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#1 2009-04-06 12:33:11

tlawren
Member
From: Colorado, US
Registered: 2009-04-06
Posts: 80

xorg.conf question

I am kind of embarassed to ask this question, but I have to. Where do I find xorg.conf? Do I even have such a file? It is not in /etc/X11.

When I installed Xorg, I also installed hal and then added it to module list in rc.conf. Does hal just detect my xorg settings everytime I run X, thus eliminating the need for xorg.conf?

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#2 2009-04-06 12:37:31

Allan
Pacman
From: Brisbane, AU
Registered: 2007-06-09
Posts: 11,365
Website

Re: xorg.conf question

There is not one provided in any xorg package.  You needed to generate it yourself.  See: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Xorg

I recommend using xorg's "X -configure"

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#3 2009-04-06 12:42:40

principo
Member
From: Zavidovici, Bosnia
Registered: 2009-03-09
Posts: 7

Re: xorg.conf question

If everything works as expected than you don't need an xorg.conf. HAL is doing everything for you. But usually you want to be able to set some settings (e.g video adapter).
Especially in my case i had a huge problem after generating xorg.conf. On my hp nx9420 neither the keyboard nor the touchpad worked. The only solution was to boot from a live distro and edit the xorg.conf from there. I think the problem was the missing hal daemon - im not sure.

Another well working way to generate a xorg.conf is hwd:

sudo hwd -xa

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#4 2009-04-06 13:37:02

tlawren
Member
From: Colorado, US
Registered: 2009-04-06
Posts: 80

Re: xorg.conf question

So it is possible to have a custom xorg.conf and run hal at the same time? During my first install, I did go through xorg.conf and then ran hal. When I ran gdm, I lost my kyboard and mouse.

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#5 2009-04-06 13:48:04

bender02
Member
From: UK
Registered: 2007-02-04
Posts: 1,328

Re: xorg.conf question

tlawren wrote:

So it is possible to have a custom xorg.conf and run hal at the same time?

Yes. If you don't have the following in your xorg.conf

Section "ServerFlags"
   Option    "AutoAddDevices" "False"
EndSection

xorg will use hal for keyboard and mouse detection.

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#6 2009-04-06 17:55:09

paulez
Member
Registered: 2007-07-28
Posts: 24

Re: xorg.conf question

tlawren wrote:

So it is possible to have a custom xorg.conf and run hal at the same time? During my first install, I did go through xorg.conf and then ran hal. When I ran gdm, I lost my kyboard and mouse.

Did you install xf86-input-evdev ? It is used when hal autodetects the device to handle them instead of using xf86-input-mouse and xf86-input-keyboard.

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#7 2009-04-06 18:08:56

schuay
Package Maintainer (PM)
From: Austria
Registered: 2008-08-19
Posts: 564

Re: xorg.conf question

The only solution was to boot from a live distro and edit the xorg.conf from there. I think the problem was the missing hal daemon - im not sure.

There's a much easier way - boot into single user mode (either add "single" or "init=3" to the kernel line in grub) and edit your xorg.conf using nano or any other text editor.

Now, hal is *required*  as long as you don't have Option "AutoAddDevices" "False" in your xorg.conf. If you try to start X without having hal running, you will not be able to use your mouse/keyboard (again, if this happens, boot into single user mode and edit your xorg.conf). If you disable hotplugging (AutoAddDevices false), hal is optional (correct me if i'm wrong), but many features of KDE/Gnome depend on hal and won't work without it.

Personally, I'd recommend going with hotplugging and hal. First, try starting X without an xorg.conf. If everything looks good, you're done (on my notebooks I don't have xorg.conf). You might need xorg.conf to set stuff like your screen resolution - generate it (if you have an nvidia gfx card, use nvidia-xconfig), but make sure there are no lines concerning your mouse/keyboard in xorg.conf.

And, like paulez posted, you will need xf86-input-evdev.

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#8 2009-04-07 07:00:31

principo
Member
From: Zavidovici, Bosnia
Registered: 2009-03-09
Posts: 7

Re: xorg.conf question

schuay wrote:

The only solution was to boot from a live distro and edit the xorg.conf from there. I think the problem was the missing hal daemon - im not sure.

There's a much easier way - boot into single user mode (either add "single" or "init=3" to the kernel line in grub) and edit your xorg.conf using nano or any other text editor.
And, like paulez posted, you will need xf86-input-evdev.

Wow thx for this hint. I knew that there must be some better solution to change the boot runlevel. I searched for it but i couldn't find it. I tried to boot my notebook without a xorg.conf and it works perfectly.
But how can i know which graphics driver is used? I have an ati radeon x1600 (mobile) and both oss drivers installed. It's not so important because it works perfectly. I just used to switch the driver from time to time to see how the development proceeds smile

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#9 2009-04-07 07:33:20

MoonSwan
Member
From: Great White North
Registered: 2008-01-23
Posts: 881

Re: xorg.conf question

schuay wrote:

generate it (if you have an nvidia gfx card, use nvidia-xconfig), but make sure there are no lines concerning your mouse/keyboard in xorg.conf.

When I read the xorg wiki entry, it specified that you can specify which kind of Keyboard you use so it is detected correctly.  For example, I put the logitech_g15 setting my xorg under "Devices" as an "Option" so it looks like this -

"Option" "logitech_g15".

Am I wrong or have things changed since the wiki was updated?

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#10 2009-04-07 09:22:06

schuay
Package Maintainer (PM)
From: Austria
Registered: 2008-08-19
Posts: 564

Re: xorg.conf question

principo wrote:

But how can i know which graphics driver is used)

It's probably in your /var/log/Xorg.0.log. Glad to hear it's working smile

I put the logitech_g15 setting my xorg under "Devices" as an "Option" so it looks like this - Am I wrong or have things changed since the wiki was updated?

I'm not an expert on Xorg by far, but on a hunch I'd say this has moved to hal config files if you're using hotplugging. The defaults directory is  /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/, user configs are in /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/ and override the files in the defaults directory. /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/10-x11-input.fdi looks like it might apply.

Again, this is just a guess!

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