Dancing Kayak - FreeBSD - Configuring X

Here's how to configure X on FreeBSD (based on 4.9) on a machine

Important Thing to Remember during X Testing

Control-Alt-Backspace shuts down X immediately without confirmation.

Prepare Information

Collect the specs on your monitor and video card, including:

• monitor horizontal scan range
• monitor Vertical refresh rate range
• video card type, supported video modes, and amount of memory

to ensure you can configure X properly.

Configuring

Run XFree86 -configure as root. This generates the file /root/XF86Config.new.

Edit the file by editing the entries monitor0 and Screen, adding options as follows:

Monitor0

• VendorName "Your monitor vendor name"
• ModelName "Your monitor model name"
• HorizSync 30-82 (in this format)
• VertRefresh 55-90 (in this format)
• Option "DPMS" (monitor options in this format - this one is for power management to shutdown your monitor during inactivity periods

Screen

• DefaultDepth 24
• Subsection Display
  • Depth 16
  • Modes "1024x768"
  • Depth 24
  • Modes "1024x768"

Testing

cp /root/XF86Config.new /etc/X11/XF86Config

Put the new file under source code control.

Resume being a normal user (non-root).

Add script files that copy stuff into ~/.xinitrc and run startx.

For gnome, .xinitrc should look like /usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session

For KDE, .xinitrc should look like exec startkde

Extra Configuration

Set the environment variable TERM to xterm-color

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