Re: How to get xfree86 v4 working after dist-upgrade?

[Eric Richardson <eric.richardson@milagrosoft.com>]

Hi Shyamal,

Thanks again for the help.
Just so much to learn.

On the xfree86-4 install, if you install from scratch, not an update, 
then you get the new code. Upgrades don't work that way and leave 
version 3 alone but by the documentation makes it sound like you should 
get the new one unless you don't want it. From Debian Release Notes.

"This release of Debian GNU/Linux contains the much improved XFree86 4.1 
release, which includes support for a greater range of hardware, better 
autodetection support, and improved support for advanced technologies 
such as Xinerama and 3D acceleration. XFree86 3.3.6 is available as an 
option, to support older hardware that is not supported by XFree86 4.1.
"

Slightly offtopic but I was wondering about this package configuration 
philosophy in general.

You have the general command for Debian as follows:

dkpg-reconfigure <package>

But it also seems that many of the configuation commands that I assume 
are powered by debconf can be called standalone like the following:

apt-config
gdmconfig
kdbconfig
...

Are these only the ones called from the initial install or is there a 
naming convention <pkgname>config that is followed by all packages 
needing interactive configuration?

Also, slightly off subject, is it possible to supply a file with answers 
to the configuration to do a completely automated headless install?

Thanks,
Eric

Eric :-)


Shyamal Prasad wrote:

>     "Eric" == Eric Richardson <eric.richardson@milagrosoft.com> writes:
>
>     Eric> Shyamal Prasad wrote:
>
>     >> Don't do that! Install, and let the installer
>     >> guide you through it.
>
>     Eric> Thank-you. This worked good. I was able to get xfree84-4 to
>     Eric> work with a voodoo3 card using the xserver-xfree86 server
>     Eric> and tdfx driver. I looked at the -4 docs earlier and knew
>     Eric> that was the correct driver. It seems it saved some of my
>     Eric> other settings as well. It sure can find out a bunch of
>     Eric> stuff about the card etc. as I didn't need to specify memory
>     Eric> or anything. Is there another configuration program such as
>     Eric> xf86config or something I should use to fine tune?
>
> Yes, XFree86 4.x does a pretty good job detecting things for you,
> specially with new hardware. I find that the best way to configure
> things is to do 'dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86' and let debconf
> handle the file for you.
>
> If you want to fine tune beyond that, edit the XFree86-4 file but
> respect the comments about where to put your hand written stuff. If
> you don't, debconf will write over your changes the next time you
> upgrade, restart X and so on!
>
>     Eric> What do I need to do to remove the old -3 stuff?
>
> I'm not sure, but I guess 'apt-get remove xserver-common-v3' should do
> it. 
>
>     Eric> I'm wondering why there is no info in the release notes for
>     Eric> this so when people upgrade to woody they know what to do.
>
> I suppose it's the same reasoning as for the kernel: going to Woody
> does not require an upgrade to X. If you want to upgrade X you do it
> explicitly. 
>
> Cheers!
> Shyamal




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