It's quite likely that you obtained XFree86 as part of a Linux distribution, in which case downloading the software separately is not necessary. In that case you can skip this section.
The Linux binary distribution of XFree86 can be found on a number of FTP sites. On the XFree86 site it's at ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/current/binaries/Linux (As of the time of this writing, the current version is 3.2; newer versions are released periodically).
On sunsite.unc.edu, it will be found in the directory
/pub/Linux/X11.
If you are downloading XFree86 directly, this table lists the files in the XFree86-3.2 distribution.
One of the following servers is required:
Server for 8514-based boards.
Server for AGX-based boards.
Server for the Number Nine Imagine 128.
Server for Mach32-based boards.
Server for Mach64-based boards.
Server for Mach8-based boards.
Server for monochrome video modes.
Server for P9000-based boards.
Server for S3-based boards.
Server for the S3 ViRGE and ViRGE/VX (considered beta)
Server for Super VGA-based boards.
Server for ET4000/W32-based boards.
All of the following files are required:
Pre-installation script
Post-installation script
The rest of the X11R6 binaries.
Config files for xdm, xinit and fs.
Documentation and manpages.
75dpi, misc and PEX fonts
Shared X libraries and support files.
XF86Setup utility
Server for VGA/EGA-based boards.
The following files are optional:
100dpi fonts
Cyrillic fonts
Other fonts (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Hebrew)
Scalable fonts (Speedo and Type1)
Font server and config files
X header files, config files and compile-time libs
X server LinkKit
PC98 X server LinkKit
Nested X server
Virtual framebuffer X server
PostScript version of the documentation
HTML version of the documentation
The XFree86 directory should contain release notes for the current
version in RELNOTES. Consult those for installation details
All that is required to install XFree86 is to obtain the above files,
create the directory /usr/X11R6 (as root), and unpack the
files from /usr/X11R6 with a command such as:
gzip -dc X32bin.tgz | tar xfB -
/usr/X11R6,
so it's important to unpack the files there.
You need to make sure that /usr/X11R6/bin is on your path.
This can be done by editing your system default /etc/profile
or /etc/csh.login (based on the shell that you, or other
users on your system, use). Or you can simply add the directory
to your personal path by modifying /etc/.bashrc or
/etc/.cshrc, based on your shell.
You also need to make sure that /usr/X11R6/lib can be located by
ld.so, the runtime linker. To do this, add the line
/usr/X11R6/lib
/etc/ld.so.conf, and run /sbin/ldconfig, as
root.
Note: I found that, after installing all of the following parts:
X32Ma64.tar X32cfg.tar X32fnts.tar X32html.tar X32prog.tar X32VG16.tar X32doc.tar X32fscl.tar X32lib.tar X32set.tar X32bin.tar X32f100.tar X32fsrv.tar X32man.tar
that the Xpm support wasn't included in any of them (this is a problem because the X server itself requires Xpm, at lease in my configuration; your mileage may vary). I haad to copy the Xpm libraries from my old X distribution. So the packaging isn't perfect yet.