[NBLUG/talk] Debian Xfree86

[Andrew]

Lincoln Peters wrote on Wed, 10 Mar 2004 20:44:43 -0800:

> On Wed, 2004-03-10 at 19:28, Meg Holden wrote:
> > Hey all,
> > 
> > I installed Debian on my dell laptop and can't get X windows
> > to start for the life of me.
[snip]
> Are you using Debian/stable?  I remember that configuring
> XFree86 on it was an absolute nightmare.  I found that
> Debian/testing and Debian/unstable were both far easier to
> figure out, and so I completely gave up on stable.

Unless you've got some kind of weird and unusual setup,
configuring X in Debian shouldn't be too difficult. The "Debian
Way" is to use dpkg-reconfigure. Many packages (not just X) can
be configured with this tool, and more packages are being
converted to use it all the time, so Debian users should learn
about it. Just run, as root, "dpkg-reconfigure <package_name>"
(without quotes or angle brackets, of course). You'll find
yourself in a text-based (actually, it's ncurses) configuration
program which will ask you some questions pertaining to the
package's configuration. When you hit the final "OK", it will
write the configuration file(s) for you. You can still fine-tune
the configs by hand later if you want, but dpkg-reconfigure takes
care of the bulk of it for you.

In your case, Meg, you'll want to run "dpkg-reconfigure
xserver-xfree86" (if you are using XFree86 version 4.x) or
"dpkg-reconfigure xserver-<your_graphics_chip>" (if you're still
using the 3.3.6 version of XFree86). Of course, all this assumes
that you have the necessary X packages installed already. Derf
does have a point.

Keep in mind, also, that LCDs have a "native resolution" -- one
resolution at which the image looks best. This is the resolution
you should set when you are configuring X.

> I can also assure you that, if you try to use the version of
> GNOME that shipped with Debian/stable, you're in for a big
> disappointment (I'm not sure about KDE).

To be sure, Gnome 1.4 (in Stable) ain't super spiffy, but it
doesn't suck *too* much. It gets the job done. And it gets it
done with less memory.

A.