This will go into the next 4.1.0 prerelease. Just thought I'd give you
guys a heads-up.
A few questions have been added, and a few have been updated in the wake
XFree86 4.0.
--- FAQ~ Mon Jun 18 22:09:08 2001
+++ FAQ Mon Jun 18 22:09:32 2001
@@ -1,12 +1,13 @@
Debian X Window System Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) List
-Copyright 1998-2000 Branden Robinson. This document is licensed under the
+Copyright 1998-2001 Branden Robinson. This document is licensed under the
GNU General Public License, version 2 (see /usr/share/common-licenses/GPL).
-This document isn't complete yet. If your question is not answered here, try
-/usr/share/doc/<packagename>/README.Debian (and other files in the package's
-doc directory), manual pages, and the debian-user mailing list. See
-http://www.debian.org/ for more information about the Debian mailing lists.
+By its nature, this document is not complete. If your question is not
+answered here, try /usr/share/doc/<packagename>/README.Debian (and other files
+in the package's doc directory), manual pages, and the debian-user mailing
+list. See http://www.debian.org/ for more information about the Debian
+mailing lists.
Two other FAQ's of interest are available:
*) The XFree86 FAQ, provided in the xfree86-common package; this FAQ focuses
@@ -24,7 +25,7 @@
future plans, or to find out how you can help improve the quality of
Debian's XFree86 packages, check out the X Strike Force:
- http://www.debian.org/~branden/
+ http://people.debian.org/~branden/
CONTENTS
@@ -39,10 +40,12 @@
*) What is a session manager?
*) What is window focus?
*) What are X resources?
+*) What are app-defaults?
-How-To Questions
+Specific Questions
*) How do I customize my X session?
*) How do I change what appears in the root window?
+*) What is the difference between "bits-per-pixel" and "color depth"?
*) How do I change the color depth of my X server?
*) How do I run more than one local X server simultaneously?
*) How do I set up the mouse buttons for left-handed use?
@@ -54,6 +57,8 @@
*) How do I keep my mouse from going crazy (or going away) when switching
between X and the Linux virtual console?
*) How do I get the X server to find the "fixed" font?
+*) Why do the "backtick" (`) and apostrophe (') symbols in the fonts not look
+ the way they used to?
GENERAL QUESTIONS
@@ -93,7 +98,8 @@
In May 1999, stewardship of the X Window System passed from the Open Group
to X.Org, a non-profit organization focused exclusively on maintenance and
-further development of the X Window System.
+further development of the X Window System. X.Org has supervised the release
+of X11R6.5.1.
*) What is XFree86?
@@ -269,7 +275,45 @@
[much more remains to be written about this question]
-HOW-TO QUESTIONS
+*) What are app-defaults?
+
+Application defaults files ("app-defaults") are essentially a way of
+externalizing an X client's configurable parameter defaults outside the client
+binary, so that they can be changed without recompiling the client.
+
+App-defaults files are mostly, but not exclusively, used only by X clients
+written using the Xt (X Toolkit Intrinsics) library. On Debian systems they
+can be found in /etc/X11/app-defaults (or a localized subdirectory of
+/etc/X11).
+
+App-defaults are specified using a class/instance syntax and look very similar
+to X resource files (see next question), but there are three very important
+differences between app-defaults and X resources:
+
+ 1) A client's app-defaults are generally essential for its useful operation,
+ whereas X resources are always optional. In other words, you should be
+ able to use an X client without specifying any X resources for it, but if
+ you delete a client's app-defaults file, it may not be usable.
+
+ 2) App-defaults implicitly bind to the class name specified in the file name
+ of the app-defaults file. In other words: if I have an app-defaults file
+ called "Foo", which contains the line:
+
+ *Menu*background: red
+
+ then this is interpreted as "Foo*Menu*background: red". This is unlike X
+ resources, where a leading asterisk will cause a resource to bind
+ globally to all clients that can resolve the resource name.
+
+ 3) App-defaults are resolved only the by client, on the machine from which the
+ client is running. X resources, on the other hand, are stored in the X
+ server and can affect all clients that connect to that server.
+
+Again, the best way to think of app-defaults is as a set of externalized
+default settings for a client. They work as if they were part of the client
+binary itself.
+
+SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
*) How do I customize my X session?
@@ -290,40 +334,123 @@
xbase-clients package, and can be used to set the root window to a solid
color, a plaid pattern in two colors, or tile it with a monochrome bitmap.
+*) What is the difference between "bits-per-pixel" and "color depth"?
+
+Color depth refers to the number of bits available to each pixel for
+representation of distinct colors. Each pixel on the screen has a value which
+is translated to a color. The wider the range of possible values, the larger
+the variety of colors available to each pixel, and thus the whole screen.
+
+(The specifics of how a pixel value is translated to a color are determined by
+the "visual", a concept not explained in this FAQ.)
+
+For instance, at 1 bit of color depth, only a monochrome display is possible.
+(A bit can only be zero or one; therefore each pixel is either "off" or "on".)
+With 4 bits of color depth, 16 colors are available (two to the fourth power
+is sixteen.) With 24 bits of color depth, 2^24 colors are available -- almost
+16.8 million distinct colors.
+
+However, for engineering and efficiency reasons, pixels may not be packed
+together with no wasted space. A pixel of 4 bits' depth may actually take up
+8 bits of "room" when transmitted to the video hardware for display, because
+it is simpler for the video card to just take the 4 bits it needs out of the
+byte (8 bits) and ignore the rest, rather than try to regard each byte as
+containing two pixels. The same is often true for 24-bit color depth, which
+is often transmitted across 4 bytes (32 bits), with 8 bits ignored.
+
+The version 3.x XFree86 X server caused a great deal of confusion by using the
+term "depth" in its configuration file to refer to "bits-per-pixel" (while
+also using a command line option "bpp" -- short for "bits-per-pixel" -- to
+refer to the same thing). The version 4.x X server uses the terms
+consistently.
+
+In almost all cases, what the user cares about is color depth, not
+bits-per-pixel; the number of bits per pixel for a given color depth is an
+usually an issue for only the author of a hardware driver to worry about.
+
*) How do I change the color depth of my X server?
-[NEEDS A REWRITE FOR THE 4.X FILE FORMAT]
+There are two answers to this question; one for version 3.x XFree86 X servers,
+and one for version 4.x of the XFree86 X server.
+
+You can find out which version you are using by running "X -version" (you do
+not need to be root to execute this command).
-The best way to change the default color depth of the X server is to add a
-"DefaultColorDepth" line to the "Screen" section that corresponds to the X
-server you use. Here is one example:
-
-Section "Screen"
- Driver "Accel"
- Device "ATI Xpert@Play"
- Monitor "Sony 200sf"
- BlankTime 0
- DefaultColorDepth 32
- SubSection "Display"
- Depth 8
- Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "512x384"
- EndSubSection
- SubSection "Display"
- Depth 16
- Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "512x384"
- EndSubSection
- SubSection "Display"
- Depth 32
- Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "512x384"
- EndSubSection
-EndSection
+For version 3.x XFree86 X servers:
-See XF86Config(5) for more information.
+ The best way to change the default color depth of the X server is to add a
+ "DefaultColorDepth" line to the "Screen" section that corresponds to the X
+ server you use. Here is one example:
+
+ Section "Screen"
+ Driver "Accel"
+ Device "ATI Xpert@Play"
+ Monitor "Sony 200sf"
+ BlankTime 0
+ DefaultColorDepth 32
+ SubSection "Display"
+ Depth 8
+ Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "512x384"
+ EndSubSection
+ SubSection "Display"
+ Depth 16
+ Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "512x384"
+ EndSubSection
+ SubSection "Display"
+ Depth 32
+ Modes "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480" "512x384"
+ EndSubSection
+ EndSection
+
+ See XF86Config-v3(5) for more information.
+
+ To change the color depth on a per-invocation basis with startx, send the
+ appropriate command line argument to the X server:
+
+ startx -- -bpp 16
+
+For version 4.x of the XFree86 X server:
+
+ The best way to change the default color depth of the X server is to add a
+ "DefaultDepth" line to the "Screen" section that corresponds to the X server
+ you use. Here is one example:
+
+ Section "Screen"
+ Identifier "Simple Screen"
+ Device "3Dfx Voodoo3"
+ Monitor "Sony Multiscan 200sf"
+ DefaultDepth 24
+ Subsection "Display"
+ Depth 1
+ Modes "1152x864@85" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
+ EndSubsection
+ Subsection "Display"
+ Depth 4
+ Modes "1152x864@85" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
+ EndSubsection
+ Subsection "Display"
+ Depth 8
+ Modes "1152x864@85" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
+ EndSubsection
+ Subsection "Display"
+ Depth 15
+ EndSubsection
+ Subsection "Display"
+ Depth 16
+ Modes "1152x864@85" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
+ EndSubsection
+ Subsection "Display"
+ Depth 24
+ Modes "1152x864@85" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
+ EndSubsection
+ EndSection
-To change the color depth on a per-invocation basis with startx, send the
-appropriate command line argument to the X server:
+ See XF86Config(5) for more information.
-startx -- -bpp 16
+ To change the color depth on a per-invocation basis with startx, send the
+ appropriate command line argument to the X server:
+
+ startx -- -depth 16
See Xserver(1), XFree86(1), and startx(1) for more information.
@@ -578,14 +705,8 @@
to debian-user for help.
- xterm might be translating the key events into the wrong terminal
- control sequences; this part is all about X resources. The default
- xterm X resources in /etc/X11/Xresources/xterm are known to work
- for 3.3.6-6. If there is a file in /etc/X11/Xresources called
- xterm.dpkg-dist, you probably aren't using the distributed version
- of this file, and you probably should be. If you have stuff in any
- X dotfiles in your home directory that looks like the stuff in
- /etc/X11/Xresources/xterm, you might be shooting yourself in the
- foot -- see the next question.
+ control sequences; this part is all about X resources. As of xterm
+ 4.0.1-1, xterm handles these translations correctly internally.
- Whatever is running in the xterm (like the shell) can be getting
bogus information from the terminfo file for the terminal type that
xterm is using. If you're not using TERM=xterm, make sure you
@@ -690,7 +811,7 @@
*) How do I change xterm's default terminal type or key bindings?
-You can accomplish this by editing /etc/X11/Xresources/xterm. (Individual
+You can accomplish this by editing /etc/X11/app-defaults/XTerm (Individual
users may customize $HOME/.Xresources instead.)
XTerm.termName is the resource that controls what terminal type xterm
@@ -708,16 +829,9 @@
An example is probably the best documentation for the time being:
-*VT100.Translations: #override ~Shift ~Ctrl ~Meta <Key>BackSpace: string("\177")\n\
- ~Shift ~Ctrl ~Meta <Key>Delete: string("\033[3~")\n\
- ~Shift ~Ctrl ~Meta <Key>Home: string("\033[1~")\n\
- ~Shift ~Ctrl ~Meta <Key>End: string("\033[4~")\n\
- ~Shift <Key>F1: string("ssh remote.host.org")\n\
+*VT100.Translations: #override ~Shift <Key>F1: string("ssh remote.host.org")\n\
Shift <Key>F1: string("ssh -C remote.host.org")
-This duplicates the translation overrides from /etc/X11/Xresources/xterm
-(as they were defined as of xterm 3.3.6-6). Note the added "\n\" at the
-end of the fourth line, which is not present in /etc/X11/Xresources/xterm.
The "\n" ends the current definition, and the final "\" escapes the
subsequent newline. For these overrides, a list of modifier keys precedes
the string "<Key>" and the the X keysym name (you can use the xev program
@@ -789,4 +903,23 @@
running, is listening on the TCP port, and/or engage in some network
troubleshooting.
-Branden Robinson, 15 August 2000
+*) Why does the "single-quote" (') symbol in the fonts not look the way it
+ used to?
+
+ First things first: this symbol is an apostrophe, not a single-quote. The
+ glyph did indeed change between XFree86 3.x and XFree86 4.x, fixing a
+ long-standing bug.
+
+ The reasoning behind this change is extensive: see
+ <http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs/quotes.html>.
+
+ I'll also note for the record that my DEC VT520 terminal, which easily
+ predates the percolation of Unicode standardization efforts into Unix,
+ draws the apostrophe as a short vertical line. Therefore I personally do
+ not find "traditionalist" arguments very convincing. DEC VT terminals have
+ a much greater claim to historical authenticity for Unix than VGA BIOS
+ fonts do.
+
+Branden Robinson, 18 June 2001
+
+vim:set ai et sts=2 sw=2 tw=78:
--
G. Branden Robinson | You can have my PGP passphrase when you
Debian GNU/Linux | pry it from my cold, dead brain.
branden@debian.org | -- Adam Thornton
http://www.debian.org/~branden/ |
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