Update of X11 chapter
Victor Balada Diaz
victor at bsdes.net
Tue Aug 8 10:31:58 PDT 2006
Hi,
i've updated X11 chapter of the handbook. Now it does document the use
of Xorg Window System.
This is a modification of the X11 chapter of FreeBSD handbook.
The patch file are some missing entities. Without it the X11
chapter does not compile.
The site that hosts the manual pages doesn't have the man pages for
X.org, so the links of that entities will go to an error page until
someone adds the man pages to the web interface.
--
La prueba más fehaciente de que existe vida inteligente en otros
planetas, es que no han intentado contactar con nosotros.
Index: dragonfly.dsl
===================================================================
RCS file: /dcvs/doc/share/sgml/dragonfly.dsl,v
retrieving revision 1.4
diff -u -r1.4 dragonfly.dsl
--- dragonfly.dsl 16 Mar 2005 05:01:45 -0000 1.4
+++ dragonfly.dsl 8 Aug 2006 17:13:05 -0000
@@ -192,6 +192,7 @@
(case v
(("current") (string-append u "&" "manpath=FreeBSD+5.2-current"))
(("xfree86") (string-append u "&" "manpath=XFree86+4.3.0"))
+ (("xorg") (string-append u "&" "manpath=Xorg+6.9.0"))
(("netbsd") (string-append u "&" "manpath=NetBSD+1.6.1"))
(("openbsd") (string-append u "&" "manpath=OpenBSD+3.3"))
(("ports") (string-append u "&" "manpath=FreeBSD+Ports"))
Index: man-refs.ent
===================================================================
RCS file: /dcvs/doc/share/sgml/man-refs.ent,v
retrieving revision 1.4
diff -u -r1.4 man-refs.ent
--- man-refs.ent 14 Aug 2005 09:18:30 -0000 1.4
+++ man-refs.ent 8 Aug 2006 17:13:18 -0000
@@ -671,8 +671,12 @@
<!ENTITY man.xdm.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xfree86'/<refentrytitle/xdm/<manvolnum/1//">
<!ENTITY man.xdpyinfo.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xfree86'/<refentrytitle/xdpyinfo/<manvolnum/1//">
<!ENTITY man.xf86cfg.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xfree86'/<refentrytitle/xf86cfg/<manvolnum/1//">
+<!ENTITY man.xf86config.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xfree86'/<refentrytitle/xf86config/<manvolnum/1//">
<!ENTITY man.xfontsel.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xfree86'/<refentrytitle/xfontsel/<manvolnum/1//">
<!ENTITY man.xmodmap.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xfree86'/<refentrytitle/xmodmap/<manvolnum/1//">
+<!ENTITY man.Xorg.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xorg'/<refentrytitle/Xorg/<manvolnum/1//">
+<!ENTITY man.xorgconfig.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xorg'/<refentrytitle/xorgconfig/<manvolnum/1//">
+<!ENTITY man.xorgcfg.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xorg'/<refentrytitle/xorgcfg/<manvolnum/1//">
<!ENTITY man.xrdb.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xfree86'/<refentrytitle/xrdb/<manvolnum/1//">
<!ENTITY man.xset.1 "<citerefentry vendor='xfree86'/<refentrytitle/xset/<manvolnum/1//">
<!ENTITY man.xstr.1 "<citerefentry/<refentrytitle/xstr/<manvolnum/1//">
<!--
The FreeBSD Documentation Project
$FreeBSD: /repoman/r/dcvs/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11/chapter.sgml,v 1.173 2006/05/30 23:08:25 trhodes Exp $
-->
<chapter id="x11">
<chapterinfo>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Ken</firstname>
<surname>Tom</surname>
<contrib>Updated for X.Org's X11 server by </contrib>
</author>
<author>
<firstname>Marc</firstname>
<surname>Fonvieille</surname>
</author>
</authorgroup>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Víctor</firstname>
<surname>Balada Díaz</surname>
<contrib>Updated for DragonFly by </contrib>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</chapterinfo>
<title>The X Window System</title>
<sect1 id="x11-synopsis">
<title>Synopsis</title>
<para>&os; uses X11 to provide users with
a powerful graphical user interface. X11
is an open-source implementation of the X Window System that
includes both <application>&xorg;</application> and
<application>&xfree86;</application>. &os; default official
flavor is <application>&xorg;</application>, the X11
server developed by the X.Org Foundation.</para>
<para>This chapter will cover the installation and configuration
of X11 with emphasis on
<application>&xorg;</application>.</para>
<para>For more information on the video hardware that X11
supports, check either the <ulink
url="http://www.x.org/">&xorg;</ulink> or <ulink
url="http://www.XFree86.org/">&xfree86;</ulink> web
sites.</para>
<para>After reading this chapter, you will know:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The various components of the X Window System, and how they
interoperate.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>How to install and configure X11.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>How to install and use different window managers.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>How to use &truetype; fonts in X11.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>How to set up your system for graphical logins
(<application>XDM</application>).</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Before reading this chapter, you should:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Know how to install additional third-party
software (<xref linkend="pkgsrc">).</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<note>
<para>This chapter covers the installation and the configuration
of both <application>&xorg;</application> and
<application>&xfree86;</application> X11 servers. For the most
part, configuration files, commands and syntaxes are identical.
In the case where there are differences, both
<application>&xorg;</application> and
<application>&xfree86;</application> syntaxes will be
shown.</para>
</note>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x-understanding">
<title>Understanding X</title>
<para>Using X for the first time can be somewhat of a shock to someone
familiar with other graphical environments, such as µsoft.windows; or
&macos;.</para>
<para>While it is not necessary to understand all of the details of various
X components and how they interact, some basic knowledge makes
it possible to take advantage of X's strengths.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Why X?</title>
<para>X is not the first window system written for &unix;, but it is the
most popular of them. X's original development team had worked on another
window system prior to writing X. That system's name was
<quote>W</quote> (for <quote>Window</quote>). X was just the next
letter in the Roman alphabet.</para>
<para>X can be called <quote>X</quote>, <quote>X Window System</quote>,
<quote>X11</quote>, and a number of other terms. You may find
that using the term <quote>X Windows</quote> to describe X11
can be offensive to some people; for a bit more insight on
this, see &man.X.7;.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>The X Client/Server Model</title>
<para>X was designed from the beginning to be network-centric, and
adopts a <quote>client-server</quote> model.</para>
<para>In the X model, the
<quote>X server</quote> runs on the computer that has the keyboard,
monitor, and mouse attached. The server's responsibility includes tasks such as managing
the display, handling input from the keyboard and mouse, and so on.
Each X application (such as <application>XTerm</application>, or
<application>&netscape;</application>) is a <quote>client</quote>. A
client sends messages to the server such as <quote>Please draw a
window at these coordinates</quote>, and the server sends back
messages such as <quote>The user just clicked on the OK
button</quote>.</para>
<para>In a home or small
office environment, the X server and the X clients commonly run on
the same computer. However, it is perfectly possible to run the X
server on a less powerful desktop computer, and run X applications
(the clients) on, say, the powerful and expensive machine that serves
the office. In this scenario the communication between the X client
and server takes place over the network.</para>
<para>This confuses some people, because the X terminology is
exactly backward to what they expect. They expect the <quote>X
server</quote> to be the big powerful machine down the hall, and
the <quote>X client</quote> to be the machine on their desk.</para>
<para>It is important to remember that the X server is the machine with the monitor and
keyboard, and the X clients are the programs that display the
windows.</para>
<para>There is nothing in the protocol that forces the client and
server machines to be running the same operating system, or even to
be running on the same type of computer. It is certainly possible to
run an X server on µsoft.windows; or Apple's &macos;, and there are
various free and commercial applications available that do exactly
that.</para>
<para>&os; will use by default
<application>&xorg;</application>
server. <application>&xorg;</application> is available for
free, under a license very similar to the DragonFly license.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>The Window Manager</title>
<para>The X design philosophy is much like the &unix; design philosophy,
<quote>tools, not policy</quote>. This means that X does not try to
dictate how a task is to be accomplished. Instead, tools are provided
to the user, and it is the user's responsibility to decide how to use
those tools.</para>
<para>This philosophy extends to X not dictating what windows should
look like on screen, how to move them around with the mouse, what
keystrokes should be used to move between windows (i.e.,
<keycombo action="simul">
<keycap>Alt</keycap>
<keycap>Tab</keycap>
</keycombo>, in the case of µsoft.windows;), what the title bars
on each window should look like, whether or not they have close
buttons on them, and so on.</para>
<para>Instead, X delegates this responsibility to an application called
a <quote>Window Manager</quote>. There are dozens of window
managers available for X: <application>AfterStep</application>,
<application>Blackbox</application>, <application>ctwm</application>,
<application>Enlightenment</application>,
<application>fvwm</application>, <application>Sawfish</application>,
<application>twm</application>,
<application>Window Maker</application>, and more. Each of these
window managers provides a different look and feel; some of them
support <quote>virtual desktops</quote>; some of them allow customized
keystrokes to manage the desktop; some have a <quote>Start</quote>
button or similar device; some are <quote>themeable</quote>, allowing
a complete change of look-and-feel by applying a new theme. These
window managers, and many more, are available in the
<filename>x11-wm</filename> category of the Ports Collection.</para>
<para>In addition, the <application>KDE</application> and
<application>GNOME</application> desktop environments both have their
own window managers which integrate with the desktop.</para>
<para>Each window manager also has a different configuration mechanism;
some expect configuration file written by hand, others feature
GUI tools for most of the configuration tasks; at least one
(<application>Sawfish</application>) has a configuration file written
in a dialect of the Lisp language.</para>
<note>
<title>Focus Policy</title>
<para>Another feature the window manager is responsible for is the
mouse <quote>focus policy</quote>. Every windowing system
needs some means of choosing a window to be actively receiving
keystrokes, and should visibly indicate which window is active as
well.</para>
<para>A familiar focus policy is called <quote>click-to-focus</quote>.
This is the model utilized by µsoft.windows;, in which a window
becomes active upon receiving a mouse click.</para>
<para>X does not support any particular focus policy. Instead, the
window manager controls which window has the focus at any one time.
Different window managers will support different focus methods. All
of them support click to focus, and the majority of them support
several others.</para>
<para>The most popular focus policies are:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>focus-follows-mouse</term>
<listitem>
<para>The window that is under the mouse pointer is the
window that has the focus. This may not necessarily be
the window that is on top of all the other windows.
The focus is changed by pointing at another window, there
is no need to click in it as well.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>sloppy-focus</term>
<listitem>
<para>This policy is a small extension to focus-follows-mouse.
With focus-follows-mouse, if the mouse is moved over the
root window (or background) then no window has the focus,
and keystrokes are simply lost. With sloppy-focus, focus is
only changed when the cursor enters a new window, and not
when exiting the current window.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>click-to-focus</term>
<listitem>
<para>The active window is selected by mouse click. The
window may then be <quote>raised</quote>, and appear in
front of all other windows. All keystrokes will now be
directed to this window, even if the cursor is moved to
another window.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>Many window managers support other policies, as well as
variations on these. Be sure to consult the documentation for
the window manager itself.</para>
</note>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Widgets</title>
<para>The X approach of providing tools and not policy extends to the
widgets seen on screen in each application.</para>
<para><quote>Widget</quote> is a term for all the items in the user
interface that can be clicked or manipulated in some way; buttons,
check boxes, radio buttons, icons, lists, and so on. µsoft.windows;
calls these <quote>controls</quote>.</para>
<para>µsoft.windows; and Apple's &macos; both have a very rigid widget
policy. Application developers are supposed to ensure that their
applications share a common look and feel. With X, it was not
considered sensible to mandate a particular graphical style, or set
of widgets to adhere to.</para>
<para>As a result, do not expect X applications to have a common
look and feel. There are several popular widget sets and
variations, including the original Athena widget set from MIT,
<application>&motif;</application> (on which the widget set in
µsoft.windows; was modeled, all bevelled edges and three shades of
grey), <application>OpenLook</application>, and others.</para>
<para>Most newer X applications today will use a modern-looking widget
set, either Qt, used by <application>KDE</application>, or
GTK+, used by the
<application>GNOME</application>
project. In this respect, there is some convergence in
look-and-feel of the &unix; desktop, which certainly makes things
easier for the novice user.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x-install">
<title>Installing X11</title>
<para><application>&xorg;</application> or
<application>&xfree86;</application> may be installed on &os;.
&os; doesn't force a default implementation, but recommends
<application>&xorg;</application>. <application>&xorg;</application> is
the X server of the open source X Window System implementation
released by the X.Org Foundation. <application>&xorg;</application>
is based on the code of
<application>&xfree86 4.4RC2</application> and X11R6.6.
The X.Org Foundation released X11R6.7 in April 2004 and
X11R6.8.2 in February 2005, this latter is the version
currently available in the &os; pkgsrc framework.</para>
<para>To build and install <application>&xorg;</application> from the
Ports Collection:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/xorg</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>bmake install clean</userinput></screen>
<note>
<para>To build <application>&xorg;</application> in its
entirety, be sure to have at least 4 GB of free space
available.</para>
</note>
<para>To build and install <application>&xfree86;</application>
from the pkgsrc framework:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>echo "X11_TYPE=XFree86" >> <filename>/etc/mk.conf</filename></userinput></screen>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/XFree86</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>bmake install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>Alternatively, X11
can be installed directly from packages.
Binary packages to use with &man.pkg.add.1; tool are also available for
X11. If you have configured <varname>PKG_PATH</varname> the remote
fetching feature of &man.pkg.add.1; is used, the version number of the
package is not required. &man.pkg.add.1; will automatically fetch
the latest version of the application.</para>
<para>So to fetch and install the package of
<application>&xorg;</application>, simply type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_add xorg</userinput></screen>
<para>The <application>&xfree86; 4.X</application> package can be
installed by typing:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_add XFree86</userinput></screen>
<note><para>The examples above will install the complete
X11 distribution including the
servers, clients, fonts etc. Separate packages and ports of X11
are also
available.</para></note>
<para>The rest of this chapter will explain how to configure
X11, and how to set up a productive desktop
environment.</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x-config">
<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Christopher</firstname>
<surname>Shumway</surname>
<contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
<!-- July 2001 -->
</author>
</authorgroup>
</sect1info>
<title>X11 Configuration</title>
<indexterm><primary>&xfree86; 4.X</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>&xfree86;</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>&xorg;</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>X11</primary></indexterm>
<sect2>
<title>Before Starting</title>
<para>Before configuration of X11
the following information about the target system is needed:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Monitor specifications</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Video Adapter chipset</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Video Adapter memory</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<indexterm><primary>horizontal scan rate</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>vertical scan rate</primary></indexterm>
<para>The specifications for the monitor are used by
X11 to determine the resolution and
refresh rate to run at. These specifications can usually be
obtained from the documentation that came with the monitor or from
the manufacturer's website. There are two ranges of numbers that
are needed, the horizontal scan rate and the vertical synchronization
rate.</para>
<para>The video adapter's chipset defines what driver module
X11 uses to talk to the graphics
hardware. With most chipsets, this can be automatically
determined, but it is still useful to know in case the automatic
detection does not work correctly.</para>
<para>Video memory on the graphic adapter determines the
resolution and color depth which the system can run at. This is
important to know so the user knows the limitations of the
system.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Configuring X11</title>
<para>Configuration of X11 is
a multi-step process. The first step is to build an initial
configuration file.
As the super user, simply
run:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>Xorg -configure</userinput></screen>
<para>In the case of <application>&xfree86;</application>
type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>XFree86 -configure</userinput></screen>
<para>This will generate an
X11 configuration skeleton file in the
<filename>/root</filename> directory called
<filename>xorg.conf.new</filename> (whether you &man.su.1; or
do a direct login affects the inherited supervisor
<envar>$HOME</envar> directory variable).
For <application>&xfree86;</application>, this configuration
file is called <filename>XF86Config.new</filename>. The
X11 program will attempt to probe
the graphics hardware on the system and write a
configuration file to load the proper drivers for the detected
hardware on the target system.</para>
<para>The next step is to test the existing
configuration to verify that <application>&xorg;</application>
can work with the graphics
hardware on the target system. To perform this task,
type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>Xorg -config xorg.conf.new</userinput></screen>
<para><application>&xfree86;</application> users will type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>XFree86 -xf86config XF86Config.new</userinput></screen>
<para>If a black and grey grid and an X mouse cursor appear,
the configuration was successful. To exit the test, just press
<keycombo action="simul">
<keycap>Ctrl</keycap>
<keycap>Alt</keycap>
<keycap>Backspace</keycap>
</keycombo> simultaneously.</para>
<note><para>If the mouse does not work, you will need to first
configure it before proceeding.</para></note>
<!-- We don't have support for configuring the mouse in the installer -->
<!-- See <xref linkend="mouse"> in the &os; install chapter.</para></note> -->
<indexterm><primary>X11 tuning</primary></indexterm>
<para>Next, tune the <filename>xorg.conf.new</filename> (or <filename>XF86Config.new</filename> if you are running <application>&xfree86;</application>)
configuration file to taste. Open the file in a text editor such
as &man.emacs.1; or &man.ee.1;. First, add the
frequencies for the target system's monitor. These are usually
expressed as a horizontal and vertical synchronization rate. These
values are added to the <filename>xorg.conf.new</filename> file
under the <literal>"Monitor"</literal> section:</para>
<programlisting>Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 30-107
VertRefresh 48-120
EndSection</programlisting>
<para>The <literal>HorizSync</literal> and
<literal>VertRefresh</literal> keywords may be missing in the
configuration file. If they are, they need to be added, with
the correct horizontal synchronization rate placed after the
<literal>HorizSync</literal> keyword and the vertical
synchronization rate after the <literal>VertRefresh</literal>
keyword. In the example above the target monitor's rates were
entered.</para>
<para>X allows DPMS (Energy Star) features to be used with capable
monitors. The &man.xset.1; program controls the time-outs and can force
standby, suspend, or off modes. If you wish to enable DPMS features
for your monitor, you must add the following line to the monitor
section:</para>
<programlisting>
Option "DPMS"</programlisting>
<indexterm>
<primary><filename>xorg.conf</filename></primary>
</indexterm>
<indexterm>
<primary><filename>XF86Config</filename></primary>
</indexterm>
<para>While the <filename>xorg.conf.new</filename> (or <filename>XF86Config.new</filename>)
configuration file is still open in an editor, select
the default resolution and color depth desired. This is
defined in the <literal>"Screen"</literal> section:</para>
<programlisting>Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection</programlisting>
<para>The <literal>DefaultDepth</literal> keyword describes
the color depth to run at by default. This can be overridden
with the <option>-depth</option> command line switch to
&man.Xorg.1; (or &man.XFree86.1;).
The <literal>Modes</literal> keyword
describes the resolution to run at for the given color depth.
Note that only VESA standard modes are supported as defined by
the target system's graphics hardware.
In the example above, the default color depth is twenty-four
bits per pixel. At this color depth, the accepted resolution is
1024 by 768
pixels.</para>
<para>Finally, write the configuration file and test it using
the test mode given above.</para>
<note>
<para>One of the tools available to assist you during
troubleshooting process are the X11 log files, which contain
information on each device that the X11 server attaches to.
<application>&xorg;</application> log file names are in the format
of <filename>/var/log/Xorg.0.log</filename>
(<application>&xfree86;</application> log file names follow the
format of <filename>XFree86.0.log</filename>). The exact name
of the log can vary from <filename>Xorg.0.log</filename> to
<filename>Xorg.8.log</filename> and so forth.</para>
</note>
<para>If all is well, the configuration
file needs to be installed in a common location where
&man.Xorg.1; (or &man.XFree86.1;)
can find it.
This is typically <filename>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</filename> or
<filename>/usr/pkg/xorg/lib/X11/xorg.conf</filename> (for
<application>&xfree86;</application> it is called
<filename>/etc/X11/XF86Config</filename> or
<filename>/usr/pkg/XFree86/lib/X11/XF86Config</filename>).</para>
<!-- The XFree86 paths needs confirmation -->
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf</userinput></screen>
<para>For <application>&xfree86;</application>:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cp XF86Config.new /etc/X11/XF86Config</userinput></screen>
<para>The X11 configuration process is now
complete. You can start
<application>&xfree86; 4.X</application> or
<application>&xorg;</application> with &man.startx.1;. The
X11 server may also be started with the use of &man.xdm.1;.</para>
<note><para>There is also a graphical configuration tool,
&man.xorgcfg.1; (&man.xf86cfg.1; for <application>&xfree86;</application>), that comes with the
X11 distribution. It
allows you to interactively define your configuration by choosing
the appropriate drivers and settings. This program can be invoked from the console, by typing the command <command>xorgcfg -textmode</command>. For more details,
refer to the &man.xorgcfg.1; and &man.xf86cfg.1; manual pages.</para>
<para>Alternatively, there is also a tool called &man.xorgconfig.1;
(&man.xf86config.1; for <application>&xfree86;</application>),
this program is a console utility that is less user friendly,
but it may work in situations where the other tools do
not.</para></note>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Advanced Configuration Topics</title>
<sect3>
<title>Configuration with &intel; i810 Graphics Chipsets</title>
<indexterm><primary>Intel i810 graphic chipset</primary></indexterm>
<para>Configuration with &intel; i810 integrated chipsets
requires the <devicename>agpgart</devicename>
AGP programming interface for X11
to drive the card. See the &man.agp.4; driver manual page
for more information.</para>
<para>This will allow configuration of the hardware as any other
graphics board. Note on systems without the &man.agp.4;
driver compiled in the kernel, trying to load the module
with &man.kldload.8; will not work. This driver has to be
in the kernel at boot time through being compiled in or
using <filename>/boot/loader.conf</filename>.</para>
<para>If you are using <application>&xfree86; 4.1.0</application> (or
later) and messages about unresolved symbols like
<literal>fbPictureInit</literal> appear, try adding the
following line after <literal>Driver "i810"</literal> in the
X11 configuration file:</para>
<programlisting>Option "NoDDC"</programlisting>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x-fonts">
<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Murray</firstname>
<surname>Stokely</surname>
<contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</sect1info>
<title>Using Fonts in X11</title>
<sect2 id="type1">
<title>Type1 Fonts</title>
<para>The default fonts that ship with
X11 are less than ideal for typical
desktop publishing applications. Large presentation fonts show up
jagged and unprofessional looking, and small fonts in
<application>&netscape;</application> are almost completely unintelligible.
However, there are several free, high quality Type1 (&postscript;) fonts
available which can be readily used
with X11. For instance, the Freefonts collection
(<filename role="package">fonts/freefonts</filename>) includes
a lot of fonts, but most of them are intended for use in
graphics software such as the <application>Gimp</application>, and are not
complete enough to serve as screen fonts. In addition,
X11 can be configured to use
&truetype; fonts with a minimum of effort. For more details on
this, see the &man.X.7; manual page or the
<link linkend="truetype">section on &truetype; fonts</link>.</para>
<para>To install the Freefonts font collection from the pkgsrc
framework, run the following commands:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/pkgsrc/fonts/freefonts</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>bmake install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>And likewise with the other collections. To have the X
server detect these fonts, add an appropriate line to the
X server configuration file in <filename>/etc/X11/</filename>
(<filename>xorg.conf</filename> for
<application>&xorg;</application> and
<filename>XF86Config</filename> for
<application>&xfree86;</application>), which reads:</para>
<programlisting>FontPath "/usr/pkg/lib/X11/fonts/freefont/"</programlisting>
<para>Alternatively, at the command line in the X session
run:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>xset fp+ /usr/pkg/lib/X11/fonts/freefont/</userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput>xset fp rehash</userinput></screen>
<para>This will work but will be lost when the X session is closed,
unless it is added to the startup file (<filename>~/.xinitrc</filename>
for a normal <command>startx</command> session,
or <filename>~/.xsession</filename> when logging in through a
graphical login manager like <application>XDM</application>).
A third way is to use the new
<filename>/usr/pkg/xorg/etc/fonts/local.conf</filename> file: see the
<!-- This path needs confirmation -->
section on <link linkend="antialias">anti-aliasing</link>.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="truetype">
<title>&truetype; Fonts</title>
<indexterm><primary>TrueType Fonts</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>fonts</primary>
<secondary>TrueType</secondary>
</indexterm>
<para>Both <application>&xfree86; 4.X</application> and <application>&xorg;</application> have built in support
for rendering &truetype; fonts. There are two different modules
that can enable this functionality. The freetype module is used
in this example because it is more consistent with the other font
rendering back-ends. To enable the freetype module just add the
following line to the <literal>"Module"</literal> section of the
<filename>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</filename> or
<filename>/etc/X11/XF86Config</filename> file.</para>
<programlisting>Load "freetype"</programlisting>
<para>For <application>&xfree86; 3.3.X</application>, a separate
&truetype; font server is needed.
<application>Xfstt</application> is commonly used for
this purpose. To install <application>Xfstt</application>,
simply install the port
<filename role="package">x11/xfstt</filename>.</para>
<para>Now make a directory for the &truetype; fonts (for example,
<filename>/usr/pkg/xorg/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType</filename>)
and copy all of the &truetype; fonts into this directory. Keep in
mind that &truetype; fonts cannot be directly taken from a
&macintosh;; they must be in &unix;/&ms-dos;/&windows; format for use by
X11. Once the files have been
copied into this directory, use
<application>ttmkfdir</application> to create a
<filename>fonts.dir</filename> file, so that the X font renderer
knows that these new files have been installed.
<command>ttmkfdir</command> is available from the pkgsrc framework as
<filename role="package">fonts/ttmkfdir2</filename>.</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/pkg/xorg/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>ttmkfdir > fonts.dir</userinput></screen>
<para>Now add the &truetype; directory to the font
path. This is just the same as described above for <link
linkend="type1">Type1</link> fonts, that is, use</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>xset fp+ /usr/pkg/xorg/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType</userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput>xset fp rehash</userinput></screen>
<para>or add a <literal>FontPath</literal> line to the
<filename>xorg.conf</filename> (or <filename>XF86Config</filename>) file.</para>
<para>That's it. Now <application>&netscape;</application>,
<application>Gimp</application>,
<application>&staroffice;</application>, and all of the other X
applications should now recognize the installed &truetype;
fonts. Extremely small fonts (as with text in a high resolution
display on a web page) and extremely large fonts (within
<application>&staroffice;</application>) will look much better
now.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="antialias">
<sect2info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Joe Marcus</firstname>
<surname>Clarke</surname>
<contrib>Updated by </contrib>
<!-- May 2003 -->
</author>
</authorgroup>
</sect2info>
<title>Anti-Aliased Fonts</title>
<indexterm><primary>anti-aliased fonts</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>fonts</primary>
<secondary>anti-aliased</secondary></indexterm>
<para>Anti-aliasing has been available in X11 since
<application>&xfree86;</application> 4.0.2. However, font
configuration was cumbersome before the introduction of
<application>&xfree86;</application> 4.3.0.
Beginning with
<application>&xfree86;</application> 4.3.0, all fonts in X11
that are found
in <filename>/usr/pkg/xorg/lib/X11/fonts/</filename> and
<filename>~/.fonts/</filename> are automatically
made available for anti-aliasing to Xft-aware applications. Not
all applications are Xft-aware, but many have received Xft support.
Examples of Xft-aware applications include Qt 2.3 and higher (the
toolkit for the <application>KDE</application> desktop),
GTK+ 2.0 and higher (the toolkit for the
<application>GNOME</application> desktop), and
<application>Mozilla</application> 1.2 and higher.
</para>
<para>In order to control which fonts are anti-aliased, or to
configure anti-aliasing properties, create (or edit, if it
already exists) the file
<filename>/usr/pkg/xorg/lib/etc/fonts/local.conf</filename>. Several
advanced features of the Xft font system can be tuned using
this file; this section describes only some simple
possibilities. For more details, please see
&man.fonts-conf.5;.</para>
<indexterm><primary>XML</primary></indexterm>
<para>This file must be in XML format. Pay careful attention to
case, and make sure all tags are properly closed. The file
begins with the usual XML header followed by a DOCTYPE
definition, and then the <literal><fontconfig></literal> tag:</para>
<programlisting>
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
</programlisting>
<para>As previously stated, all fonts in
<filename>/usr/pkg/xorg/lib/X11/fonts/</filename> as well as
<filename>~/.fonts/</filename> are already made available to
Xft-aware applications. If you wish to add another directory
outside of these two directory trees, add a line similar to the
following to
<filename>/usr/pkg/lib/etc/fonts/local.conf</filename>:</para>
<programlisting><dir>/path/to/my/fonts</dir></programlisting>
<para>After adding new fonts, and especially new font directories,
you should run the following command to rebuild the font
caches:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>fc-cache -f</userinput></screen>
<para>Anti-aliasing makes borders slightly fuzzy, which makes very
small text more readable and removes <quote>staircases</quote> from
large text, but can cause eyestrain if applied to normal text. To
exclude font sizes smaller than 14 point from anti-aliasing, include
these lines:</para>
<programlisting> <match target="font">
<test name="size" compare="less">
<double>14</double>
</test>
<edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font">
<test name="pixelsize" compare="less" qual="any">
<double>14</double>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match></programlisting>
<indexterm><primary>fonts</primary>
<secondary>spacing</secondary></indexterm>
<para>Spacing for some monospaced fonts may also be inappropriate
with anti-aliasing. This seems to be an issue with
<application>KDE</application>, in particular. One possible fix for
this is to force the spacing for such fonts to be 100. Add the
following lines:</para>
<programlisting> <match target="pattern" name="family">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>fixed</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>mono</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern" name="family">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>console</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>mono</string>
</edit>
</match></programlisting>
<para>(this aliases the other common names for fixed fonts as
<literal>"mono"</literal>), and then add:</para>
<programlisting> <match target="pattern" name="family">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>mono</string>
</test>
<edit name="spacing" mode="assign">
<int>100</int>
</edit>
</match> </programlisting>
<para>Certain fonts, such as Helvetica, may have a problem when
anti-aliased. Usually this manifests itself as a font that
seems cut in half vertically. At worst, it may cause
applications such as <application>Mozilla</application> to
crash. To avoid this, consider adding the following to
<filename>local.conf</filename>:</para>
<programlisting> <match target="pattern" name="family">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>Helvetica</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>sans-serif</string>
</edit>
</match> </programlisting>
<para>Once you have finished editing
<filename>local.conf</filename> make sure you end the file
with the <literal></fontconfig></literal> tag. Not doing this will cause
your changes to be ignored.</para>
<para>The default font set that comes with
X11 is not very
desirable when it comes to anti-aliasing. A much better
set of default fonts can be found in the
<filename role="package">fonts/vera-ttf</filename>
port. This port will install a
<filename>/usr/pkg/lib/etc/fonts/local.conf</filename> file
if one does not exist already. If the file does exist,
the port will create a <filename>/usr/pkg/lib/etc/fonts/local.conf-vera
</filename> file. Merge the contents of this file into
<filename>/usr/pkg/lib/etc/fonts/local.conf</filename>, and the
Bitstream fonts will automatically replace the default
X11 Serif, Sans Serif, and Monospaced
fonts.</para>
<para>Finally, users can add their own settings via their personal
<filename>.fonts.conf</filename> files. To do this, each user should
simply create a <filename>~/.fonts.conf</filename>. This file must
also be in XML format.</para>
<indexterm><primary>LCD screen</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>Fonts</primary>
<secondary>LCD screen</secondary></indexterm>
<para>One last point: with an LCD screen, sub-pixel sampling may be
desired. This basically treats the (horizontally separated)
red, green and blue components separately to improve the horizontal
resolution; the results can be dramatic. To enable this, add the
line somewhere in the <filename>local.conf</filename> file:</para>
<programlisting>
<match target="font">
<test qual="all" name="rgba">
<const>unknown</const>
</test>
<edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
</match>
</programlisting>
<note><para>Depending on the sort of display,
<literal>rgb</literal> may need to be changed to <literal>bgr</literal>,
<literal>vrgb</literal> or <literal>vbgr</literal>: experiment and
see which works best.</para></note>
<indexterm>
<primary>Mozilla</primary>
<secondary>disabling anti-aliased fonts</secondary>
</indexterm>
<para>Anti-aliasing should be enabled the next time the X
server is started. However, programs must know how to take
advantage of it. At present, the Qt toolkit does,
so the entire <application>KDE</application> environment can
use anti-aliased fonts.
GTK+ and
<application>GNOME</application> can also be made to use
anti-aliasing via the <quote>Font</quote> capplet (see <xref
linkend="x11-wm-gnome-antialias"> for details). By default,
<application>Mozilla</application> 1.2 and greater will
automatically use anti-aliasing. To disable this, rebuild
<application>Mozilla</application> with the
<makevar>-DWITHOUT_XFT</makevar> flag.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x-xdm">
<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Seth</firstname>
<surname>Kingsley</surname>
<contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</sect1info>
<title>The X Display Manager</title>
<sect2>
<title>Overview</title>
<indexterm><primary>X Display Manager</primary></indexterm>
<para>The X Display Manager (<application>XDM</application>) is
an optional part of the X Window System that is used for login
session management. This is useful for several types of
situations, including minimal <quote>X Terminals</quote>,
desktops, and large network display
servers. Since the X Window System is network and protocol
independent, there are a wide variety of possible configurations
for running X clients and servers on different machines
connected by a network. <application>XDM</application> provides
a graphical interface for choosing which display server to
connect to, and entering authorization information such as a
login and password combination.</para>
<para>Think of <application>XDM</application> as
providing the same functionality to the user as the
&man.getty.8; utility (see <xref linkend="term-config"> for
details). That is, it performs system logins to the display
being connected to and then runs a session manager on behalf of
the user (usually an X window
manager). <application>XDM</application> then waits for this
program to exit, signaling that the user is done and should be
logged out of the display. At this point,
<application>XDM</application> can display the login and display
chooser screens for the next user to login.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Using XDM</title>
<para>The <application>XDM</application> daemon program is
located in <filename>/usr/pkg/xorg/bin/xdm</filename>. This program
can be run at any time as <username>root</username> and it will
start managing the X display on the local machine. If
<application>XDM</application> is to be run every
time the machine boots up, a convenient way to do this is by
adding an entry to <filename>/etc/ttys</filename>. For more
information about the format and usage of this file, see <xref
linkend="term-etcttys">. There is a line in the default
<filename>/etc/ttys</filename> file for running the
<application>XDM</application> daemon on a virtual terminal:</para>
<screen>ttyv8 "/usr/pkg/xorg/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm off secure</screen>
<para>By default this entry is disabled; in order to enable it
change field 5 from <literal>off</literal> to
<literal>on</literal> and restart &man.init.8; using the
directions in <xref linkend="term-hup">. The first field, the
name of the terminal this program will manage, is
<literal>ttyv8</literal>. This means that
<application>XDM</application> will start running on the 9th
virtual terminal.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Configuring XDM</title>
<!-- Please, doublecheck this path -->
<para>The <application>XDM</application> configuration directory
is located in <filename>/var/lib/xdm</filename>. The sample
configuration files are in
<filename>/usr/pkg/share/examples/xorg/xdm/</filename>,
in this directory there are several files used to change the
behavior and appearance of
<application>XDM</application>. Typically these files will
be found:</para>
<informaltable frame="none" pgwide="1">
<tgroup cols="2">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>File</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><filename>Xaccess</filename></entry>
<entry>Client authorization ruleset.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>Xresources</filename></entry>
<entry>Default X resource values.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>Xservers</filename></entry>
<entry>List of remote and local displays to manage.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>Xsession</filename></entry>
<entry>Default session script for logins.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>Xsetup_</filename>*</entry>
<entry>Script to launch applications before the login
interface.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>xdm-config</filename></entry>
<entry>Global configuration for all displays running on
this machine.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>xdm-errors</filename></entry>
<entry>Errors generated by the server program.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>xdm-pid</filename></entry>
<entry>The process ID of the currently running XDM.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>Also in this directory are a few scripts and programs used
to set up the desktop when <application>XDM</application> is
running. The purpose of each of these files will be briefly
described. The exact syntax and usage of all of these files is
described in &man.xdm.1;.</para>
<para>The default configuration is a simple rectangular login
window with the hostname of the machine displayed at the top in
a large font and <quote>Login:</quote> and
<quote>Password:</quote> prompts below. This is a good starting
point for changing the look and feel of
<application>XDM</application> screens.</para>
<sect3>
<title>Xaccess</title>
<para>The protocol for connecting to
<application>XDM</application> controlled displays is called
the X Display Manager Connection Protocol (XDMCP). This file
is a ruleset for controlling XDMCP connections from remote
machines. It is ignored unless the <filename>xdm-config</filename>
is changed to listen for remote connections. By default, it does
not allow any clients to connect.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Xresources</title>
<para>This is an application-defaults file for the display
chooser and the login screens. This is where the appearance
of the login program can be modified. The format is identical
to the app-defaults file described in the
X11 documentation.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Xservers</title>
<para>This is a list of the remote displays the chooser should
provide as choices.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Xsession</title>
<para>This is the default session script for
<application>XDM</application> to run after a user has logged
in. Normally each user will have a customized session script
in <filename>~/.xsession</filename> that overrides this
script.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Xsetup_*</title>
<para>These will be run automatically before displaying the
chooser or login interfaces. There is a script for each
display being used, named <filename>Xsetup_</filename> followed
by the local display number (for instance
<filename>Xsetup_0</filename>). Typically these scripts will
run one or two programs in the background such as
<command>xconsole</command>.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>xdm-config</title>
<para>This contains settings in the form of app-defaults
that are applicable to every display that this installation
manages.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>xdm-errors</title>
<para>This contains the output of the X servers that
<application>XDM</application> is trying to run. If a display
that <application>XDM</application> is trying to start hangs
for some reason, this is a good place to look for error
messages. These messages are also written to the user's
<filename>~/.xsession-errors</filename> file on a per-session
basis.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Running a Network Display Server</title>
<para>In order for other clients to connect to the display
server, edit the access control rules, and enable the connection
listener. By default these are set to conservative values.
To make <application>XDM</application> listen for connections,
first comment out a line in the <filename>xdm-config</filename>
file:</para>
<screen>! SECURITY: do not listen for XDMCP or Chooser requests
! Comment out this line if you want to manage X terminals with xdm
DisplayManager.requestPort: 0</screen>
<para>and then restart <application>XDM</application>. Remember that
comments in app-defaults files begin with a <quote>!</quote>
character, not the usual <quote>#</quote>. More strict
access controls may be desired. Look at the example
entries in <filename>Xaccess</filename>, and refer to the
&man.xdm.1; manual page.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Replacements for XDM</title>
<para>Several replacements for the default
<application>XDM</application> program exist. One of them,
<application>kdm</application> (bundled with
<application>KDE</application>) is described later in this
chapter. The <application>kdm</application> display manager offers many visual
improvements and cosmetic frills, as well as the
functionality to allow users to choose their window manager
of choice at login time.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x11-wm">
<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Valentino</firstname>
<surname>Vaschetto</surname>
<contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
</author>
<!-- June 2001 -->
</authorgroup>
</sect1info>
<title>Desktop Environments</title>
<para>This section describes the different desktop environments
available for X on FreeBSD. A <quote>desktop environment</quote>
can mean anything ranging from a simple window manager to a
complete suite of desktop applications, such as
<application>KDE</application> or <application>GNOME</application>.
</para>
<sect2 id="x11-wm-gnome">
<title>GNOME</title>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-gnome-about">
<title>About GNOME</title>
<indexterm><primary>GNOME</primary></indexterm>
<para><application>GNOME</application> is a user-friendly
desktop environment that enables users to easily use and
configure their computers. <application>GNOME</application>
includes a panel (for starting applications and displaying
status), a desktop (where data and applications can be
placed), a set of standard desktop tools and applications, and
a set of conventions that make it easy for applications to
cooperate and be consistent with each other. Users of other
operating systems or environments should feel right at home
using the powerful graphics-driven environment that
<application>GNOME</application> provides.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-gnome-install">
<title>Installing GNOME</title>
<para><application>GNOME</application> can be easily
installed from a package or from the pkgsrc framework:</para>
<para>To install the <application>GNOME</application> package
from the network, simply type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_add gnome</userinput></screen>
<para>To build <application>GNOME</application> from source, use
the ports tree:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/gnome</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>bmake install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>Once <application>GNOME</application> is installed,
the X server must be told to start
<application>GNOME</application> instead of a default window
manager.</para>
<!-- does gdm_enable="YES" also work on dfbsd? -->
<para>The easiest way to start
<application>GNOME</application> is with
<application>GDM</application>, the GNOME Display Manager.
<application>GDM</application>, which is installed as a part
of the <application>GNOME</application> desktop (but is
disabled by default), can be enabled by adding
<literal>gdm_enable="YES"</literal> to
<filename>/etc/rc.conf</filename>. Once you have rebooted,
<application>GNOME</application> will start automatically
once you log in — no further configuration is
necessary.</para>
<para><application>GNOME</application> may also be started
from the command-line by properly configuring a file named
<filename>.xinitrc</filename>.
If a custom <filename>.xinitrc</filename> is already in
place, simply replace the line that starts the current window
manager with one that starts
<application>/usr/pkg/bin/gnome-session</application> instead.
If nothing special has been done to the configuration file,
then it is enough simply to type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>echo "/usr/pkg/bin/gnome-session" > ~/.xinitrc</userinput></screen>
<para>Next, type <command>startx</command>, and the
<application>GNOME</application> desktop environment will be
started.</para>
<note><para>If an older display manager, like
<application>XDM</application>, is being used, this will not work.
Instead, create an executable <filename>.xsession</filename>
file with the same command in it. To do this, edit the file
and replace the existing window manager command with
<application>/usr/pkg/bin/gnome-session</application>:
</para></note>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>echo "#!/bin/sh" > ~/.xsession</userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput>echo "/usr/pkg/bin/gnome-session" >> ~/.xsession</userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput>chmod +x ~/.xsession</userinput></screen>
<para>Yet another option is to configure the display manager to
allow choosing the window manager at login time; the section on
<link linkend="x11-wm-kde-details">KDE details</link>
explains how to do this for <application>kdm</application>, the
display manager of <application>KDE</application>.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-gnome-antialias">
<title>Anti-aliased Fonts with GNOME</title>
<indexterm><primary>GNOME</primary>
<secondary>anti-aliased fonts</secondary></indexterm>
<para>X11
supports anti-aliasing via its <quote>RENDER</quote> extension.
GTK+ 2.0 and greater (the toolkit used by
<application>GNOME</application>) can make use of this
functionality. Configuring anti-aliasing is described in
<xref linkend="antialias">. So, with up-to-date software,
anti-aliasing is possible within the
<application>GNOME</application> desktop. Just go to
<menuchoice>
<guimenu>Applications</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Desktop Preferences</guisubmenu>
<guimenuitem>Font</guimenuitem></menuchoice>, and select either
<guibutton>Best shapes</guibutton>,
<guibutton>Best contrast</guibutton>, or
<guibutton>Subpixel smoothing (LCDs)</guibutton>. For a
GTK+ application that is not part of the
<application>GNOME</application> desktop, set the
environment variable <varname>GDK_USE_XFT</varname> to
<literal>1</literal> before launching the program.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="x11-wm-kde">
<title>KDE</title>
<indexterm><primary>KDE</primary></indexterm>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-kde-about">
<title>About KDE</title>
<para><application>KDE</application> is an easy to use
contemporary desktop environment. Some of the things that
<application>KDE</application> brings to the user are:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>A beautiful contemporary desktop</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A desktop exhibiting complete network transparency</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>An integrated help system allowing for convenient,
consistent access to help on the use of the
<application>KDE</application> desktop and its
applications</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Consistent look and feel of all
<application>KDE</application> applications</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Standardized menu and toolbars, keybindings, color-schemes,
etc.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Internationalization: <application>KDE</application>
is available in more than 40 languages</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Centralized consisted dialog driven desktop
configuration</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A great number of useful
<application>KDE</application> applications</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para><application>KDE</application> comes with a web browser called
<application>Konqueror</application>, which represents
a solid competitor to other existing web browsers on &unix;
systems. More information on <application>KDE</application>
can be found on the <ulink url="http://www.kde.org/">KDE
website</ulink>.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-kde-install">
<title>Installing KDE</title>
<para>Just as with <application>GNOME</application> or any
other desktop environment, the easiest way to install
<application>KDE</application> is through the pkgsrc
framework or from a package:</para>
<para>To install the <application>KDE</application> package
from the network, simply type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_add kde</userinput></screen>
<para>&man.pkg.add.1; will automatically fetch the latest version
of the application.</para>
<para>To build <application>KDE</application> from source,
use the ports tree:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/kde3</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>bmake install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>After <application>KDE</application> has been installed,
the X server must be told to launch this application
instead of the default window manager. This is accomplished
by editing the <filename>.xinitrc</filename> file:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>echo "exec startkde" > ~/.xinitrc</userinput></screen>
<para>Now, whenever the X Window System is invoked with
<command>startx</command>,
<application>KDE</application> will be the desktop.</para>
<para>If a display manager such as
<application>XDM</application> is being used, the
configuration is slightly different. Edit the
<filename>.xsession</filename> file instead. Instructions
for <application>kdm</application> are described later in
this chapter.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="x11-wm-kde-details">
<title>More Details on KDE</title>
<para>Now that <application>KDE</application> is installed on
the system, most things can be discovered through the
help pages, or just by pointing and clicking at various menus.
&windows; or &mac; users will feel quite at home.</para>
<para>The best reference for <application>KDE</application> is
the on-line documentation. <application>KDE</application>
comes with its own web browser,
<application>Konqueror</application>, dozens of useful
applications, and extensive documentation. The remainder of
this section discusses the technical items that are
difficult to learn by random exploration.</para>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-kde-kdm">
<title>The KDE Display Manager</title>
<indexterm><primary>KDE</primary>
<secondary>display manager</secondary></indexterm>
<para>An administrator of a multi-user system may wish to have
a graphical login screen to welcome users.
<link linkend="x-xdm">XDM</link> can be
used, as described earlier. However,
<application>KDE</application> includes an
alternative, <application>kdm</application>, which is designed
to look more attractive and include more login-time options.
In particular, users can easily choose (via a menu) which
desktop environment (<application>KDE</application>,
<application>GNOME</application>, or something else) to run
after logging on.</para>
<para>To enable <application>kdm</application>, the
<literal>ttyv8</literal> entry in <filename>/etc/ttys</filename>
has to be adapted. The line should look as follows:</para>
<programlisting>ttyv8 "/usr/pkg/bin/kdm -nodaemon" xterm on secure</programlisting>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="x11-wm-xfce">
<title>XFce</title>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-xfce-about">
<title>About XFce</title>
<para><application>XFce</application> is a desktop environment
based on the GTK+
toolkit used by <application>GNOME</application>, but is much
more lightweight and meant for those who want a simple,
efficient desktop which is nevertheless easy to use and
configure. Visually, it looks very much like
<application>CDE</application>, found on commercial &unix;
systems. Some of <application>XFce</application>'s features
are:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>A simple, easy-to-handle desktop</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Fully configurable via mouse, with drag and
drop, etc </para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Main panel similar to <application>CDE</application>, with
menus, applets and applications launchers</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Integrated window manager, file manager, sound manager,
<application>GNOME</application> compliance module, and other
things</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Themeable (since it uses GTK+)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Fast, light and efficient: ideal for older/slower machines
or machines with memory limitations</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>More information on <application>XFce</application>
can be found on the <ulink url="http://www.xfce.org/">XFce
website</ulink>.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-xfce-install">
<title>Installing XFce</title>
<para>A binary package for <application>XFce</application>
exists (at the time of writing). To install, simply type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_add -r xfce4</userinput></screen>
<para>Alternatively, to build from source, use the pkgsrc
framework:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/pkgsrc/meta-pkgs/xfce4</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>Now, tell the X server to launch
<application>XFce</application> the next time X is started.
Simply type this:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>echo "/usr/pkgsrc/bin/startxfce4" > ~/.xinitrc</userinput></screen>
<para>The next time X is started,
<application>XFce</application> will be the desktop.
As before, if a display manager like
<application>XDM</application> is being used, create an
<filename>.xsession</filename>, as described in the
section on <link linkend="x11-wm-gnome">GNOME</link>, but
with the <filename>/usr/pkg/bin/startxfce4</filename>
command; or, configure the display manager to allow
choosing a desktop at login time, as explained in
the section on <link linkend="x11-wm-kde-kdm">kdm</link>.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
<!--
Local Variables:
mode: sgml
sgml-declaration: "../chapter.decl"
sgml-indent-data: t
sgml-omittag: nil
sgml-always-quote-attributes: t
sgml-parent-document: ("../book.sgml" "part" "chapter")
End:
-->
More information about the Submit
mailing list