Re: Confusion about X in woody

[Brian Nelson <nelson@bignachos.com>]

Adam Majer <adamm@galacticasoftware.com> writes:

> On Wed, Jan 09, 2002 at 07:52:55AM +0000, Randy Orrison wrote:
> > I figured that the two v 3.3.6 packages (note that I've added the "-v3"
> > to the appropriate line, that was quite confusing for a while) were
> > obsolete, and deleted them (while X was not running).  Ha!  xdm wouldn't
> > start!  I put them back and now all is well again.  It appears that xdm
> > was trying to start /etc/X11/X which is a symlink to
> > /usr/bin/X11/XF86_SVGA, which comes from xserver-svga v 3.3.6.
> > 
> > So, all is working again, but I think I'm running some weird 3.3.6/4.1
> > crossbreed which worries me.  I'd like to be able to get rid of the
> > 3.3.6 stuff.  My video card is an NVIDIA Riva TNT Model 64, which 3
> > didn't support directly (hence the svga).  Does 4 support this directly,
> > and how do I configure it to use it?
> 
> Get rid off the 3.3.6 stuff - install xserver-xfree86 package.
> It will provide all the necessary drivers.
> 
> Use XF86Config-4 file instead of the old version 3 file. It has 
> a much simpler syntax than 3.3.6 stuff... There were a few 
> problems in Sid with overwriting config stuff in that file b/w 
> upgrades but it should be fixed now.
> 
> For NVidia cards, just use the driver "nv" in the XF86Config-4 
> file.
> 
> For accelerated support, you need to go to NVidia.com and DL the 
> sources for kernel [2.4.x series kernels I think] drivers and X 
> drivers. Install both of them in appropriate place and then the 
> X driver from NVidia is not "nv" anymore but it will be 
> "nvidia".

Note that testing and unstable contain packages for the nvidia drivers
that will download the drivers and create Debian packages out of them.
They're a bit more convenient than messing with the tar.gz's manually.

-- 
Brian Nelson <nelson@bignachos.com>