README for XFree86 &relvers; on OpenBSD <author> Matthieu Herrb <Date>Last modified on: 15 August 2001 <ident> $XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/sgml/OpenBSD.sgml,v 1.19 2001/08/15 19:35:53 herrb Exp $ </ident> <toc> <sect>What and Where is XFree86? XFree86 is the Open Source port of X.Org's X11R6.5.1 release that supports several UNIX(R) and UNIX-like (such as Linux, the BSDs and Solaris x86) operating systems on Intel and other platforms. See the <htmlurl url="COPYRIGHT.html" name="Copyright Notice">. The sources for XFree86 &relvers; are available by anonymous ftp from: <htmlurl name="ftp://ftp.XFree86.org/pub/XFree86/&relvers;" url="ftp://ftp.XFree86.org/pub/XFree86/&relvers;"> Binaries for OpenBSD/i386 2.9 and later are available from: <htmlurl name="ftp://ftp.XFree86.org/pub/XFree86/&relvers;/binaries/OpenBSD" url="ftp://ftp.XFree86.org/pub/XFree86/&relvers;/binaries/OpenBSD"> A list of mirror sites is provided by <htmlurl name="http://www.xfree86.org/MIRRORS.shtml" url="http://www.xfree86.org/MIRRORS.shtml"> XFree86 also builds on other OpenBSD architectures. See section <ref id="otherarch" name="Building on other architectures"> for details. <sect>Bug Reports for This Document Send email to <email>herrb@xfree86.org</email> (Matthieu Herrb) or <email>XFree86@XFree86.org</email> if you have comments or suggestions about this file and we'll revise it. <sect>New OS dependent features See the <htmlurl url="RELNOTES.html" name="Release Notes"> for non-OS dependent new features in XFree86 &relvers;. <sect1>New OS dependent features in 4.2 <itemize> <item>Support for OpenBSD/powerpc on the ATI Rage128 based Power Macintosh. </itemize> <sect1>New OS dependent features in 4.0.3 <itemize> <item>Support for the wscons console driver in post 2.8 OpenBSD. <item>A fix for multi-threaded libraries support. </itemize> <sect1>New OS dependent features in 4.0.2 <itemize> <item>Support for the OpenBSD ports tree, <item>Preliminary support for the powerpc architecture (clients build and work, the server doesn't work yet), <item>xdm now writes an utmp entry, <item>startx now creates an Xauthority magic cookie for the display. </itemize> <sect1>New OS dependent features in 4.0.1 <itemize> <item>Several features from the OpenBSD X11 tree were merged into xdm: <itemize> <item> support for Kerberos IV authentication <item>use the arc4random(4) random number generator <item>add a new resource "allowRootLogin", which can be used to disable root logins through xdm <item>log failed logins to syslogd <item>verify that the shell is valid using /etc/shell <item>verify that the account hasn't expired </itemize> <item>The Xsun server can be built again on OpenBSD/sparc. </itemize> <sect1>New OS dependent features in 4.0 <itemize> <item>Multi-thread safe libraries are built by default on OpenBSD 2.6 and later, <item>Preliminary APM support. </itemize> <sect1>New OS dependent features in 3.9.18 <itemize> <item>Support for USB mices has been added on OpenBSD. <item>Soft-booting secondary cards through the int10 BIOS interface is now possible using the x86emu real mode emulator. </itemize> <sect1>New OS dependent features in 3.9.17 <itemize> <item>Silken mouse is supported for serial mices, and, under post 2.6 OpenBSD-current for PS/2 mices. <item>MTRR Write Combining is enabled under post 2.6 OpenBSD-current. </itemize> <sect>Installing the Binaries Refer to the <htmlurl url="Install.html" name="Installation Document"> for detailed installation instructions. <sect>Configuring X for Your Hardware The <tt>/etc/X11/XF86Config</tt> file tells the X server what kind of monitor, video card and mouse you have. You <em/must/ create it to tell the server what specific hardware you have. You'll need info on your hardware: <itemize> <item>Your mouse type, baud rate and its /dev entry. <item>The video card's chipset (e.g. ET4000, S3, etc). <item>Your monitor's sync frequencies. </itemize> The recommended way to generate an <tt/XF86Config/ file is to use the <tt/xf86cfg/ utility. The xf86config text utility is still there for the (few) cases where xf86cfg can't be used. Also, there is a sample file installed as <tt>/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.eg</tt>, which can be used as a starting point. For details about the <tt/XF86Config/ file format, refer to the XF86Config(5) manual page. Once you've set up a XF86Config file, you can fine tune the video modes with the <tt>xvidtune</tt> utility. <sect1>About mouse configuration XFree86 &relvers; has support for the mouse driver included in the new <bf/wscons/ console driver introduced by OpenBSD-2.9. Specify ``<tt/wsmouse/'' as the protocol and ``<tt>/dev/wsmouse0</tt>'' as the device in <tt>/etc/X11/XF86Config</tt> if you're using OpenBSD-2.9 or later with a PS/2 or USB mouse. See <htmlurl url="mouse.html" name="README.mouse"> for general instruction on mouse configuration in XFree86. <sect>Running X <sect1>Starting xdm, the display manager To start the display manager, log in as root on the console and type: ``<tt/xdm -nodaemon/''. You can start xdm automatically on bootup by changing the line <tscreen><verb> xdm_flags=NO # for normal use: xdm_flags="" </verb></tscreen> to: <tscreen><verb> xdm_flags="" # for normal use: xdm_flags="" </verb></tscreen> in <tt>/etc/rc.conf</tt>. Note that the binary distributions of XFree86 for OpenBSD on ftp.xfree86.org and its mirrors don't include support for the XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1 protocol, because of the US export rules. <sect1>Running X without the display manager The easiest way for new users to start X windows is to type: ``<tt/startx >& startx.log/''. Error messages are lost unless you redirect them because the server takes over the screen. To get out of X windows, type: ``<tt/exit/'' in the console xterm. You can customize your X by creating <tt/.xinitrc/, <tt/.xserverrc/, and <tt/.twmrc/ files in your home directory as described in the xinit and startx man pages. <sect>Kernel Support for X To make sure X support is enabled under OpenBSD, the following line must be in your config file in <tt>/sys/arch/i386/conf</tt>: <tscreen> option XSERVER option APERTURE </tscreen> <sect1>Console drivers The server supports the standard OpenBSD/i386 console drivers: pcvt and wscons. They are detected at runtime and no configuration of the server itself is required. The pcvt console driver is the default in OpenBSD up to OpenBSD 2.8. It offers several virtual consoles and international keyboard support. OpenBSD 2.9 and later has switched to the wscons console driver. This console driver has a pcvt compatibility mode for X support. <sect1>Aperture Driver By default OpenBSD includes the BSD 4.4 kernel security feature that disable access to the <tt>/dev/mem</tt> device when in multi-users mode. But the XFree86 server require linear access to the display memory in most cases. OpenBSD now requires the aperture driver to be enabled for all X servers, because the aperture driver also controls access to the I/O ports of the video boards. To enable the aperture driver, once included in the kernel, set <tscreen><verb> machdep.allowaperture=2 </verb></tscreen> in <tt>/etc/sysctl.conf</tt>. See the xf86(4) manual page for details. Another (less recommended) way to enable linear memory and I/O ports access is to disable the kernel security feature by adding ``option INSECURE'' in your kernel configuration file and build a new kernel. You will also need to comment out the line initializing <tt/securelevel/ to 1 in <tt>/etc/rc.securelevel</tt>. <quote> <bf/Caveat:/ the aperture driver only allows one access at a time (so that the system is in the same security state once X is launched). This means that if you run multiple servers on multiples VT, only the first one will have linear memory access. Use 'option INSECURE' if you need more that one X server at a time. </quote> <sect1>MIT-SHM OpenBSD supports System V shared memory. If XFree86 detects this support in your kernel, it will support the MIT-SHM extension. To add support for system V shared memory to your kernel add the lines: <tscreen><verb> # System V-like IPC options SYSVMSG options SYSVSEM options SYSVSHM </verb></tscreen> to your kernel config file. <sect> Rebuilding the XFree86 Distribution The server developer's kit allow you to rebuild just the X server with a minimum amount of disk space. Just unpack it, make the appropriate changes to the <tt/xf86site.def/, type ``<tt>./mkmf</tt>'' and ``<tt/make/'' to link the server. See <tt>/usr/X11R6/lib/Server/README</tt> for more info. You should configure the distribution by editing <tt>xc/config/cf/host.def</tt> before compiling. To compile the sources, invoke ``<tt/make World/'' in the xc directory. <sect1>Console drivers<label id="console-drivers"> XFree86 has a configuration option to select the console drivers to use in <tt/host.def/: <itemize> <item> if you're using pccons only put: <tscreen><verb> #define XFree86ConsoleDefines -DPCCONS_SUPPORT </verb></tscreen> <item>if you're using pcvt only put: <tscreen><verb> #define XFree86ConsoleDefines -DPCVT_SUPPORT </verb></tscreen> </itemize> If you don't define <bf/XFree86ConsoleDefines/ in <tt/host.def/ the pccons and pcvt drivers will be supported by default. Native support for the wscons console driver found on OpenBSD/powerpc and on OpenBSD/i386 2.9 is built by adding: <tscreen><verb> #define XFree86ConsoleDefines -DWSCONS_SUPPORT </verb></tscreen> to <tt>xc/config/host.def</tt> before rebuilding the server. This has not been thoroughly tested, except on the macppc. For the i386, you should include both pcvt and wscons support in order to use the pcvt compatibility mode of wscons: <tscreen><verb> #define XFree86ConsoleDefines -DPCVT_SUPPORT -DWSCONS_SUPPORT </verb></tscreen> <sect1>Building on other architectures<label id="otherarch"> XFree86 also compiles on other OpenBSD architectures. Note that OpenBSD project has now its own source tree, based on the XFree86 source tree, with some local modifications. You may want to start with this tree to rebuild from sources. The OpenBSD XF4 source tree is available by anoncvs from all OpenBSD anoncvs servers. See <htmlurl url="http://www.openbsd.org/anoncvs.html" name="http://www.openbsd.org/anoncvs.html"> for details on anoncvs. <sect2>XFree86 on OpenBSD/powerpc The XFree86 server is currently known to work on the G4 Macs with ATI Rage 128 cards. Other machines are more or less untested. Use xf86config to build a /etc/X11/XF86Config file before starting the server for the first time. For the Titanium Powerbook G4, you can try the following mode line in <tt>/etc/X11/XF86Config</tt> to match the flat panel resolution: <tscreen><verb> Modeline "1152x768" 78.741 1152 1173 1269 1440 768 769 772 800 +HSync +VSync </verb></tscreen> You need a kernel compiled with ``option INSECURE'' in the configuration file to run XFree86 on OpenBSD/powerpc. <sect>Building New X Clients The easiest way to build a new client (X application) is to use <tt/xmkmf/ if an <tt/Imakefile/ is included in the sources. Type ``<tt/xmkmf -a/'' to create the Makefiles, check the configuration if necessary and type ``<tt/make/''. Whenever you install additional man pages you should update <tt/whatis.db/ by running ``<tt>makewhatis /usr/X11R6/man</tt>''. <sect> Thanks Many thanks to all people who contributed to make XFree86 work on *BSD, in particular, <bf/David Dawes/, <bf/Pace Willison/, <bf/Amancio Hasty/, <bf/Christoph Robitschko/, <bf/Nate Williams/, <bf/Rod Grimes/, <bf/Jack Velte/ and <bf/Michael Smith/. </article>