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From: Douglas Mayne on 12 Dec 2009 15:08
The latest Slackware version (13.0) has some nice features, including an
updated Firefox, Gimp, qt library, etc. One nice thing is that a Firefox
3.5.x rendering bug that showed up when rendering certain web pages (and
was present on certain ATI and nVidia hardware), is now fixed under the
latest X. However, getting the latest X to run can be tricky; a lot of
users have reported "hangs" with apparent loss of keyboard control
(requiring an ALT-SysReq sequence to regain control). There have been
various fixes offered, including disabling hal. I was able to fix the
problem, but not without "trying hard." YMMV. It is unfortunate that
something added with the intent of simplifying configuration, ends up
making it much harder in the end. After a few tries, I fixed my system by
abandoning my upgrade from 12.2, and went to a clean install instead. In
the end, that worked, but still required a bit of tweaking. For whatever
reason, my old the monitor requires refresh and sync parameters which
must be present in xorg.conf. I was able to generate the file using the
new recommendation to setup X. As root, I ran

# X -configure

That was successful, and when complete it suggests to perform another
test using this command:

# X -config /root/xorg.conf.new

I added the necessary monitor parameters manually before running that
command, and that worked. From here I copied the file to /etc/X11/
xorg.conf. Now, all users can now run X with that file in place.

Here is a screenshot, showing the nice default XFCE environment:
http://www.xmission.com/~ddmayne/slackware/ss.2009-12-12.01.png

p.s. I probably should go back and find out how the upgrade from 12.2
failed- I saved it before moving on. In any case, it does work, but in
some cases you have to "kick" it.

--
Douglas Mayne
From: Aaron W. Hsu on 12 Dec 2009 16:42
Douglas Mayne <invalid(a)invalid.com> writes:

>I was able to generate the file using the
>new recommendation to setup X. As root, I ran

># X -configure

Actually, my understanding of current recommended practice regarding X
is to first try running without an Xorg.conf file at all. This is a
change from old patterns. Basically, on most configurations I have seen
these days, X.org works fine and better without any xorg.conf file and
without any tweaking. If that fails, the above is a good first step to
tweaking things in an xorg.conf file; I don't believe it is generally
recommended to do this if things work without an xorg.conf file.

Aaron W. Hsu
--
A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.
From: Douglas Mayne on 12 Dec 2009 17:13
On Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:42:27 -0600, Aaron W. Hsu wrote:

> Douglas Mayne <invalid(a)invalid.com> writes:
>
>>I was able to generate the file using the new recommendation to setup X.
>>As root, I ran
>
>># X -configure
>
> Actually, my understanding of current recommended practice regarding X
> is to first try running without an Xorg.conf file at all. This is a
> change from old patterns. Basically, on most configurations I have seen
> these days, X.org works fine and better without any xorg.conf file and
> without any tweaking. If that fails, the above is a good first step to
> tweaking things in an xorg.conf file; I don't believe it is generally
> recommended to do this if things work without an xorg.conf file.
>
> Aaron W. Hsu
>
Your description is accurate, and how it is "supposed" to work. My main
point is that there are some new things to try when things don't work
"out of the box." For example, on this hardware when following the
recommendation of having no xorg.conf, the available screen modes are
restricted and top out at 800x600(a)60Hz, which is painful to look at
(YMMV). The trick is to force the creation of xorg.conf and add the
necessary parameters. Otherwise, the only choice looks like reverting to
12.2 because X is necessary for desktop users.

--
Douglas Mayne
From: Aaron W. Hsu on 12 Dec 2009 18:43
Douglas Mayne <invalid(a)invalid.com> writes:

>(YMMV). The trick is to force the creation of xorg.conf and add the
>necessary parameters. Otherwise, the only choice looks like reverting to
>12.2 because X is necessary for desktop users.

Naturally, users should definitely edit an xorg.conf file and make it
suitable if going without an xorg.conf doesn't work. Actually, some
systems have a tendency to revert to Vesa graphics, which have really
small modes by default. In those cases it's definitely better to have an
xorg.conf file.

Aaron W. Hsu
--
A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.
From: john on 14 Dec 2009 15:06
On Dec 12, 6:43 pm, Aaron W. Hsu <arcf...(a)sacrideo.us> wrote:
> Douglas Mayne <inva...(a)invalid.com> writes:
> >(YMMV). The trick is to force the creation of xorg.conf and add the
> >necessary parameters. Otherwise, the only choice looks like reverting to
> >12.2 because X is necessary for desktop users.
>
> Naturally, users should definitely edit an xorg.conf file and make it
> suitable if going without an xorg.conf doesn't work. Actually, some
> systems have a tendency to revert to Vesa graphics, which have really
> small modes by default. In those cases it's definitely better to have an
> xorg.conf file.
>
>   Aaron W. Hsu
> --
> A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.

This is one of those "if it ain't broke don't fix it" situations.
IMO abolishing xorg.conf was neither necessary nor helpful.
To get the proper screen density etc. choices I recommend either
copying xorg.conf from your next previous install or copying
xorg.conf.vesa
to xorg.conf and making the necessary changes to modes etc. .

I have a monitor capable of screen modes of 1280 x 1024 and beyond. I
may never work
in that density, but the virtual screen is bigger if the denser mode
is available.
I also set my vertical and hoizontal sync ranges to match actual
monitor specs,
not some automated guesstimate.

John Culleton
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