debconf XFree86 settings
I had a problem today thanks to the latest round of XFree86 upgrading in
Sid. I logged out, and gdm failed to come up. I rebooted and it again
failed. /var/log/syslog simply said that it had failed, but not why.
/var/log/XFree86.0.log told me that the mouse could not be initialized,
and hinted that my mouse configuration had changed. This was confirmed
by looking at /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 -- my customizations were all gone.
I restored the previous version of the file, which had helpfully been
preserved as XF86Config-4.dexconf-backup, and then all was well.
The remaining issue is how to prevent this from happening again. I
understand that the problem derives from the debconf database having
different settings than what I had manually put into XF86Config-4. Okay,
so I need to change debconf to agree with me. So I ran "dpkg-reconfigure
xserver-xfree86", and fixed up most, but not all, of the differences.
The mouse is now fine, at least.
The remaining issue is that of font management; dexconf insists on
inserting a line for an xfs listening on port 7100, which is wrong
because I don't have an xfs installed. It also insists on throwing away
the entry for my TrueType fonts directory. dpkg-reconfigure
xserver-xfree86 didn't ask me about those things, and dpkg-reconfigure
xfree86-common didn't ask me about anything. Is there some other package
I can reconfigure that will ask me the right questions so I can prevent
my X configuration from getting subtly screwed up every time a new set
of XFree86 packages is installed?
The TrueType fonts, by the way, didn't come from a Debian package, which
I suppose could be why debconf doesn't know about them; I just copied
them over from my Windows machine and manually configured them. If
there's some trivial package I can install that will just register the
presence of the font directory, I'll do that.
I also have defoma installed, but the dfontmgr program is rather
unintuitive. If this program can do what I need done, can someone tell
me how to do it?
Thanks,
Craig
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