you need to make special changes to the file which aren't supported by the xf86config program force you to do this. You can always modify the created XF86Config file by hand. This can be very time consuming, especially if you don't quite remember what needs to be changed.

16.8 Testing X

Now that X is properly configured it's time for our first test run.

• Start the X server by running startx

The X server should start and display 3 xterm's on your screen. If this is true in your case, X is running fine.