5 Configuring X for Your Hardware

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The XF86Config file tells the X server what kind of monitor, video card and mouse you have. You must create it to tell the server what specific hardware you have.

XFree86 3.2 introduces a new, user-friendly configuration utility called XF86Setup. It has to be run as root. Refer to its documentation for details about its use.

You'll need info on your hardware:

The recommended way to generate an XF86Config file is to use the XF86Setup utility. The xf86config text utility is still there for the (few) cases where XF86Setup can't be used. Also, there is a sample file installed as /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.eg, which can be used as a starting point.

For details about the XF86Config file format, refer to the XF86Config(5) manual page.

In order to protect your hardware from damage, the server will no longer read XF86Config files from a user's home directory, but requires that it be in /etc/XF86Config, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.hostname or /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.

If you have a Xconfig file for XFree86 2.x, use reconfig to translate part of it into the new format:

   # reconfig <Xconfig >XF86Config
and complete the rest with the help of XF86Setup.

Once you've set up a XF86Config file, you can fine tune the video modes with the xvidtune utility.

5.1 About mouse configuration

If your serial mouse does not work try using kermit or tip to connect to the mouse serial port and verify that it does indeed generate characters.

The NetBSD pms mouse driver handles PS/2 style mice as Busmouse. Specify the protocol busmouse in the mouse section of your XF86Config file if you're using a PS/2 mouse.

The OpenBSD pms driver provides both "raw" and "cooked" (translated) modes. "raw" mode does not do protocol translation, so XFree86 would use the PS/2 protocol for talking to the device in that mode. "cooked" mode is the old BusMouse translation. By default, the driver runs in "cooked" mode. It can be switched using ioctls or by opening the first minor device which is /dev/psm0.

5.2 Other input devices

XFree86 now support the dynamic loading of drivers for external input devices using the XInput extension. Currently supported devices are:

To use a specific device, add the line

load "module"
in the Module section of XF86Config, where module is the name of the .so file corresponding to your device. You also need to set up a XInput section in XF86Config. Refer to the XF86Config(5) man page for detailed configuration instructions.

You can then change the device used to drive the X pointer with the xsetpointer(1) command.

For joystick support, you'll need to install the joystick device driver in the kernel. It is included in NetBSD 1.2 and OpenBSD. See joy(4) for details.

5.3 Configuring PEX and XIE extensions

The PEX and XIE extensions are now supported as external modules. If you want to have access to these extensions, add the following lines to the Module section of XF86Config:

   load    "pex5.so"
   load    "xie.so"

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