XF86Config question

[David A. Bandel]

On Mon, 22 Apr 2002 07:53:15 -0400
begin  Joel Hammer <Joel at hammershome.com> spewed forth:

> My questions are at the end of this letter. Most of this letter can be
> skipped.
> 
> Well, finally the last windows computer in the house was taken down. It
> just kept crashing. Now, my wife uses a linux box and accesses my server
> via the miracle of X remote sessions. The server lets her run windows
> via win4lin. Works fine if you run windows in a window and not full
> screen (with full screen the thang crashes when certain pop up ads
> appear in aol and freezes the computer. A reboot takes about 90
> minutes.)

why 90 minutes?

> 
> The tuff part was configuring XF86Config, since the setup program in
> Redhat 7.1 decided to stop working and I had to configure XF86Config by
> hand(gasp).
> 
> It is really not bad except for:
> 
> All those comments. You can't see the information because of all the
> helpful advice cluttering up the file. All those comments can be
> removed, making the file seem much more manageable. However, the really
> confusing part is the redundancy. In the XF86Config file originally
> installed there were multiple monitor, video device and screen sections.
> How is a fellow supposed to know which of these many sections is the one
> used his hardware uses (my video card and monitor) and how does one know
> which screen section will be used?

Want to remove all the comments and blank lines?
grep -v ^# XF86Config | grep -v ^$ > XF86Config.new
(isn't regex wonderful?)
Now XF86Config.new will have only valid lines (but might be hard to read
for that reason).

screen section depends on the card chosen.  They wanted to cover all
bases, it's easier.

> 
> I solved my problem by getting rid of everything but one monitor
> section, one video device section, and two screens (they had different
> drivers and who knows which one I am using!). Then, I just kept trying
> to startx and used the error messages on the virtual console to tell me
> were I was going wrong. Trial and error. 
> 
> QUESTION 1:
> Could someone tell why XF86Config is so redundant and how the computer
> knows which sections to use?

each lower section depends on stuff above it.  The video card, though, is
the determining facter.

You'll find XFree86-4.2.0 really makes things easier.  With it, you can:
XFree86 -config
it will write a config file you can edit (and it won't have so much junk
in it).  Normally, you only have to adjust the mouse section. Then you
test with: XFree86 -xf86config ./XF86Config
(or some such, you'll see the specific command on-screen after you do the
config thing above)

> 
> QUESTION 2:
> Can someone tell me where the log file goes for XFree86 in Redhat 7.1?

unless RH built it differently (and they probably did),
/var/log/XFree86.0.log

Ciao,

David A. Bandel
-- 
Focus on the dream, not the competition.
		-- Nemesis Racing Team motto