xf86config?

I was reading a ~= four year old guide to linux, it’s pretty good, but the gentlemen recommended using xf86config to configue X but I don’t see it in the options for intalling on opensuse


zypper search -f xf86config

turns up nothing. Now, I don’t have any real complaints aganist X, so don’t think I’m trying to fix anything. I am just being curious. I’m assuming that the tools name has changed or some such thing.
Thanks in advance

xf86config does not exist any more and is not needed either.

Also 4 year old guide is woefully out of date - Linux has changed a lot in the last few years.

On 2014-09-15 17:06, ballsystemlord wrote:
>
> I was reading a ~= four year old guide to linux, it’s pretty good, but
> the gentlemen recommended using xf86config to configue X but I don’t see
> it in the options for intalling on opensuse

Wow. I have not used it since more than a decade, on early versions on
SuSE. Around 5 or 6. It was obsoleted by sax, which in turn was
obsoleted by sax2, which in turn was obsoleted by automatics.

There is a sax3 project, unfinished and partially working. Perhaps
useful for some situations. You can install it easily, it shows in YaST
default official repos.


Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

As noted, a lot has changed in openSUSE in graphics wrt configuring X. I have also struggled to stay up to date.

My understanding today, with openSUSE, that by default, code within the kernel (referred to as KMS (kernel mode setting)) endeavours to automatically configure one’s graphics to open source graphics drivers. If proprietary graphics drivers are installed, then the proprietary drivers may have setup files such that the proprietary graphic drivers are configured instead. Nominally the X window graphics are configured automatically with no equivalent to the old “x86config” needed.

However it is possible to disable KMS, in which case I believe X will then try to automatically configure the graphics. One can typically disable KMS at the kernel boot line, with a boot code entry in grub/grub2 such as ‘nokms’ or something like that.

If one instead wishes to force a graphic setting different from KMS and different from X automatic configurations, then there are configuration files one can use. Nominally the files under /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ directory (such as 50-device.conf , 50-monitor.conf, 50-screen.conf … etc ) should be manually tuned to to over ride KMS and X auto configuration. These 50-device.conf , 50-monitor.conf, 50-screen.conf … etc replace the sections that used to be in the old /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.

Speaking of which, instead, if one creates a file /etc/X11/xorg.conf then that file will take precedent over the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ files (in case of conflicting configuration details).

If one types:


man xorg.conf

and


man xorg

One can read a lot of documentation - especially on the old way how to manually force a configuration (which should not be needed today).

For example, the old method of using old tools to create the file /root/xorg.conf.new, which one can then copy to /etc/X11/xorg.conf is likely still functional, but not recommended as it simply is no longer needed and likely gives a less than optimal default setup.

The above is a very simplistic / basic description based on my limited understanding, and I am confident there are a number of users in our forum who can provide more accurate information, and correct any inaccuracies is my somewhat dated understanding.