100

Chapter 6. The X Window System

InputDevice

Configures an input device such as a mouse or keyboard used to submit information into the sys 

tem using the XFree86 server. Most systems have at least two

InputDevice

sections, keyboard

and mouse. Each section includes these two lines:

  Driver

  Tells XFree86 the name of the driver to load to use the device.

  Identifier

  Sets the name of the device, usually the name of the device followed by a

number, starting with

0

for the first device. For example, the first keyboard

InputDevice

would have an

Identifier

of

Keyboard0

.

Most

InputDevice

sections contain lines assigning specific options to that device. Each of

these lines start with

Option

and contain the name of the option in quotes, followed by the

value to assign to that option. Mice usually receive options such as

Protocol

, such as

PS/2

,

and

Device

, which designates the mouse to use for this section. The

InputDevice

section is

well commented, allowing you to configure additional options for your particular devices by

uncommenting certain lines.

Module

Tells the XFree86 server which modules from the

/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/

directory to

load. Modules provide the XFree86 server with additional functionality.

Caution

You should not edit these values.

Monitor

Refers to the type of monitor used by the system. While one

Monitor

section is the minimum,

there may be several

Monitor

sections, one for each monitor in use with the machine.

Warning

Be careful when manually editing values in the options of the Monitor section. Inappropriate

values in this section could damage or destroy your monitor. Consult the documentation that

came with your monitor for the safe operating parameters available.

The following options are usually configured during installation or when using X Configuration

Tool:

  HorizSync

  Tells XFree86 the range of horizontal sync frequencies compatible with the

monitor in kHz. These values are used as a guide by the XFree86 server so that it will know

whether to use a particular

Modeline

entry's values with this monitor.

  Identifier

  Provides a unique name for this monitor, usually numbering each monitor

starting at

0

. The first monitor would be named

Monitor0

, the second

Monitor1

, and so on.

  Modeline

  Used to specify the video modes used by the monitor at particular resolutions,

with certain horizontal sync and vertical refresh resolutions.

Modeline

entries are usually

preceded by a comment that explains what the mode line specifies.

If your configuration file does not include comments for the various mode lines, you can scan

over the values (also called mode descriptions) to uncover what the mode line is attempting to

do. See the

XF86Config

man page for detailed explanations of each mode description section.

  ModelName

  An optional parameter that displays the model name of the monitor.

  VendorName

  An optional parameter that displays the vendor that manufactured the moni 

tor.