Xorg7/Config

Configuring the X Window System

If you installed X Windows in the /usr/X11R7 prefix and you wish to comply with the FHS[1], it is necessary to create some symbolic links.

 ln -sv /usr/X11R7/bin /usr/bin/X11
 ln -sv /usr/X11R7/lib/X11 /usr/lib/X11
 ln -sv /usr/X11R7/include/X11 /usr/include/X11

Creating /etc/X11/xorg.conf

If you've followed the instructions in this Wiki, you installed the X Window System to the /usr/X11R7 prefix. As the root user,

• Add /usr/X11R7/lib and /usr/X11R7/lib64 to the /etc/ld.so.conf file and run ldconfig
• Add /usr/X11R7/bin to your PATH environment variable
• Add /usr/X11R7/lib/pkgconfig, and /usr/X11R7/lib64/pkgconfig to your PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable

Now, as the root user, create a basic X Window System Configuration file.

 cd ~ &&
 Xorg -configure

This will create a configuration file in root's home directory called xorg.conf.new. You may edit this file to provide specific settings for your system. Some things that are commonly edited.

• In Section "Files". Change the order of the font paths searched or remove some font directories completely (of course why did you install them if you weren't going to use them?).

• In Section "Module". If you are going to install nVidia drivers, remove the "Load dri" line.

• In Section "Device". You may want to set some of the options available for your selected video driver. If you have an nVidia chip, whether using the "nv" or the "nvidia" driver, you may need to edit this section to resolve Xorg bug 3009 https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3009 involving a missing mouse pointer. Add this line to Section "Device".

 Option      "HWCursor" "off"

• In Section "Screen". Add a DefaultDepth statement and in the SubSection for your default depth, add a modes line.

Test the system with

 X -config ~/xorg.conf.new

You will only see a 'grey' background with black X cursor, but this indicates the X server is working. Exit with Control+Alt+Backspace. If the system does not work, take a look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log to see what went wrong.

As the root user, create the configuration directory and move the configuration file to the new directory:

 install -v -m755 -D ~/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf