XF86Config - Part XIII

XF86Config - Part XIII

We’re moving on today from the Device section to the Screen section of XF86Config. There are still some possible subsections in XF86Config that we haven’t covered, but they’ve become irrelevant over the past few XFree86 versions. Such items as POSBase, COPBase and VGABase are rarely required for the proper operation of your X server. Consequently, we’re going to move forward to a section with more meat and functionality.

Here’s the Screen section in my current home configuration. I think it’s pretty typical.

Section “Screen”

Driver    ”svga”
Device    ”SiS 630″
Monitor    ”Dell D1025TM”
DefaultColorDepth 32

Subsection “Display”

Depth    32
Modes    ”1280×1024″
ViewPort  0 0

EndSubsection

EndSection

If you think through this file, using what we’ve learned in this series on XF86Config, you’ll see that the purpose of the Screen section is to pull together all the elements you’ve created in previous subsections. For example, the string defining the Driver is the identifiying string from the Driver section. The string identifying the Monitor is the string you’ve created to identify the monitor in your Monitor section of XF86Config. The Screen section really pulls together all the previous elements of the XF86Config file to create a “screen” that will appear on your monitor. In this case, my preferred screen utilizes the svga driver, the SiS 630 video card, the Dell D1025TM monitor, with a 32-bit color depth. Further, the resolution is set to 1280×1024 on viewport 0 0, or the first monitor. All of these elements, with the exception of the viewport, have been defined elsewhere in the XF86Config file.

Once you understand the Screen section of XF86Config, there’s little you can’t do to create your own personal X Window configuration. As exhaustively as we’ve covered it over the past three weeks, you’ve got a functional working knowledge of the necessary sections, subsections and guiding theories for configuring you X server.

Having said that, XF86Config-4 is much easier to configure. With your current working knowledge of the XF86Config file, you’ll find configuring X with XF86Config-4 (coming next week) to be a breeze.