InformIT: Mac OS X Unleashed > Installing the XFree86 OS X Distribution

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Installing the XFree86 OS X Distribution

The XFree86 distribution changes on a regular basis, and the installation process for it is modified with almost the same regularity. Apple has begun providing an easy-installing distribution of X11 from its OS X software Web site, so if you relish simplicity, you might want to work with Apple's distribution. If you're itching for the most recent features available, you'll wnat to work with the distribution straight from XFree86. For the most current installation method, we suggest that you visit the SourceForge XonX site (go to http://www.sourceforge.com/ and search for xonx), read the documentation, and follow what SourceForge has to say. Alternatively, as of the most recent XonX project release, the XFree86 distribution itself has had OS X/Darwin support rolled into it (but the XonX project might have more recent or experimental code available).

As of this writing, the XFree86 installation process involves downloading a number of files and running an installation script. Because we can't be sure that this process will be identical by the time you're reading this, we'll cover both the idealized and current installation protocols here.

Idealized XFree86 Installation

The idealized XFree86 X Window System installation involves a number of steps, all fairly simple to accomplish.

First, go to http://www.xfree86.org/.
Next, read the current release notes. Look for a paragraph describing online documentation and then follow the online documentation link and look for information on OS X/Darwin.
Go to the Getting Started/Installation section of the documentation, and follow the directions for either installing by downloading and compiling the code, or download the precompiled binaries.
Downloading the precompiled binaries involves following a link to an FTP server, and downloading files as instructed by the documentation.
Execute the installation script as root.

After these are accomplished, XFree86 will be ready to run, and you will be able to run X11 applications on an X Window System server running in parallel with Aqua. The current distribution claims that a rootless version of the server will be available soon. This will allow X11 applications to run intermingled with Aqua applications, as allowed by XTools, but this code is available only for the more adventurous who want to compile X11 for themselves.

Practical XFree86 Installation as of July, 2001

In practice, following the preceding instructions almost works for installing XFree86. There is currently an error in the xfree86.org Web site that prevents you from accessing the files by following the site's links. Also, there are currently errors in the installation instructions that indicate the necessity of a nonexistent Xvar.tgz file and omit the necessity of a Xquartz.tgz file.

The installation process that worked for us was as follows:

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xinstall.sh > Xinstall.sh

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/extract > extract

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xbin.tgz > Xbin.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xlib.tgz > Xlib.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xman.tgz > Xman.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xdoc.tgz > Xdoc.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xfnts.tgz > Xfnts.tgz
lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xfenc.tgz > Xfenc.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xetc.tgz > Xetc.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xquartz.tgz > Xquartz.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xxserv.tgz > Xxserv.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xfsrv.tgz > Xfsrv.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xnest.tgz > Xnest.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xprog.tgz > Xprog.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xprt.tgz > Xprt.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xvfb.tgz > Xvfb.tgz

lynx -source ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.1.0/binaries/
Darwin-ppc/Xf100.tgz > Xf100.tgz

ls -l

total 80544

-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff   3099299 Jul 16 13:32 Xbin.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff   1575927 Jul 16 13:35 Xdoc.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff    297200 Jul 16 13:43 Xetc.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff  12176196 Jul 16 13:59 Xf100.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff    309738 Jul 16 13:42 Xfenc.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff  16160286 Jul 16 13:39 Xfnts.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff     38160 Jul 16 13:50 Xfsrv.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff     33287 Jul 16 13:29 Xinstall.sh
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff    101185 Jul 16 13:32 Xlib.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff    607499 Jul 16 13:34 Xman.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff    588687 Jul 16 13:52 Xnest.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff   2962554 Jul 16 13:53 Xprog.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff    791789 Jul 16 13:53 Xprt.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff    695767 Jul 16 13:48 Xquartz.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff    694941 Jul 16 13:56 Xvfb.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff    656073 Jul 16 13:49 Xxserv.tgz
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff    389980 Jul 16 13:30 extract
-rw-r—r—  1 ray  staff      5130 Jul 16 14:01 typescript

sh Xinstall.sh

setenv PATH "${ PATH} :/usr/X11R6/bin"

setenv MANPATH "${ MANPATH} :/usr/X11R6/man"

At this point, you should be ready to run X11 applications. Remember that some versions of lynx insist on being helpful and unpacking gzipped files for you. If you encounter problems with the extraction of these .tgz files, you might need to find another way to download these files (such as by saving them, from within a Lynx or Explorer browser). You will probably want to add the setenvs for the PATH and MANPATH to your .cshrc file or to the system-wide configuration file.

If you've read the installation instructions from xfree86.org, you'll notice that we've installed a number of optional packages in addition to the base required install. These include:

Xvfb , the virtual framebuffer X server— This is an X server that can run without actually displaying anything. It was originally designed to allow testing, but it turns out to be useful for things such as running applications that need a running X server, but that don't actually display anything on it.
The 100dpi font set— This gives you more flexibility in choosing font sizes for display on your screen.
The X11 font server— This package allows you to provide a central font store to a number of running X servers, without needing to install the fonts on each of them.
The nested X11 server— This allows you to run an X11 server as a client, inside another X11 server. Also allows you to run additional X servers with different display properties for specialty applications, if the need arises.
The X11 headers and compilation support files— These allow you to compile X11 applications for your machine.

You can read more about these, as well as the capabilities of the rest of the X Window System, from the man pages on X11. To get an idea of what you might want to ask man about, look in the subdirectories of /usr/X11R6/man.

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