Photo web hosting - 115Chapter 3Getting into the DesktopIt s possible that you
115Chapter 3Getting into the DesktopIt s possible that you already did some configuration when you installed Linux. Ifyou are able to start a desktop successfully and your mouse, keyboard, and screenall seem to be behaving, you may not have to do anything more to configure X. However, if you can t start the desktop or you want to adjust some basic features(such as screen resolution or number of colors supported), let s look at some ideason how to go about doing those things. Creating a Working X Configuration FileIf your desktop crashes immediately or only shows garbled text, try to create a newX configuration file. With the X.org X server, that file is /etc/X11/xorg.conf. In XFree86, the configuration file, which has basically the same format, is/etc/X11/XF86Config. To have X try to create a sane xorg.conffile for you to use, do the following from aTerminal window as root user: 1.If Linux booted to a command prompt, go to the next step. However, if it triedto start X automatically, you might have an illegible screen. In that case, pressthese keys together: Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. It should kill your X server and getyou back to a command prompt. If X tries to restart (and is still messed up), press Ctrl+Alt+F2. When you see the command prompt, log in as root and typeinit 3. This will temporarily bring you down to a nongraphical state. 2.To have X probe your video hardware and create a new configuration file, type: # Xorg -configure3.The file x.org.conf.newshould appear in your home directory. To test if thisnew configuration file works, type the following to start the X server: # X -xf86config /root/xorg.conf.newA gray background with an X in the middle should appear. Move the mouse tomove the X pointer. If that succeeds, you have a working xorg.conffile to use. 4.Press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to exit the X server. 5.Copy the new configuration file to where it is picked up the next time X starts. # cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.confChances are that you have a very basic X configuration that you may want to tunefurther. Note08_