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Chapter 6. The X Window System

6.2. XFree86

Red Hat Linux 8.0 uses XFree86 version 4.2 as the base X Window System, which includes the

various necessary X libraries, fonts, utilities, documentation, and development tools.

Note

Red Hat no longer provides the older XFree86 version 3 server packages. Before upgrading

to the latest version of Red Hat Linux be sure that your video card is compatible with

XFree86 version 4 by checking the Red Hat Hardware Compatibility List located at this

URL:http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/.

The X server includes many cutting edge XFree86 technology enhancements such as hardware 3D

acceleration support, the XRender extension for anti aliased fonts, a modular driver based design,

support for modern video hardware and input devices, and many other features.

The Red Hat Linux installation program installs the base components of XFree86. You may choose to

install any optional XFree86 packages.

The X Window System resides primarily in two locations in the file system:

/usr/X11R6/

directory

A directory containing X client binaries (the

bin

directory), assorted header files (the

include

directory), libraries (the

lib

directory), and manual pages (the

man

directory), and various other

X documentation (the

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/

directory).

/etc/X11/

directory

The

/etc/X11/

directory hierarchy contains all of the configuration files for the various com 

ponents that make up the X Window System. This includes configuration files for the X server

itself, the X font server (

xfs

), the X Display Manager (

xdm

), and many other base components.

Display managers such as

gdm

and

kdm

, as well as various window managers, and other X tools

also store their configuration in this hierarchy.

XFree86 version 4 server is a single binary executable  

/usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86

. This server

dynamically loads various X server modules at runtime from the

/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/

direc 

tory including video drivers, font engine drivers, and other modules as needed. Some of these modules

are automatically loaded by the server, whereas some are optional features that you must specify in

the XFree86 server's configuration file,

/etc/X11/XF86Config

, before they can be used. The video

drivers are located in the

/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/

directory. The DRI hardware ac 

celerated 3D drivers are located in the

/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/dri/

directory.

6.2.1. XFree86 Server Configuration Files

The XFree86 server configuration files are stored in the

/etc/X11/

directory. The XFree86 version

4 server uses

/etc/X11/XF86Config

. When Red Hat Linux is installed, the configuration files for

XFree86 are created using information gathered during the installation process.

While there is rarely a need to manually edit these files, it is useful to know about the various sections

and optional parameters found in them.

Each section begins with a

Section " section name "

line and ends with an

EndSection

line.

<

=

Within each of the sections, you will find several lines containing an option name and at least one

option value, occasionally seen in quotes. The following list explores the most useful sections of an

XFree86 version 4 file and the roles of various popular settings.