linux-foo.html

Linus guide, Linus guide, Linus guide,

file looks like:</P>

<PRE>
# exec afterstep
# exec fvwm95-2
if [ -f $HOME/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/.workspace_state ]; then
	sh $HOME/GNUstep/Library/WindowMaker/.workspace_state &
fi
exec wmaker
</PRE>

<P>That is set to run WindowMaker when I start up, and the commented
lines, the ones with the pound signs (#) at the beginning of the lines,
are ignored. If you leave everything commented out, it'll give you the
gray screen with the X-shaped mouse, so if that happens, you should know
what to look for. :)</P>

<A NAME="alias"></A>
<H3><A NAME="7"><A NAME="7">Alias to Start X</A></A></H3>

<P>On my system, I start X by typing <B>x</B> at the prompt, and it starts
up in 24 bits per pixel mode when I do that. I can type <B>startx -- -bpp
24</B>, but that takes time to type up. I can do this because I added a
line to <TT>/etc/bashrc</TT> that goes like this:</P>

<PRE>
alias x='startx -- -bpp 24'
</PRE>

<P>Of course, if you prefer to run at some other video mode other than 24
bits per pixel (16.7 million colors, I think) then you would replace
&quot;24&quot; with 15, 16, 32, or whatever you may wish to run as the
default.</P>

<P>With Slackware, you might have to edit <TT>/etc/profile</TT> instead of
<TT>/etc/bashrc</TT> if it doesn't look in <TT>/etc/bashrc</TT> when a
user logs in. I don't think aliases are <I>supposed</I> to go in
<TT>/etc/profile</TT>, but it works.</P>

<A NAME="virtualdesktopoff"></A>
<H3><A NAME="8"><A NAME="8">Turning Off Virtual Desktop</A></A></H3>

<P>XFree86 usually annoys new users with something called virtual desktop. 
This can be described as a screen bigger than the one displayed, so that
when a user moves the mouse to the edge of the screen, it scrolls down
instead of staying there.</P>

<P>Only after using Linux for a year did I discover how to turn that off.
Yeah, it gives me more desktop space, but as new users frequently
complain, it's annoying. :)</P>

<P>Anyway, the way I turned it off was by finally finding the right place
to edit in the <TT>/etc/X11/XF86Config</TT> file. The following is the 
area that you should edit:</P>

<PRE>
Section "Screen"
    Driver      "accel"
    Device      "Diamond Stealth 3D 2000"
    Monitor     "My Monitor"
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       8
        Modes       "800x600"
        ViewPort    0 0
        Virtual     800 600
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       16
        Modes       "800x600"
        ViewPort    0 0
        Virtual     800 600
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       24
        Modes       "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
        Virtual     800 600
    EndSubsection
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth       32
        Modes       "800x600" "640x480"
        ViewPort    0 0
        Virtual     800 600
    EndSubsection
EndSection
</PRE>

<P>This can be found towards the end of the file. At first I heard of
people editing this file and successfully getting the results that they
wanted; I tried it, but I edited the wrong part of the file and that
didn't make a difference at all.</P>

<P>Anyway, the way I got rid of my virtual desktop was to set it to be the
same resolution as the resolution I was running at. In my case that was
800 by 600 (all modes from 8 bpp to 32 bpp). You can also try
commenting out the lines starting with &quot;Virtual&quot; by putting
a pound sign (#) at the beginning of the line.</P>

<A NAME="fonts"></A>
<H3><A NAME="9"><A NAME="9">Additional Fonts</A></A></H3>

<P>Most people might not be satisfied with the fonts included with the
standard distribution of X, so if you're one of them, read <A
HREF="http://www.xach.com/gimp/tutorials/fonts.html" TARGET="_top">Zach
Beane's tutorial on adding fonts to X</A>.</P>

<P>The fonts themselves are available from <A
HREF="ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/fonts"
TARGET="_top">ftp.cdrom.com/pub/os2/fonts</A>. They're scalable Adobe
Type1 fonts, which means that they won't get jagged when enlarged to large
font sizes.</P>

<P>You can also get a couple of packages containing fonts from <A
HREF="ftp://ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/fonts">ftp.gimp.org/pub/gimp/fonts</A>. 
They're the .tar.gz files.</P>

<P>With Zach Beane's tutorial, it's also possible to add other types of
fonts, such as 75dpi and 100dpi.</P>

<A NAME="mousetrouble"></A>
<H3><A NAME="10"><A NAME="10">Mouse Trouble</A></A></H3>

<P>There are a lot of possible problems people might encounter with mice. 
Just make sure you have it pointing to the correct device (usually
<TT>/dev/ttyS0</TT>, which is COM1 under DOS and Windows) when the X
configuration utility that you use (xf86config, Xconfigurator, etc.) asks
you where your mouse is. If you have a PS/2 mouse, use
<TT>/dev/psaux</TT>.</P>

<P>If you want to edit <TT>/etc/X11/XF86Config</TT>, look under the
section &quot;Pointer&quot;. Here's what it looks like:</P>

<PRE>
Section "Pointer"
    Protocol    "Microsoft"
    Device      "/dev/ttyS0"
</PRE>

<P>If it's on another device, such as COM2 under DOS, it would be
<TT>/dev/ttyS1</TT>. COM3 under DOS/Windows would then be
<TT>/dev/ttyS2</TT>, and so on.</P>

<P><A HREF="mailto:[e-mail]">andres salomon</A> wrote in to say
that if your PS/2 mouse doesn't work in X but works in normal text mode,
you should try killing the GPM mouse services (<B><TT>killall gpm</B></TT>
as root should do the trick). He also mentioned a workaround, which he
didn't successfully use. It's adding <TT>/dev/gpmdata</TT> to
/etc/X11/XF86Config, supposedly, and starting GPM with the &quot;-R&quot;
flag.</TT>

<P><A HREF="mailto:[e-mail]">Fotis Karpenissiotis</A> wrote,
&quot;<I>I had several problems using a Microsoft Mouse (Serial Mouse
2.0A) under XFree86 3.3.2. (Under 3.3.1 it worked fine). The solution I
found was to start gpm using:</I></P>

<PRE>
gpm -t ms -R
</PRE>

<P><I>and the following lines in XF86Config:</I></P>

<PRE>
Section "Pointer"
       Protocol    "MouseSystems"
       Device      "/dev/gpmdata"
       Emulate3Buttons
</PRE>

<P>That's about all the information I can give about mouse trouble and
their solutions right now, but if you've got a different problem and a
different solution then please <A HREF="mailto:[e-mail]">let me
know</A>.</P>

<A NAME="newercards"></A>
<H3><A NAME="11"><A NAME="11">Newer Cards</A></A></H3>

<P><A HREF="mailto:[e-mail]">Dragoon</A> and <A
HREF="mailto:[e-mail]">Larry Elmore</A> wrote in with tips reminding
those of us with newer cards to head over to <A HREF="http://www.suse.de/XSuSE/XSuSE_E.html">http://www.suse.de/XSuSE/XSuSE_E.html</A>. SuSE creates a Linux distribution, but they also create X servers for video cards/chipsets that XFree86 has not included yet. The XFree86 Project only releases new X servers every six months, so in that time span in between, SuSE releases stuff. It's worth checking out if you're not having much luck with that new video card and X.</P>

<P>If you have anything from NVidia, find their Open Source XFree86 patches/modifications on their website at <A HREF="http://www.nvidia.com">http://www.nvidia.com/</A>. This includes support for cards with Riva TNT and Riva TNT2.</P>

<P>If you can't find an X server for your card using any of the above methods,
just about the last thing you can try is going to your card or chipset maker's
website. Unfortunately, some video card companies do not like to cooperate with
the XFree86 project.</P>

<HR>

<P>Send any and all feeback to <A HREF="mailto:[e-mail]">[e-mail]</A>. Feedback is welcome and highly encouraged. You can also make use of the <A HREF="help.html">help form</A> or <A HREF="guestbook.html">guestbook</A>, which is really more like a feedback form.</P>

<HR>

<P><B><FONT SIZE="-1">Copyright &copy; 1997-1998 <A HREF="mailto:[e-mail]">Joshua Go ([e-mail])</A>. All rights reserved. Permission to use, distribute, and copy this document is hereby granted. You may modify this document as long as credit to me is given.</FONT></B></P>

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