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Revision 1.147: download - view: text, annotated - select for diffs
Thu Aug 26 20:19:07 2004 UTC (5 years, 2 months ago) by blackend
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Revision 1.147: download - view: text, annotated - select for diffs
Thu Aug 26 20:19:07 2004 UTC (5 years, 2 months ago) by blackend
Branches: MAIN
CVS tags: HEAD
Update the whole chapter for Xorg. The chapter covers the installation and configuration of both Xorg and XFree86 4.X with emphasis on Xorg. A "Moving from XFree86 to Xorg" section was also added, and some sentences reworded. (I may also add a NVIDIA drivers section soon) A great thanks to Ken Tom <subd@mui.net> for his help!
<!--
The FreeBSD Documentation Project
$FreeBSD: doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11/chapter.sgml,v 1.147 2004/08/26 20:19:07 blackend Exp $
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<chapter id="x11">
<chapterinfo>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Ken</firstname>
<surname>Tom</surname>
<contrib>Updated for X.Org's X11 server by </contrib>
</author>
<author>
<firstname>Marc</firstname>
<surname>Fonvieille</surname>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</chapterinfo>
<title>The X Window System</title>
<sect1 id="x11-synopsis">
<title>Synopsis</title>
<para>FreeBSD uses X11 to provide users with
a powerful graphical user interface. X11
is an open-source implementation of the X Window System that
includes both <application>&xorg;</application> and
<application>&xfree86;</application>. &os; versions up to and
including &os; 4.10-RELEASE and &os; 5.2.1-RELEASE
will find the default installation to be
<application>&xfree86;</application>, the X11 server released by
The &xfree86; Project, Inc. As of &os; 5.3-RELEASE, the
default and official flavor of X11 was changed to
<application>&xorg;</application>, the X11 server developed by
the X.Org Foundation.</para>
<para>This chapter will cover the installation and configuration
of X11 with emphasis on
<application>&xorg;</application>.</para>
<para>For more information on the video hardware that X11
supports, check either the <ulink
url="http://www.x.org/">&xorg;</ulink> or <ulink
url="http://www.XFree86.org/">&xfree86;</ulink> web
sites.</para>
<para>After reading this chapter, you will know:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>The various components of the X Window System, and how they
interoperate.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>How to install and configure X11.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>How to install and use different window managers.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>How to use &truetype; fonts in X11.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>How to set up your system for graphical logins
(<application>XDM</application>).</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>Before reading this chapter, you should:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Know how to install additional third-party
software (<xref linkend="ports">).</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<note>
<para>This chapter covers the installation and the configuration
of both <application>&xorg;</application> and
<application>&xfree86;</application> X11 servers. For the most
part, configuration files, commands and syntaxes are identical.
In the case where there are differences, both
<application>&xorg;</application> and
<application>&xfree86;</application> syntaxes will be
shown.</para>
</note>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x-understanding">
<title>Understanding X</title>
<para>Using X for the first time can be somewhat of a shock to someone
familiar with other graphical environments, such as µsoft.windows; or
&macos;.</para>
<para>While it is not necessary to understand all of the details of various
X components and how they interact; some basic knowledge makes
it possible to take advantage of X's strengths.</para>
<sect2>
<title>Why X?</title>
<para>X is not the first window system written for &unix;, but it is the
most popularof them. X's original development team had worked on another
window system prior to writing X. That system's name was
<quote>W</quote> (for <quote>Window</quote>). X was just the next
letter in the Roman alphabet.</para>
<para>X can be called <quote>X</quote>, <quote>X Window System</quote>,
<quote>X11</quote>, and a number of other terms. You may find
that using the term <quote>X Windows</quote> to describe X11
can be offensive to some people; for a bit more insight on
this, see &man.X.7;.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>The X Client/Server Model</title>
<para>X was designed from the beginning to be network-centric, and
adopts a <quote>client-server</quote> model.</para>
<para>In the X model, the
<quote>X server</quote> runs on the computer that has the keyboard,
monitor, and mouse attached. The server's responsibility includes tasks such as managing
the display, handling input from the keyboard and mouse, and so on.
Each X application (such as <application>XTerm</application>, or
<application>&netscape;</application>) is a <quote>client</quote>. A
client sends messages to the server such as <quote>Please draw a
window at these coordinates</quote>, and the server sends back
messages such as <quote>The user just clicked on the OK
button</quote>.</para>
<para>In a home or small
office environment, the X server and the X clients will most likely running on
the same computer. However, it is perfectly possible to run the X
server on a less powerful desktop computer, and run X applications
(the clients) on, say, the powerful and expensive machine that serves
the office. In this scenario the communication between the X client
and server takes place over the network.</para>
<para>This confuses some people, because the X terminology is
exactly backward to what they expect. They expect the <quote>X
server</quote> to be the big powerful machine down the hall, and
the <quote>X client</quote> to be the machine on their desk.</para>
<para>It is important to remember that the X server is the machine with the monitor and
keyboard, and the X clients are the programs that display the
windows.</para>
<para>There is nothing in the protocol that forces the client and
server machines to be running the same operating system, or even to
be running on the same type of computer. It is certainly possible to
run an X server on µsoft.windows; or Apple's &macos;, and there are
various free and commercial applications available that do exactly
that.</para>
<para>Starting with &os; 5.3-RELEASE, the X server that
installs with &os; is <application>&xorg;</application>,
and is available for free, under a
license very similar to the FreeBSD license. Commercial X servers for
FreeBSD are also available.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>The Window Manager</title>
<para>The X design philosophy is much like the &unix; design philosophy,
<quote>tools, not policy</quote>. This means that X does not try to
dictate how a task is to be accomplished. Instead, tools are provided
to the user, and it is the user's responsibility to decide how to use
those tools.</para>
<para>This philosophy extends to X not dictating what windows should
look like on screen, how to move them around with the mouse, what
keystrokes should be used to move between windows (i.e.,
<keycombo action="simul">
<keycap>Alt</keycap>
<keycap>Tab</keycap>
</keycombo>, in the case of µsoft.windows;), what the title bars
on each window should look like, whether or not they have close
buttons on them, and so on.</para>
<para>Instead, X delegates this responsibility to an application called
a <quote>Window Manager</quote>. There are dozens of window
managers available for X: <application>AfterStep</application>,
<application>Blackbox</application>, <application>ctwm</application>,
<application>Enlightenment</application>,
<application>fvwm</application>, <application>Sawfish</application>,
<application>twm</application>,
<application>Window Maker</application>, and more. Each of these
window managers provides a different look and feel; some of them
support <quote>virtual desktops</quote>; some of them allow customized
keystrokes to manage the desktop; some have a <quote>Start</quote>
button or similar device; some are <quote>themeable</quote>, allowing
a complete change of look-and-feel by applying a new theme. These
window managers, and many more, are available in the
<filename>x11-wm</filename> category of the Ports Collection.</para>
<para>In addition, the <application>KDE</application> and
<application>GNOME</application> desktop environments both have their
own window managers which integrate with the desktop.</para>
<para>Each window manager also has a different configuration mechanism;
some expect configuration file written by hand, others feature
GUI tools for most of the configuration tasks; at least one
(<application>Sawfish</application>) has a configuration file written
in a dialect of the Lisp language.</para>
<note>
<title>Focus Policy</title>
<para>Another feature the window manager is responsible for is the
mouse <quote>focus policy</quote>. Every windowing system
needs some means of choosing a window to be actively receiving
keystrokes, and should visibly indicate which window is active as
well.</para>
<para>A familiar focus policy is called <quote>click-to-focus</quote>.
This is the model utilized by µsoft.windows;, in which a window
becomes active upon receiving a mouse click.</para>
<para>X does not support any particular focus policy. Instead, the
window manager controls which window has the focus at any one time.
Different window managers will support different focus methods. All
of them support click to focus, and the majority of them support
several others.</para>
<para>The most popular focus policies are:</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>focus-follows-mouse</term>
<listitem>
<para>The window that is under the mouse pointer is the
window that has the focus. This may not necessarily be
the window that is on top of all the other windows.
The focus is changed by pointing at another window, there
is no need to click in it as well.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>sloppy-focus</term>
<listitem>
<para>This policy is a small extension to focus-follows-mouse.
With focus-follows-mouse, if the mouse is moved over the
root window (or background) then no window has the focus,
and keystrokes are simply lost. With sloppy-focus, focus is
only changed when the cursor enters a new window, and not
when exiting the current window.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>click-to-focus</term>
<listitem>
<para>The active window is selected by mouse click. The
window may then be <quote>raised</quote>, and appear in
front of all other windows. All keystrokes will now be
directed to this window, even if the cursor is moved to
another window.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>Many window managers support other policies, as well as
variations on these. Be sure to consult the documentation for
the window manager itself.</para>
</note>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Widgets</title>
<para>The X approach of providing tools and not policy extends to the
widgets seen on screen in each application.</para>
<para><quote>Widget</quote> is a term for all the items in the user
interface that can be clicked or manipulated in some way; buttons,
check boxes, radio buttons, icons, lists, and so on. µsoft.windows;
calls these <quote>controls</quote>.</para>
<para>µsoft.windows; and Apple's &macos; both have a very rigid widget
policy. Application developers are supposed to ensure that their
applications share a common look and feel. With X, it was not
considered sensible to mandate a particular graphical style, or set
of widgets to adhere to.</para>
<para>As a result, do not expect X applications to have a common
look and feel. There are several popular widget sets and
variations, including the original Athena widget set from MIT,
<application>&motif;</application> (on which the widget set in
µsoft.windows; was modeled, all bevelled edges and three shades of
grey), <application>OpenLook</application>, and others.</para>
<para>Most newer X applications today will use a modern-looking widget
set, either Qt, used by <application>KDE</application>, or
GTK+, used by the
<application>GNOME</application>
project. In this respect, there is some convergence in
look-and-feel of the &unix; desktop, which certainly makes things
easier for the novice user.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x-install">
<title>Installing X11</title>
<para><application>&xorg;</application> or
<application>&xfree86;</application>may be installed on &os;.
Beginning with &os; 5.3-RELEASE,
<application>&xorg;</application> is the default X11
implementation for &os;. <application>&xorg;</application> is
the X11 server of the X11R6.7 distribution released by the X.Org
Foundation. X11R6.7 is based on the code of
<application>&xfree86 4.4RC2</application> and X11R6.6.
The X.Org Foundation released X11R6.7 in April 2004.</para>
<para>The FreeBSD setup program (<application>sysinstall</application>) offers users the opportunity to install
and configure X11 during installation
(covered in <xref linkend="x-server">).</para>
<para>To build and install <application>&xorg;</application> from the
ports collection:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>To build and install <application>&xfree86;</application>
from the ports collection:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/ports/x11/XFree86-4</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>Alternatively, X11
can be installed directly from packages.
Binary packages to use with &man.pkg.add.1; tool are also available for
X11. When the remote fetching
feature of &man.pkg.add.1; is used, the version number of the
package must be removed. &man.pkg.add.1; will automatically fetch
the latest version of the application.</para>
<para>So to fetch and install the package of
<application>&xorg;</application>, simply type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_add -r xorg</userinput></screen>
<para>The <application>&xfree86; 4.X</application> package can be
installed by typing:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg-add -r XFree86</userinput></screen>
<note><para>The examples above will install the complete
X11 distribution including the
servers, clients, fonts etc. Separate packages and ports of X11
are also
available.</para></note>
<para>The rest of this chapter will explain how to configure
X11, and how to set up a productive desktop
environment.</para>
<sect2 id="x-to-xorg">
<title>Moving from <application>&xfree86;</application> to
<application>&xorg;</application></title>
<para>As with any port, you should check the
<filename>/usr/ports/UPDATING</filename> file for changes.
Included in this file are instructions for converting your
system from <application>&xfree86;</application> to
<application>&xorg;</application>.</para>
<para>Use <application>CVSup</application> to update your ports
tree prior to attempting any conversion. You will also need
to install <filename
role="package">sysutils/portupgrade</filename> prior to
converting your X11 installation.</para>
<para>In your <filename>/etc/make.conf</filename> you will need
to add the variable <literal>X_WINDOW_SYSTEM=xorg</literal>.
This ensures that your system knows which X11 is being used.
The older <literal>XFREE86_VERSION</literal> variable has been
deprecated and has been replaced with the
<literal>X_WINDOW_SYSTEM</literal> variable.</para>
<para>Then, use the following commands:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_delete -f /var/db/pkg/imake-4* /var/db/pkg/XFree86-*</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make install clean</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>pkgdb -F</userinput></screen>
<para>The &man.pkgdb.1; command is part of the
<application>portupgrade</application> software and will
update various packages dependencies.</para>
<note>
<para>To build <application>&xorg;</application> in its
entirety, be sure to have at least 2GB of free space
available.</para>
</note>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x-config">
<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Christopher</firstname>
<surname>Shumway</surname>
<contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
<!-- July 2001 -->
</author>
</authorgroup>
</sect1info>
<title>X11 Configuration</title>
<indexterm><primary>&xfree86; 4.X</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>&xfree86;</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>&xorg;</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>X11</primary></indexterm>
<sect2>
<title>Before Starting</title>
<para>Before configuration of X11
the following information about the target system is needed:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>Monitor specifications</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Video Adapter chipset</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>Video Adapter memory</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<indexterm><primary>horizontal scan rate</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>vertical scan rate</primary></indexterm>
<para>The specifications for the monitor are used by
X11 to determine the resolution and
refresh rate to run at. These specifications can usually be
obtained from the documentation that came with the monitor or from
the manufacturer's website. There are two ranges of numbers that
are needed, the horizontal scan rate and the vertical synchronization
rate.</para>
<para>The video adapter's chipset defines what driver module
X11 uses to talk to the graphics
hardware. With most chipsets, this can be automatically
determined, but it is still useful to know in case the automatic
detection does not work correctly.</para>
<para>Video memory on the graphic adapter determines the
resolution and color depth which the system can run at. This is
important to know so the user knows the limitations of the
system.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Configuring X11</title>
<para>Configuration of X11 is
a multi-step process. The first step is to build an initial
configuration file.
As the super user, simply
run:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>Xorg -configure</userinput></screen>
<para>In the case of <application>&xfree86;</application>
type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>XFree86 -configure</userinput></screen>
<para>This will generate an
X11 configuration skeleton file in the
<filename>/root</filename> directory called
<filename>xorg.conf.new</filename> (whether you &man.su.1; or
do a direct login affects the inherited supervisor
<envar>$HOME</envar> directory variable).
For <application>&xfree86;</application>, this configuration
file is called <filename>XF86Config.new</filename>. The
X11 program will attempt to probe
the graphics hardware on the system and write a
configuration file to load the proper drivers for the detected
hardware on the target system.</para>
<para>The next step is to test the existing
configuration to verify that <application>&xorg;</application>
can work with the graphics
hardware on the target system. To perform this task,
type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>Xorg -config xorg.conf.new</userinput></screen>
<para><application>&xfree86;</application> users will type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>XFree86 -xf86config XF86Config.new</userinput></screen>
<para>If a black and grey grid and an X mouse cursor appears,
the configuration was successful. To exit the test, just press
<keycombo action="simul">
<keycap>Ctrl</keycap>
<keycap>Alt</keycap>
<keycap>Backspace</keycap>
</keycombo> simultaneously.</para>
<note><para>If the mouse does not work, you will need to first
configure it before proceeding. See <xref linkend="mouse">
in the &os; install chapter.</para></note>
<indexterm><primary>X11 Tuning</primary></indexterm>
<para>Next, tune the <filename>xorg.conf.new</filename> (or <filename>XF86Config.new</filename> if you are running <application>&xfree86</application>)
configuration file to taste. Open the file in a text editor such
as &man.emacs.1; or &man.ee.1;. First, add the
frequencies for the target system's monitor. These are usually
expressed as a horizontal and vertical synchronization rate. These
values are added to the <filename>xorg.conf.new</filename> file
under the <literal>"Monitor"</literal> section:</para>
<programlisting>Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Monitor Model"
HorizSync 30-107
VertRefresh 48-120
EndSection</programlisting>
<para>The <literal>HorizSync</literal> and
<literal>VertRefresh</literal> keywords may be missing in the
configuration file. If they do not, they need to be added, with
the correct horizontal synchronization rate placed after the
<literal>HorizSync</literal> keyword and the vertical
synchronization rate after the <literal>VertRefresh</literal>
keyword. In the example above the target monitor's rates were
entered.</para>
<para>X allows DPMS (Energy Star) features to be used with capable
monitors. The &man.xset.1; program controls the time-outs and can force
standby, suspend, or off modes. If you wish to enable DPMS features
for your monitor, you must add the following line to the monitor
section:</para>
<programlisting>
Option "DPMS"</programlisting>
<indexterm>
<primary><filename>xorg.conf</filename></primary>
</indexterm>
<indexterm>
<primary><filename>XF86Config</filename></primary>
</indexterm>
<para>While the <filename>xorg.conf.new</filename> (or <filename>XF86Config.new</filename>)
configuration file is still open in an editor, select
the default resolution and color depth desired. This is
defined in the <literal>"Screen"</literal> section:</para>
<programlisting>Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection</programlisting>
<para>The <literal>DefaultDepth</literal> keyword describes
the color depth to run at by default. This can be overridden
with the <option>-depth</option> command line switch to
&man.Xorg.1; (or &man.XFree86.1;).
The <literal>Modes</literal> keyword
describes the resolution to run at for the given color depth.
Note that only VESA standard modes are supported as defined by
the target system's graphics hardware.
In the example above, the default color depth is twenty-four
bits per pixel. At this color depth, the accepted resolution is
1024 by 768
pixels.</para>
<para>Finally, write the configuration file and test it using
the test mode given above.</para>
<note>
<para>One of the tools available to assist you during
troubleshooting process are the X11 log files, which contain
information on each device that the X11 server attaches to.
<application>&xorg;</application> log files are in the format
of <filename>/var/log/Xorg.0.log</filename>
(<application>&xfree86;</application> log files follow the
format of <filename>XFree86.0.log</filename>). The exact name
of the log can vary from <filename>Xorg.0.log</filename> to
<filename>Xorg.8.log</filename> and so forth.</para>
</note>
<para>If all is well, the configuration
file needs to be installed in a common location where
&man.Xorg.1; (or &man.XFree86.1;)
can find it.
This is typically <filename>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</filename> or
<filename>/usr/X11R6/etc/X11/xorg.conf</filename> (for
<application>&xfree86;</application> it is called
<filename>/etc/X11/XF86Config</filename> or
<filename>/usr/X11R6/etc/X11/XF86Config</filename>).</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf</userinput></screen>
<para>For <application>&xfree86;</application>:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cp XF86Config.new /etc/X11/XF86Config</userinput></screen>
<para>The X11 configuration process is now
complete. In order to start
<application>&xfree86; 4.X</application> with &man.startx.1;,
install the <filename role="package">x11/wrapper</filename> port.
<application>&xorg;</application> already includes the wrapper
code and does not require the installation of the wrapper port.
The X11 server may also be started with the use of
&man.xdm.1;.</para>
<note><para>There is also a graphical configuration tool,
&man.xorgcfg.1; (&man.xf86cfg.1; for <application>&xfree86;</application>), that comes with the
X11 distribution. It
allows to interactively define your configuration by choosing
the appropriate drivers and settings. This program can be invoked from the console, by typing the command <command>xorgcfg -textmode</command>. For more details,
refer to the &man.xorgcfg.1; and &man.xf86cfg.1; manual pages.</para></note>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Advanced Configuration Topics</title>
<sect3>
<title>Configuration with &intel; i810 Graphics Chipsets</title>
<indexterm><primary>Intel i810 graphic chipset</primary></indexterm>
<para>Configuration with &intel; i810 integrated chipsets
requires the <devicename>agpgart</devicename>
AGP programming interface for X11
to drive the card. The &man.agp.4; driver is in the
<filename>GENERIC</filename> kernel since releases
4.8-RELEASE and 5.0-RELEASE. On prior releases, you will
have to add the following line:</para>
<programlisting>device agp</programlisting>
<para>in your kernel configuration file and rebuild a new
kernel. Instead, you may want to load
the <filename>agp.ko</filename> kernel module
automatically with the &man.loader.8; at boot time.
For that, simply add this line to
<filename>/boot/loader.conf</filename>:</para>
<programlisting>agp_load="YES"</programlisting>
<para>Next, if you are running FreeBSD 4.X or earlier, a
device node needs to be created for the
programming interface. To create the AGP device node, run
&man.MAKEDEV.8; in the <filename>/dev</filename>
directory:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /dev</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>sh MAKEDEV agpgart</userinput></screen>
<note>
<para>FreeBSD 5.X or later will use &man.devfs.5; to allocate
device nodes transparently, therefore the
&man.MAKEDEV.8; step is not required.</para>
</note>
<para>This will allow configuration of the hardware as any other
graphics board. Note on systems without the &man.agp.4;
driver compiled in the kernel, trying to load the module
with &man.kldload.8; will not work. This driver has to be
in the kernel at boot time through being compiled in or
using <filename>/boot/loader.conf</filename>.</para>
<para>If you are using <application>&xfree86; 4.1.0</application> (or
later) and messages about unresolved symbols like
<literal>fbPictureInit</literal> appear, try adding the
following line after <literal>Driver "i810"</literal> in the
X11 configuration file:</para>
<programlisting>Option "NoDDC"</programlisting>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x-fonts">
<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Murray</firstname>
<surname>Stokely</surname>
<contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</sect1info>
<title>Using Fonts in X11</title>
<sect2 id="type1">
<title>Type1 Fonts</title>
<para>The default fonts that ship with
X11 are less than ideal for typical
desktop publishing applications. Large presentation fonts show up
jagged and unprofessional looking, and small fonts in
<application>&netscape;</application> are almost completely unintelligible.
However, there are several free, high quality Type1 (&postscript;) fonts
available which can be readily used
with X11. For instance, the URW font collection
(<filename role="package">x11-fonts/urwfonts</filename>) includes
high quality versions of standard type1 fonts (<trademark class="registered">Times Roman</trademark>,
<trademark class="registered">Helvetica</trademark>, <trademark class="registered">Palatino</trademark> and others). The Freefonts collection
(<filename role="package">x11-fonts/freefonts</filename>) includes
many more fonts, but most of them are intended for use in
graphics software such as the <application>Gimp</application>, and are not
complete enough to serve as screen fonts. In addition,
X11 can be configured to use
&truetype; fonts with a minimum of effort. For more details on
this, see the &man.X.7; manual page or the
<link linkend="truetype">section on &truetype; fonts</link>.</para>
<para>To install the above Type1 font collections from the ports
collection, run the following commands:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/ports/x11-fonts/urwfonts</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>And likewise with the freefont or other collections. To have the X
server detect these fonts, add an appropriate line to the
X server configuration file in <filename>/etc/X11/</filename>
(<filename>xorg.conf</filename> for
<application>&xorg;</application> and
<filename>XF86Config</filename> for
<application>&xfree86;</application>), which reads:</para>
<programlisting>FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW/"</programlisting>
<para>Alternatively, at the command line in the X session
run:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW</userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput>xset fp rehash</userinput></screen>
<para>This will work but will be lost when the X session is closed,
unless it is added to the startup file (<filename>~/.xinitrc</filename>
for a normal <command>startx</command> session,
or <filename>~/.xsession</filename> when logging in through a
graphical login manager like <application>XDM</application>).
A third way is to use the new
<filename>/usr/X11R6/etc/fonts/local.conf</filename> file: see the
section on <link linkend="antialias">anti-aliasing</link>.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="truetype">
<title>&truetype; Fonts</title>
<indexterm><primary>TrueType Fonts</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>fonts</primary>
<secondary>TrueType</secondary>
</indexterm>
<para>Both <application>&xfree86; 4.X</application> and <application>&xorg;</application> have built in support
for rendering &truetype; fonts. There are two different modules
that can enable this functionality. The freetype module is used
in this example because it is more consistent with the other font
rendering back-ends. To enable the freetype module just add the
following line to the <literal>"Module"</literal> section of the
<filename>/etc/X11/xorg.conf</filename> or
<filename>/etc/X11/XF86Config</filename> file.</para>
<programlisting>Load "freetype"</programlisting>
<para>For <application>&xfree86; 3.3.X</application>, a separate
&truetype; font server is needed.
<application>Xfstt</application> is commonly used for
this purpose. To install <application>Xfstt</application>,
simply install the port
<filename role="package">x11-servers/Xfstt</filename>.</para>
<para>Now make a directory for the &truetype; fonts (for example,
<filename>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType</filename>)
and copy all of the &truetype; fonts into this directory. Keep in
mind that &truetype; fonts cannot be directly taken from a
&macintosh;; they must be in &unix;/&ms-dos;/&windows; format for use by
X11. Once the files have been
copied into this directory, use
<application>ttmkfdir</application> to create a
<filename>fonts.dir</filename> file, so that the X font renderer
knows that these new files have been installed.
<command>ttmkfdir</command> is available from the FreeBSD
Ports Collection as
<filename role="package">x11-fonts/ttmkfdir</filename>.</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>ttmkfdir > fonts.dir</userinput></screen>
<para>Now add the &truetype; directory to the font
path. This is just the same as described above for <link
linkend="type1">Type1</link> fonts, that is, use</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType</userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput>xset fp rehash</userinput></screen>
<para>or add a <literal>FontPath</literal> line to the
<filename>xorg.conf</filename> (or <filename>XF86Config</filename>) file.</para>
<para>That's it. Now <application>&netscape;</application>,
<application>Gimp</application>,
<application>&staroffice;</application>, and all of the other X
applications should now recognize the installed &truetype;
fonts. Extremely small fonts (as with text in a high resolution
display on a web page) and extremely large fonts (within
<application>&staroffice;</application>) will look much better
now.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="antialias">
<sect2info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Joe Marcus</firstname>
<surname>Clarke</surname>
<contrib>Updated by </contrib>
<!-- May 2003 -->
</author>
</authorgroup>
</sect2info>
<title>Anti-Aliased Fonts</title>
<indexterm><primary>anti-aliased fonts</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>fonts</primary>
<secondary>anti-aliased</secondary></indexterm>
<para>Anti-aliasing has been available in X11 since
<application>&xfree86;</application> 4.0.2. However, font
configuration was cumbersome before the introduction of
<application>&xfree86;</application> 4.3.0.
Beginning with
<application>&xfree86;</application> 4.3.0, all fonts in X11
that are found
in <filename>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/</filename> and
<filename>~/.fonts/</filename> are automatically
made available for anti-aliasing to Xft-aware applications. Not
all applications are Xft-aware , but many have received Xft support.
Examples of Xft-aware applications include Qt 2.3 and higher (the
toolkit for the <application>KDE</application> desktop),
GTK+ 2.0 and higher (the toolkit for the
<application>GNOME</application> desktop), and
<application>Mozilla</application> 1.2 and higher.
</para>
<para>In order to control which fonts are anti-aliased, or to
configure anti-aliasing properties, create (or edit, if it
already exists) the file
<filename>/usr/X11R6/etc/fonts/local.conf</filename>. Several
advanced features of the Xft font system can be tuned using
this file; this section describes only some simple
possibilities. For more details, please see
&man.fonts-conf.5;.</para>
<indexterm><primary>XML</primary></indexterm>
<para>This file must be in XML format. Pay careful attention to
case, and make sure all tags are properly closed. The file
begins with the usual XML header followed by a DOCTYPE
definition, and then the <literal><fontconfig></literal> tag:</para>
<programlisting>
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
</programlisting>
<para>As previously stated, all fonts in
<filename>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/</filename> as well as
<filename>~/.fonts/</filename> are already made available to
Xft-aware applications. If you wish to add another directory
outside of these two directory trees, add a line similar to the
following to
<filename>/usr/X11R6/etc/fonts/local.conf</filename>:</para>
<programlisting><dir>/path/to/my/fonts</dir></programlisting>
<para>After adding new fonts, and especially new font directories,
you should run the following command to rebuild the font
caches:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>fc-cache -f</userinput></screen>
<para>Anti-aliasing makes borders slightly fuzzy, which makes very
small text more readable and removes <quote>staircases</quote> from
large text, but can cause eyestrain if applied to normal text. To
exclude font sizes smaller than 14 point from anti-aliasing, include
these lines:</para>
<programlisting> <match target="font">
<test name="size" compare="less">
<double>14</double>
</test>
<edit name="antialias" mode="assign">
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="font">
<test name="pixelsize" compare="less" qual="any">
<double>14</double>
</test>
<edit mode="assign" name="antialias">
<bool>false</bool>
</edit>
</match></programlisting>
<indexterm><primary>fonts</primary>
<secondary>spacing</secondary></indexterm>
<para>Spacing for some monospaced fonts may also be inappropriate
with anti-aliasing. This seems to be an issue with
<application>KDE</application>, in particular. One possible fix for
this is to force the spacing for such fonts to be 100. Add the
following lines:</para>
<programlisting> <match target="pattern" name="family">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>fixed</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>mono</string>
</edit>
</match>
<match target="pattern" name="family">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>console</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>mono</string>
</edit>
</match></programlisting>
<para>(this aliases the other common names for fixed fonts as
<literal>"mono"</literal>), and then add:</para>
<programlisting> <match target="pattern" name="family">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>mono</string>
</test>
<edit name="spacing" mode="assign">
<int>100</int>
</edit>
</match> </programlisting>
<para>Certain fonts, such as Helvetica, may have a problem when
anti-aliased. Usually this manifests itself as a font that
seems cut in half vertically. At worst, it may cause
applications such as <application>Mozilla</application> to
crash. To avoid this, consider adding the following to
<filename>local.conf</filename>:</para>
<programlisting> <match target="pattern" name="family">
<test qual="any" name="family">
<string>Helvetica</string>
</test>
<edit name="family" mode="assign">
<string>sans-serif</string>
</edit>
</match> </programlisting>
<para>Once you have finished editing
<filename>local.conf</filename> make sure you end the file
with the <literal></fontconfig></literal> tag. Not doing this will cause
your changes to be ignored.</para>
<para>The default font set that comes with
X11 is not very
desirable when it comes to anti-aliasing. A much better
set of default fonts can be found in the
<filename role="package">x11-fonts/bitstream-vera</filename>
port. This port will install a
<filename>/usr/X11R6/etc/fonts/local.conf</filename> file
if one does not exist already. If the file does exist,
the port will create a <filename>/usr/X11R6/etc/fonts/local.conf-vera
</filename> file. Merge the contents of this file into
<filename>/usr/X11R6/etc/fonts/local.conf</filename>, and the
Bitstream fonts will automatically replace the default
X11 Serif, Sans Serif, and Monospaced
fonts.</para>
<para>Finally, users can add their own settings via their personal
<filename>.fonts.conf</filename> files. To do this, each user should
simply create a <filename>~/.fonts.conf</filename>. This file must
also be in XML format.</para>
<indexterm><primary>LCD screen</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>Fonts</primary>
<secondary>LCD screen</secondary></indexterm>
<para>One last point: with an LCD screen, sub-pixel sampling may be
desired. This basically treats the (horizontally separated)
red, green and blue components separately to improve the horizontal
resolution; the results can be dramatic. To enable this, add the
line somewhere in the <filename>local.conf</filename> file:</para>
<programlisting>
<match target="font">
<test qual="all" name="rgba">
<const>unknown</const>
</test>
<edit name="rgba" mode="assign">
<const>rgb</const>
</edit>
</match>
</programlisting>
<note><para>Depending on the sort of display,
<literal>rgb</literal> may need to be changed to <literal>bgr</literal>,
<literal>vrgb</literal> or <literal>vbgr</literal>: experiment and
see which works best.</para></note>
<indexterm><primary>Mozilla</primary></indexterm>
<indexterm><primary>web browsers</primary>
<secondary>Mozilla</secondary>
<see>Mozilla</see></indexterm>
<para>Anti-aliasing should be enabled the next time the X
server is started. However, programs must know how to take
advantage of it. At present, the Qt toolkit does,
so the entire <application>KDE</application> environment can
use anti-aliased fonts (see <xref
linkend="x11-wm-kde-antialias"> on
<application>KDE</application> for details). GTK+ and
<application>GNOME</application> can also be made to use
anti-aliasing via the <quote>Font</quote> capplet (see <xref
linkend="x11-wm-gnome-antialias"> for details). By default,
<application>Mozilla</application> 1.2 and greater will
automatically use anti-aliasing. To disable this, rebuild
<application>Mozilla</application> with the
<makevar>-DWITHOUT_XFT</makevar> flag.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x-xdm">
<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Seth</firstname>
<surname>Kingsley</surname>
<contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</sect1info>
<title>The X Display Manager</title>
<sect2>
<title>Overview</title>
<indexterm><primary>X Display Manager</primary></indexterm>
<para>The X Display Manager (<application>XDM</application>) is
an optional part of the X Window System that is used for login
session management. This is useful for several types of
situations, including minimal <quote>X Terminals</quote>,
desktops, and large network display
servers. Since the X Window System is network and protocol
independent, there are a wide variety of possible configurations
for running X clients and servers on different machines
connected by a network. <application>XDM</application> provides
a graphical interface for choosing which display server to
connect to, and entering authorization information such as a
login and password combination.</para>
<para>Think of <application>XDM</application> as
providing the same functionality to the user as the
&man.getty.8; utility (see <xref linkend="term-config"> for
details). That is, it performs system logins to the display
being connected to and then runs a session manager on behalf of
the user (usually an X window
manager). <application>XDM</application> then waits for this
program to exit, signaling that the user is done and should be
logged out of the display. At this point,
<application>XDM</application> can display the login and display
chooser screens for the next user to login.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Using XDM</title>
<para>The <application>XDM</application> daemon program is
located in <filename>/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm</filename>. This program
can be run at any time as <username>root</username> and it will
start managing the X display on the local machine. If
<application>XDM</application> is to be run every
time the machine boots up, a convenient way to do this is by
adding an entry to <filename>/etc/ttys</filename>. For more
information about the format and usage of this file, see <xref
linkend="term-etcttys">. There is a line in the default
<filename>/etc/ttys</filename> file for running the
<application>XDM</application> daemon on a virtual terminal:</para>
<screen>ttyv8 "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm off secure</screen>
<para>By default this entry is disabled; in order to enable it
change field 5 from <literal>off</literal> to
<literal>on</literal> and restart &man.init.8; using the
directions in <xref linkend="term-hup">. The first field, the
name of the terminal this program will manage, is
<literal>ttyv8</literal>. This means that
<application>XDM</application> will start running on the 9th
virtual terminal.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Configuring XDM</title>
<para>The <application>XDM</application> configuration directory
is located in <filename>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm</filename>. In
this directory there are several files used to change the
behavior and appearance of
<application>XDM</application>. Typically these files will
be found:</para>
<informaltable frame="none">
<tgroup cols="2">
<thead>
<row>
<entry>File</entry>
<entry>Description</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><filename>Xaccess</filename></entry>
<entry>Client authorization ruleset.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>Xresources</filename></entry>
<entry>Default X resource values.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>Xservers</filename></entry>
<entry>List of remote and local displays to manage.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>Xsession</filename></entry>
<entry>Default session script for logins.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>Xsetup_</filename>*</entry>
<entry>Script to launch applications before the login
interface.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>xdm-config</filename></entry>
<entry>Global configuration for all displays running on
this machine.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>xdm-errors</filename></entry>
<entry>Errors generated by the server program.</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><filename>xdm-pid</filename></entry>
<entry>The process ID of the currently running XDM.</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</informaltable>
<para>Also in this directory are a few scripts and programs used
to set up the desktop when <application>XDM</application> is
running. The purpose of each of these files will be briefly
described. The exact syntax and usage of all of these files is
described in &man.xdm.1;.</para>
<para>The default configuration is a simple rectangular login
window with the hostname of the machine displayed at the top in
a large font and <quote>Login:</quote> and
<quote>Password:</quote> prompts below. This is a good starting
point for changing the look and feel of
<application>XDM</application> screens.</para>
<sect3>
<title>Xaccess</title>
<para>The protocol for connecting to
<application>XDM</application> controlled displays is called
the X Display Manager Connection Protocol (XDMCP). This file
is a ruleset for controlling XDMCP connections from remote
machines. By default, it allows any client to connect, but
that does not matter unless the <filename>xdm-config</filename>
is changed to listen for remote connections.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Xresources</title>
<para>This is an application-defaults file for the display
chooser and the login screens. This is where the appearance
of the login program can be modified. The format is identical
to the app-defaults file described in the
X11 documentation.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Xservers</title>
<para>This is a list of the remote displays the chooser should
provide as choices.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Xsession</title>
<para>This is the default session script for
<application>XDM</application> to run after a user has logged
in. Normally each user will have a customized session script
in <filename>~/.xsession</filename> that overrides this
script.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>Xsetup_*</title>
<para>These will be run automatically before displaying the
chooser or login interfaces. There is a script for each
display being used, named <filename>Xsetup_</filename> followed
by the local display number (for instance
<filename>Xsetup_0</filename>). Typically these scripts will
run one or two programs in the background such as
<command>xconsole</command>.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>xdm-config</title>
<para>This contains settings in the form of app-defaults
that are applicable to every display that this installation
manages.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3>
<title>xdm-errors</title>
<para>This contains the output of the X servers that
<application>XDM</application> is trying to run. If a display
that <application>XDM</application> is trying to start hangs
for some reason, this is a good place to look for error
messages. These messages are also written to the user's
<filename>~/.xsession-errors</filename> file on a per-session
basis.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Running a Network Display Server</title>
<para>In order for other clients to connect to the display
server, edit the access control rules, and enable the connection
listener. By default these are set to conservative values.
To make <application>XDM</application> listen for connections,
first comment out a line in the <filename>xdm-config</filename>
file:</para>
<screen>! SECURITY: do not listen for XDMCP or Chooser requests
! Comment out this line if you want to manage X terminals with xdm
DisplayManager.requestPort: 0</screen>
<para>and then restart <application>XDM</application>. Remember that
comments in app-defaults files begin with a <quote>!</quote>
character, not the usual <quote>#</quote>. More strict
access controls may be desired. Look at the example
entries in <filename>Xaccess</filename>, and refer to the
&man.xdm.1; manual page.</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Replacements for XDM</title>
<para>Several replacements for the default
<application>XDM</application> program exist. One of them,
<application>kdm</application> (bundled with
<application>KDE</application>) is described later in this
chapter. The <application>kdm</application> display manager offers many visual
improvements and cosmetic frills, as well as the
functionality to allow users to choose their window manager
of choice at login time.</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="x11-wm">
<sect1info>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<firstname>Valentino</firstname>
<surname>Vaschetto</surname>
<contrib>Contributed by </contrib>
</author>
<!-- June 2001 -->
</authorgroup>
</sect1info>
<title>Desktop Environments</title>
<para>This section describes the different desktop environments
available for X on FreeBSD. A <quote>desktop environment</quote>
can mean anything ranging from a simple window manager to a
complete suite of desktop applications, such as
<application>KDE</application> or <application>GNOME</application>.
</para>
<sect2 id="x11-wm-gnome">
<title>GNOME</title>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-gnome-about">
<title>About GNOME</title>
<indexterm><primary>GNOME</primary></indexterm>
<para><application>GNOME</application> is a user-friendly
desktop environment that enables users to easily use and
configure their computers. <application>GNOME</application>
includes a panel (for starting applications and displaying
status), a desktop (where data and applications can be
placed), a set of standard desktop tools and applications, and
a set of conventions that make it easy for applications to
cooperate and be consistent with each other. Users of other
operating systems or environments should feel right at home
using the powerful graphics-driven environment that
<application>GNOME</application> provides. More
information regarding <application>GNOME</application> on
FreeBSD can be found on the <ulink
url="http://www.FreeBSD.org/gnome">FreeBSD GNOME
Project</ulink>'s web site.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-gnome-install">
<title>Installing GNOME</title>
<para>The easiest way to install
<application>GNOME</application> is through the
<quote>Desktop Configuration</quote> menu during the FreeBSD
installation process as described in <xref
linkend="default-desktop"> of Chapter 2. It can also
be easily installed from a package or the ports
collection:</para>
<para>To install the <application>GNOME</application> package
from the network, simply type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_add -r gnome2</userinput></screen>
<para>To build <application>GNOME</application> from source, use
the ports tree:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome2</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>Once <application>GNOME</application> is installed,
the X server must be told to start
<application>GNOME</application> instead of a default window
manager. If a custom <filename>.xinitrc</filename> is already in
place, simply replace the line that starts the current window
manager with one that starts
<application>/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session</application> instead.
If nothing special has been done to configuration file,
then it is enough to simply type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session" > ~/.xinitrc</userinput></screen>
<para>Next, type <command>startx</command>, and the
<application>GNOME</application> desktop environment will be
started.</para>
<note><para>If a display manager, like
<application>XDM</application>, is being used, this will not work.
Instead, create an executable <filename>.xsession</filename>
file with the same command in it. To do this, edit the file
and replace the existing window manager command with
<application>/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session</application>:
</para></note>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>echo "#!/bin/sh" > ~/.xsession</userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput>echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session" >> ~/.xsession</userinput>
&prompt.user; <userinput>chmod +x ~/.xsession</userinput></screen>
<para>Another option is to configure the display manager to
allow choosing the window manager at login time; the section on
<link linkend="x11-wm-kde-details">KDE details</link>
explains how to do this for <application>kdm</application>, the
display manager of <application>KDE</application>.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-gnome-antialias">
<title>Anti-aliased Fonts with GNOME</title>
<indexterm><primary>GNOME</primary>
<secondary>anti-aliased fonts</secondary></indexterm>
<para>X11
supports anti-aliasing via its <quote>RENDER</quote> extension.
GTK+ 2.0 and greater (the toolkit used by
<application>GNOME</application>) can make use of this
functionality. Configuring anti-aliasing is described in
<xref linkend="antialias">. So, with up-to-date software,
anti-aliasing is possible within the
<application>GNOME</application> desktop. Just go to
<menuchoice>
<guimenu>Applications</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Desktop Preferences</guisubmenu>
<guimenuitem>Font</guimenuitem></menuchoice>, and select either
<guibutton>Best shapes</guibutton>,
<guibutton>Best contrast</guibutton>, or
<guibutton>Subpixel smoothing (LCDs)</guibutton>. For a
GTK+ application that is not part of the
<application>GNOME</application> desktop, set the
environment variable <varname>GDK_USE_XFT</varname> to
<literal>1</literal> before launching the program.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="x11-wm-kde">
<title>KDE</title>
<indexterm><primary>KDE</primary></indexterm>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-kde-about">
<title>About KDE</title>
<para><application>KDE</application> is an easy to use
contemporary desktop environment. Some of the things that
<application>KDE</application> brings to the user are:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>A beautiful contemporary desktop</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A desktop exhibiting complete network transparency</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>An integrated help system allowing for convenient,
consistent access to help on the use of the
<application>KDE</application> desktop and its
applications</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Consistent look and feel of all
<application>KDE</application> applications</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Standardized menu and toolbars, keybindings, color-schemes,
etc.</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Internationalization: <application>KDE</application>
is available in more than 40 languages</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Centralized consisted dialog driven desktop
configuration</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>A great number of useful
<application>KDE</application> applications</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para><application>KDE</application> has an office application
suite based on <application>KDE</application>'s
<quote>KParts</quote> technology consisting
of a spread-sheet, a presentation application, an organizer, a
news client and more. <application>KDE</application> also
comes with a web browser called
<application>Konqueror</application>, which represents
a solid competitor to other existing web browsers on &unix;
systems. More information on <application>KDE</application>
can be found on the <ulink url="http://www.kde.org/">KDE
website</ulink>. For FreeBSD specific informations and
resources on <application>KDE</application>, consult
the <ulink url="http://freebsd.kde.org/">FreeBSD-KDE
team</ulink>'s website.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-kde-install">
<title>Installing KDE</title>
<para>Just as with <application>GNOME</application> or any
other desktop environment, the easiest way to install
<application>KDE</application> is through the <quote>Desktop
Configuration</quote> menu during the FreeBSD installation
process as described in <xref linkend="default-desktop"> of Chapter
2. Once again, the software can be easily installed from a package
or from the ports collection:</para>
<para>To install the <application>KDE</application> package
from the network, simply type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_add -r kde</userinput></screen>
<para>&man.pkg.add.1; will automatically fetch the latest version
of the application.</para>
<para>To build <application>KDE</application> from source,
use the ports tree:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/ports/x11/kde3</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>After <application>KDE</application> has been installed,
the X server must be told to launch this application
instead of the default window manager. This is accomplished
by editing the <filename>.xinitrc</filename> file:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>echo "exec startkde" > ~/.xinitrc</userinput></screen>
<para>Now, whenever the X Window System is invoked with
<command>startx</command>,
<application>KDE</application> will be the desktop.</para>
<para>If a display manager such as
<application>XDM</application> is being used, the
configuration is slightly different. Edit the
<filename>.xsession</filename> file instead. Instructions
for <application>kdm</application> are described later in
this chapter.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="x11-wm-kde-details">
<title>More Details on KDE</title>
<para>Now that <application>KDE</application> is installed on
the system, most things can be discovered through the
help pages, or just by pointing and clicking at various menus.
&windows; or &mac; users will feel quite at home.</para>
<para>The best reference for <application>KDE</application> is
the on-line documentation. <application>KDE</application>
comes with its own web browser,
<application>Konqueror</application>, dozens of useful
applications, and extensive documentation. The remainder of
this section discusses the technical items that are
difficult to learn by random exploration.</para>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-kde-kdm">
<title>The KDE Display Manager</title>
<indexterm><primary>KDE</primary>
<secondary>display manager</secondary></indexterm>
<para>An administrator of a multi-user system may wish to have
a graphical login screen to welcome users.
<link linkend="x-xdm">XDM</link> can be
used, as described earlier. However,
<application>KDE</application> includes an
alternative, <application>kdm</application>, which is designed
to look more attractive and include more login-time options.
In particular, users can easily choose (via a menu) which
desktop environment (<application>KDE</application>,
<application>GNOME</application>, or something else) to run
after logging on.</para>
<para>To begin with, run the <application>KDE</application>
control panel, <command>kcontrol</command>, as
<username>root</username>. It is generally considered
unsafe to run the entire X environment as
<username>root</username>. Instead, run the window manager
as a normal user, open a terminal window (such as
<filename>xterm</filename> or <application>KDE</application>'s
<filename>konsole</filename>), become <username>root</username>
with <userinput>su</userinput> (the user must be in the
<groupname>wheel</groupname>
group in <filename>/etc/group</filename> for this), and then
type <userinput>kcontrol</userinput>.</para>
<para>Click on the icon on the left marked
<guibutton>System</guibutton>, then on <guibutton>Login
manager</guibutton>. On the right there are
various configurable options, which the
<application>KDE</application> manual will explain in greater
detail. Click on <guibutton>sessions</guibutton> on the right.
Click <guibutton>New type</guibutton> to add various window
managers and desktop environments. These are just labels,
so they can say <application>KDE</application> and
<application>GNOME</application> rather than
<application>startkde</application> or
<application>gnome-session</application>.
Include a label <literal>failsafe</literal>.</para>
<para>Play with the other menus as well, they are mainly
cosmetic and self-explanatory. When you are done, click on
<guibutton>Apply</guibutton> at the bottom, and quit the
control center.</para>
<para>To make sure <application>kdm</application> understands
what the labels (<application>KDE</application>,
<application>GNOME</application> etc) mean, edit the files used
by <link linkend="x-xdm">XDM</link>.
<note><para>In <application>KDE 2.2</application> this has
changed: <application>kdm</application> now uses its own
configuration files. Please see the <application>KDE
2.2</application> documentation for details.</para>
</note>
In a terminal window, as <username>root</username>,
edit the file
<filename>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession</filename>. There is
a section in the middle like this:</para>
<screen>case $# in
1)
case $1 in
failsafe)
exec xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0
;;
esac
esac</screen>
<para>A few lines need to be added to this section.
Assuming the labels from used were <quote>KDE</quote> and
<quote>GNOME</quote>,
use the following:</para>
<screen>case $# in
1)
case $1 in
kde)
exec /usr/local/bin/startkde
;;
GNOME)
exec /usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session
;;
failsafe)
exec xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0
;;
esac
esac</screen>
<para>For the <application>KDE</application>
login-time desktop background to be honored,
the following line needs to be added to
<filename>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsetup_0</filename>:</para>
<screen>/usr/local/bin/kdmdesktop</screen>
<para>Now, make sure <application>kdm</application> is listed in
<filename>/etc/ttys</filename> to be started at the next bootup.
To do this, simply follow the instructions from the previous
section on <link linkend="x-xdm">XDM</link> and replace
references to the <command>/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm</command>
program with <command>/usr/local/bin/kdm</command>.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-kde-antialias">
<title>Anti-aliased Fonts</title>
<indexterm><primary>KDE</primary>
<secondary>anti-aliased fonts</secondary></indexterm>
<para>X11
supports anti-aliasing via
its <quote>RENDER</quote> extension, and starting with version 2.3,
Qt (the toolkit used by <application>KDE</application>) supports
this extension. Configuring this is described in <xref
linkend="antialias"> on antialiasing X11 fonts. So, with
up-to-date software, anti-aliasing is possible on a
<application>KDE</application> desktop. Just go to the KDE
menu, go to
<menuchoice>
<guimenu>Preferences</guimenu>
<guisubmenu>Look and Feel</guisubmenu>
<guimenuitem>Fonts</guimenuitem></menuchoice>, and click on the check box
<guibutton>Use Anti-Aliasing for Fonts and Icons</guibutton>.
For a Qt application which is not part of
<application>KDE</application>, the environment variable
<varname>QT_XFT</varname> needs to be set to <literal>true</literal>
before starting the program.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
<sect2 id="x11-wm-xfce">
<title>XFce</title>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-xfce-about">
<title>About XFce</title>
<para><application>XFce</application> is a desktop environment
based on the GTK+
toolkit used by <application>GNOME</application>, but is much
more lightweight and meant for those who want a simple,
efficient desktop which is nevertheless easy to use and
configure. Visually, it looks very much like
<application>CDE</application>, found on commercial &unix;
systems. Some of <application>XFce</application>'s features
are:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>A simple, easy-to-handle desktop</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Fully configurable via mouse, with drag and
drop, etc </para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Main panel similar to <application>CDE</application>, with
menus, applets and applications launchers</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Integrated window manager, file manager, sound manager,
<application>GNOME</application> compliance module, and other
things</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Themeable (since it uses GTK+)</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>Fast, light and efficient: ideal for older/slower machines
or machines with memory limitations</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>More information on <application>XFce</application>
can be found on the <ulink url="http://www.xfce.org/">XFce
website</ulink>.</para>
</sect3>
<sect3 id="x11-wm-xfce-install">
<title>Installing XFce</title>
<para>A binary package for <application>XFce</application>
exists (at the time of writing). To install, simply type:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>pkg_add -r xfce4</userinput></screen>
<para>Alternatively, to build from source, use the ports
collection:</para>
<screen>&prompt.root; <userinput>cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/xfce4</userinput>
&prompt.root; <userinput>make install clean</userinput></screen>
<para>Now, tell the X server to launch
<application>XFce</application> the next time X is started.
Simply type this:</para>
<screen>&prompt.user; <userinput>echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/startxfce4" > ~/.xinitrc</userinput></screen>
<para>The next time X is started,
<application>XFce</application> will be the desktop.
As before, if a display manager like
<application>XDM</application> is being used, create an
<filename>.xsession</filename>, as described in the
section on <link linkend="x11-wm-gnome">GNOME</link>, but
with the <filename>/usr/X11R6/bin/startxfce4</filename>
command; or, configure the display manager to allow
choosing a desktop at login time, as explained in
the section on <link linkend="x11-wm-kde-kdm">kdm</link>.</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</chapter>
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