Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

Red Hat Linux 7 Unleashed

By William Ball

New Features of XFree86 4.0.1

The previous (now legacy) version of XFree86 for Intel-based PCs, 3.3.6, supported 550 graphics cards and chipsets using 14 different X11 servers. The new version, 4.0.1, supports nearly as many cards and more than 30 families of graphics chipsets using only one server! XFree86 has been redesigned to use loadable modules and drivers to provide support for specific cards, rather than use a monolithic, single server for a family or type of graphics chipset. This reduces maintenance, the distribution size, allows programmers to focus on module development, and provides a mechanism for rapid support of new graphics chipsets by manufacturers with the release of binary-only modules.

Along with the new architecture, XFree86 is now based on X11R6.4, the latest version of X11 from X.Org. Some of the improvements include multi-head displays (XINERAMA), simpler resource configuration, Display Power Management Signal (DPMS) for energy-saving monitors, reduced memory requirements, and additional Application Programming Interfaces (APIs, or functions).

This new release of XFree86 also provides new configuration utilities, such as the xf86cfg client, and also offers built-in configuration facilities in the main server, the XFree86 client! Newer graphics cards are now supported, and although most older cards are still supported, not all legacy drivers have been ported to the new system. Also new with this release is code to enable Direct Rendering Infrastructure, or DRI support for 3D graphics.

Font support has also been improved. The new server architecture now supports Internationalization (ISO fonts), along with TrueType and Type 1 fonts, through the use of the loadable modules freetype and xtt (see the description of the "Modules" section of XF86Config later in this chapter).

XFree86 is normally installed on your system during installation, although this is optional, depending on the type of install selected for your computer. After installation, you'll find the majority of components under the /usr/X11R6/ directory. Listing, 4.1 shows an abbreviated directory tree of the new software (not all the directories are shown).

Example 4.1. XFree86 4.0.1 Directory Tree 

X11R6
|-- bin
|-- doc
|-- include
|-- lib
|   |-- X11
|   |   |-- doc
|   |   |-- fonts
|   |-- modules
|   |   |-- codeconv
|   |   |-- dri
|   |   |-- drivers
|   |   |   `-- linux
|   |   |-- extensions
|   |   |-- fonts
|   |   |-- input
|   |   `-- linux
|-- man
|   |-- man1
|   |-- man3
|   |-- man4
|   |-- man5
|   |-- man6
|   `-- man7
`-- share

Note the /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers directory in Listing 4.1. This is the location for the new loadable modules used with XFree86. You'll also find various modules under the input directory to support devices such as touchpads and drawing tablets. Other directories under the /usr/X11R6 tree include

/usr/X11R6/bin Where most (but not all) X11 clients are stored
/usr/X11R6/include Programming header files and directories of bitmaps and pixmaps
/usr/X11R6/include/doc Documentation and release notes
/usr/X11R6/lib X11 software libraries needed by X clients and programmers
/usr/X11R6/man X manual pages

If you installed and configured X11 when you first installed Red Hat Linux, you'll find that most of the X Window System resides under the /usr/X11R6 directory (although a number of GNOME and KDE clients will be found under /usr/bin).

If you have an older version of X11 installed, you can use Red Hat's rpm command to upgrade X. First, you'll need to remove your existing XFree86 installation. You should first find all your XFree86 package names. You can do this easily by using rpm command's query option and the fgrep command like this (your output may look different):

				
   # rpm -qa | fgrep XFree

XFree86-libs-4.0.1-1
XFree86-devel-4.0.1-1
XFree86-ISO8859-2-75dpi-fonts-4.0.1-1
XFree86-ISO8859-7-75dpi-fonts-1.0-7
XFree86-ISO8859-9-75dpi-fonts-2.1.2-13
XFree86-75dpi-fonts-4.0.1-1
XFree86-tools-4.0.1-1
XFree86-xdm-4.0.1-1
XFree86-100dpi-fonts-4.0.1-1
XFree86-ISO8859-2-1.0-12
XFree86-ISO8859-2-Type1-fonts-1.0-12
XFree86-ISO8859-7-1.0-7
XFree86-ISO8859-7-Type1-fonts-1.0-7
XFree86-ISO8859-9-2.1.2-13
XFree86-VGA16-3.3.6-33
XFree86-doc-4.0.1-1
XFree86-xfs-4.0.1-1
XFree86-4.0.1-1
XFree86-twm-4.0.1-1
XFree86-ISO8859-2-100dpi-fonts-1.0-12
XFree86-ISO8859-7-100dpi-fonts-1.0-7
XFree86-ISO8859-9-100dpi-fonts-2.1.2-13
XFree86-cyrillic-fonts-4.0.1-1

You can then erase various packages at a time by using the rpm command and its -e or erase option, along with a wildcard .rpm package name, like this: 

				
   # rpm -e XFree*ISO*

Next , insert the first Red Hat CD-ROM and make it available on your system using the mount command (it may also be mounted automatically): 

				
   # mount /mnt/cdrom

Since Red Hat Linux provides an entry in the filesystem table /etc/fstab, you could also mount the CD-ROM under the /mnt/cdrom directory by specifying your system's CD-ROM device, /dev/cdrom (a symbolic link to your CD-ROM's device), like this:

				
   # mount /dev/cdrom

From the command line, use rpm like this: 

				
   # rpm -Uvh /mnt/cdrom/RedHat/RPMS/XFree86*rpm

If you did not install X, you can use Red Hat's rpm command to install the software. However, you should know that the process will involve solving many .rpm package dependencies!

NOTE

You can also try using the gnorpm command to install the software. Select Preferences and then set the interface preference RPM path to the RPMS directory on your mounted Red Hat CD-ROM. KDE also includes a similar package manager client named kpackage.

Depending on the software installed, these directories can take up 40–400MB of hard drive space, and even more if you install a lot of X window managers, programming libraries, or other software. (A typical full installation of XFree86 is about 80-123MB, depending on the number of extra clients.)

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