These instructions are for installing kdrive-based X Servers on your system. This does not apply to X.Org at all.
If you're looking for an X server with transparency support, you might consider X.Org since its transparency support is rapidly stabilizing.
If you have some other reason for using the kdrive based server covered here, I'm looking for a replacement maintainer for this page....
It is surprisingly difficult to follow this type of instruction set. You'll have to concentrate and double-check yourself constantly. Good luck!
Unless you're planning to contribute code, you'll usually be better off using packages from your distribution if it has any. Some do. If yours is one of them, feel free and note it here or report it to me (see address at bottom of page.)
These instructions only go as far as the X server and xcompmgr (the eye-candy maker) and the things they require.
Before You Build
* `autoconf --version` must report 2.59 or later
* `automake --version` must report 1.9.x
* `libtool --version` must report 1.5 (available from <a href="http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libtool/">http://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/libtool/</a> if your distribution doesn't have it)
* `pkg-config --version` must report 0.9.0 or later
Troubleshooting
If you're getting errors mentioning automake, check that your automake install is recent enough using the commands above.
If you're getting errors mentioning PKG_CHECK_MODULES(), install pkgconfig.
You might also try XserverBuildScript which contains all these instructions in a runnable form.
The KDrive xserver isn't supported in FreeBSD. Anyone interested in porting it is welcome to do so, though.
Note that xcompmgr and window borders don't mix. Most window managers disable window borders but twm users may find that BorderWidth 0 in ~/.twmrc helps.
In case you get an error while compiling such as this:
checking for pkg-config... /opt/gnome2/bin/pkg-config checking pkg-config is at least version 0.9.0... yes checking for XDMCP... yes checking for XdmcpWrap in -lXdmcp... yes checking for XEPHYR... yes checking for XSERVER... configure: error: Package requirements (randrproto renderproto fixesproto damageproto xextproto xfont xproto xtrans xau compositeproto resourceproto recordproto xdmcp xdmcp) were not met. Consider adjusting the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable if you installed software in a non-standard prefix. Alternatively you may set the XSERVER_CFLAGS and XSERVER_LIBS environment variables to avoid the need to call pkg-config. See the pkg-config man page for more details. *** error during stage configure of xserver: could not configure module *** [32/38]
You might want to try this workaround:
cd /opt/fdo/lib/pkgconfig ln -s randr.pc randrproto.pc ln -s render.pc renderproto.pc ln -s fixesext.pc fixesproto.pc ln -s damageext.pc damageproto.pc ln -s xext.pc xextproto.pc ln -s compositeext.pc compositeproto.pc ln -s resourceext.pc resourceproto.pc ln -s recordext.pc recordproto.pc
And rerun the build. It helped here, but it's just a workaround, the real problem is somewhere else. If anyone knows better please fix the real problem instead.
Build Commands
Script version of these commands: XserverBuildScript
cvs login is no longer required when using cvs.freedesktop.org. if [ -z "$PKG_CONFIG_PATH" ]; then export PKG_CONFIG_PATH=/opt/fdo/lib/pkgconfig else export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="/opt/fdo/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH" fi cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Xproto pushd Xproto ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Xdmcp pushd Xdmcp ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co XExtensions pushd XExtensions ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co xtrans pushd xtrans ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Xau pushd Xau ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co X11 pushd X11 ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Xext pushd Xext ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Randr pushd Randr ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Render pushd Render ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Xrender pushd Xrender ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Xrandr pushd Xrandr ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co FixesExt pushd FixesExt ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co DamageExt pushd DamageExt ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Xfont pushd Xfont ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co ResourceExt pushd ResourceExt ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co RecordExt pushd RecordExt ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co CompositeExt pushd CompositeExt ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co xkbfile pushd xkbfile ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xserver co xserver pushd xserver ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo --enable-composite make sudo install -d /opt/fdo/bin sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Xfixes pushd Xfixes ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Xcomposite pushd Xcomposite ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd cvs -d :pserver:anoncvs@cvs.freedesktop.org:/cvs/xlibs co Xdamage pushd Xdamage ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd # http://cvs.freedesktop.org/xapps/ wget http://www.freedesktop.org/xapps/release/xcompmgr-1.1.tar.gz tar zxf xcompmgr-1.1.tar.gz pushd xcompmgr-1.1 ./autogen.sh --prefix=/opt/fdo make sudo make install popd # to start server, try something like... sudo /opt/fdo/bin/Xvesa :1 & xterm -display :1 # in xterm... export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="/opt/fdo/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH" /opt/fdo/bin/xcompmgr
I use pushd/popd instead of cd/cd .. because it protects against bugs in those install instructions that require directory changes. Fortunately, these are well behaved packages with simple installs.
Interesting XServer Options
* `-mouse /dev/psaux,5` enables the scroll wheel
* `-mouse /dev/input/mice,5` for a usb mouse with scroll wheel
* `-nolisten tcp` if you're getting xtrans errors about inet6 or other socket setup things.
* `-ac -nolisten tcp` if you're getting access denied errors when trying to start xterm. Beware this is a security risk, even with `-nolisten tcp`, so don't do it on a multi-user machine. I've heard some mention that you won't need this if your machine's hostname is set up correctly.
* `-listmodes` lists modes the VESA driver supports
* `-help` lists all these and more
* Don't forget the man pages `:)`
Contacting the Author
This page was originally written by SethKlein on 12-NOV-2003. He no longer uses kdrive and so as of 29-DEC-2004 this page is unmaintained. Please feel free to take up maintainership if you find it useful.
Updated by ?DiegoEscalante on 10-FEB-2006 while trying to get Xgl working.