Tomcat web server - Chapter 3 . Getting into the Desktop 115
Chapter 3 . Getting into the Desktop 115 It s possible that you already did some configuration when you installed Linux. If you are able to start a desktop successfully and your mouse, keyboard, and screen all seem to be behaving, you may not have to do anything more to configure X. However, if you can t start the desktop or you want to adjust some basic features (such as screen resolution or number of colors supported), let s look at some ideas on how to go about doing those things. Creating a Working X Configuration File If your desktop crashes immediately or only shows garbled text, try to create a new X configuration file. With the X.org X server, that file is /etc/X11/xorg.conf. In XFree86, the configuration file, which has basically the same format, is /etc/X11/XF86Config. To have X try to create a sane xorg.conf file for you to use, do the following from a Terminal window as root user: 1. If Linux booted to a command prompt, go to the next step. However, if it tried to start X automatically, you might have an illegible screen. In that case, press these keys together: Ctrl+Alt+Backspace. It should kill your X server and get you back to a command prompt. If X tries to restart (and is still messed up), press Ctrl+Alt+F2. When you see the command prompt, log in as root and type init 3. This will temporarily bring you down to a nongraphical state. 2. To have X probe your video hardware and create a new configuration file, type: # Xorg -configure 3. The file x.org.conf.new should appear in your home directory. To test if this new configuration file works, type the following to start the X server: # X -xf86config /root/xorg.conf.new A gray background with an X in the middle should appear. Move the mouse to move the X pointer. If that succeeds, you have a working xorg.conf file to use. 4. Press Ctrl+Alt+Backspace to exit the X server. 5. Copy the new configuration file to where it is picked up the next time X starts. # cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf Chances are that you have a very basic X configuration that you may want to tune further. Note