diff --git a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11/chapter.sgml b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11/chapter.sgml index 87f3e9cb27..b6e94c2863 100644 --- a/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11/chapter.sgml +++ b/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x11/chapter.sgml @@ -1,1420 +1,1420 @@ The X Window System Synopsis FreeBSD uses XFree86 to provide users with a powerful graphical user interface. XFree86 is a open-source implementation of the X Window System. This chapter will cover installation and configuration of XFree86 on a FreeBSD system. For more information on XFree86 and video hardware that it supports, check the XFree86 web site. After reading this chapter, you will know: The various components of the X window system, and how they interoperate. How to install and configure XFree86. How to install and use different window managers. How to use TrueType fonts in XFree86. How to setup your system for graphical logins (XDM). Before reading this chapter, you should: Know how to install additional third-party software (). Understanding X Using X for the first time can be somewhat of a shock to someone familiar with other graphical environments, such as Microsoft Windows or MacOS. It is not necessary to understand all of the details of various X components and how they interact, however, some basic knowledge makes it possible to take advantage of X's strengths. Why X? X is not the first window system written for Unix, but it is the most popular. X's original development team had worked on another window system before writing X. That system's name was W (for Window). X is just the next letter in the Roman alphabet. X can be called X, X Window System, X11, and other terms. X Windows is to be avoided wherever possible; see &man.X.1; for more information. The X Client/Server Model X was designed from the beginning to be network-centric, and adopts a client-server model. In the X model, the X server runs on the computer that has the keyboard, monitor, and mouse attached. The server is responsible for managing the display, handling input from the keyboard and mouse, and so on. Each X application (such as XTerm, or Netscape) is a client. A client sends messages to the server such as Please draw a window at these coordinates, and the server sends back messages such as The user just clicked on the OK button. If there is only one computer involved, such as in a home or small office environment, the X server and the X clients will be running on the same computer. However, it is perfectly possible to run the X server on a less powerful desktop computer, and run X applications (the clients) on, say, the powerful and expensive machine that serves the office. In this scenario the communication between the X client and server takes place over the network. This confuses some people, because the X terminology is exactly backward to what they expect. They expect the X server to be the big powerful machine down the hall, and the X client to be the machine on their desk. Remember that the X server is the machine with the monitor and keyboard, and the X clients are the programs that display the windows. There is nothing in the protocol that forces the client and server machines to be running the same operating system, or even to be running on the same type of computer. It is certainly possible to run an X server on Microsoft Windows or Apple's MacOS, and there are various free and commercial applications available that do exactly that. The X server that ships with FreeBSD is called XFree86, and is available for free, under a license very similar to the FreeBSD license. Commercial X servers for FreeBSD are also available. The Window Manager The X design philosophy is much like the Unix design philosophy, tools, not policy. This means that X does not try to dictate how a task is to be accomplished. Instead, tools are provided to the user, and it is the user's responsibility to decide how to use those tools. This philosophy extends to X not dictating what windows should look like on screen, how to move them around with the mouse, what keystrokes to should use to move between windows (i.e., Alt Tab , in the case of Microsoft Windows), what the title bars on each window should look like, whether or not they have close buttons on them, and so on. Instead, X delegates this responsibility to an application called a Window Manager. There are dozens of window managers available for X; AfterStep, Blackbox, ctwm, Enlightenment, fvwm, Sawfish, twm, Window Maker, and more. Each of these window managers provides a different look and feel; some of them support virtual desktops; some of them allow customized keystrokes to manage the desktop; some have a Start button or similar device; some are themeable, allowing a complete change of look-and-feel by applying a new theme. These window managers, and many more, are available in the x11-wm category of the Ports Collection. In addition, the KDE and GNOME desktop environments both have their own window managers which integrate with the desktop. Each window manager also has a different configuration mechanism; some expect configuration file written by hand, others feature GUI tools for most of the configuration tasks; at least one (sawfish) has a configuration file written in a dialect of the Lisp language. Focus Policy Another feature the window manager is responsible for is the mouse focus policy. Every windowing system needs some means of choosing a window to be actively receiving keystrokes, and should visibly indicate which window is active as well. A familiar focus policy is called click-to-focus. This is the model utilized by Microsoft Windows, in which a window becomes active upon receiving a mouse click. X does not support any particular focus policy. Instead, the window manager controls which window has the focus at any one time. Different window managers will support different focus methods. All of them support click to focus, and the majority of them support several others. The most popular focus policies are: focus-follows-mouse The window that is under the mouse pointer is the window that has the focus. This may not necessarily be the window that is on top of all the other windows. The focus is changed by pointing at another window, there is no need to click in it as well. sloppy-focus This policy is a small extension to focus-follows-mouse. With focus-follows-mouse, if the mouse is moved over the root window (or background) then no window has the focus, and keystrokes are simply lost. With sloppy-focus, focus is only changed when the cursor enters a new window, and not when exiting the current window. click-to-focus The active window is selected by mouse click. The window may then be raised, and appear in front of all other windows. All keystrokes will now be directed to this window, even if the cursor is moved to another window. Many window managers support other policies, as well as variations on these. Be sure to consult the documentation for the window manager itself. Widgets The X approach of providing tools and not policy extends to the widgets that seen on screen in each application. Widget is a term for all the items in the user interface that can be clicked or manipulated in some way; buttons, check boxes, radio buttons, icons, lists, and so on. Microsoft Windows calls these controls. Microsoft Windows and Apple's MacOS both have a very rigid widget policy. Application developers are supposed to ensure that their applications share a common look and feel. With X, it was not considered sensible to mandate a particular graphical style, or set of widgets to adhere to. As a result, do not expect X applications to have a common look and feel. There are several popular widget sets and variations, including the original Athena widget set from MIT, Motif (on which the widget set in Microsoft Windows was modeled, all bevelled edges and three shades of grey), OpenLook, and others. Most newer X applications today will use a modern-looking widget set, either Qt, used by KDE, or GTK, used by the GNOME project. In this respect, there is some convergence in look-and-feel of the Unix desktop, which certainly makes things easier for the novice user. Installing XFree86 Before installing XFree86, decide on which version to run. XFree86 3.X is a maintenance branch of XFree86 development. It is very stable, and it supports a huge number of graphics cards. However, no new development is being done on the software. XFree86 4.X is a complete redesign of the system with many new features such as better support for fonts and anti-aliasing. Unfortunately this new architecture requires that the video drivers be rewritten, and some of the older cards that were supported in 3.X are not yet supported in 4.X. The FreeBSD setup program offers users the opportunity to install and configure XFree86 3.3.6 during installation (covered in ). To run XFree86 4.X, wait until after the base FreeBSD system is installed, and then install XFree86. For example, to build and install XFree86 4.X from the ports collection: &prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/x11/XFree86-4 &prompt.root; make all install clean Alternatively, XFree86 4.X can be installed from a binary package with the pkg_add tool or directly from the FreeBSD binaries provided on the XFree86 web site. The rest of this chapter will explain how to configure XFree86, and how to setup a productive desktop environment. Christopher Shumway Contributed by XFree86 Configuration XFree86 4.X XFree86 Before Starting Before configuration of XFree86 4.X, the the following information about the target system is needed: Monitor specifications Video Adapter chipset Video Adapter memory horizontal scan rate vertical scan rate The specifications for the monitor are used by XFree86 to determine the resolution and refresh rate to run at. These specifications can usually be obtained from the documentation that came with the monitor or from the manufacturer's website. There are two ranges of numbers that are needed, the horizontal scan rate and the vertical synchronization rate. The video adapter's chipset defines what driver module XFree86 uses to talk to the graphics hardware. With most chipsets, this can be automatically determined, but it is still useful to know in case the automatic detection does not work correctly. Video memory on the graphic adapter determines the resolution and color depth the system can run at. This is important to know so the user knows the limitations of the system. Configuring XFree86 4.X Configuration of XFree86 4.X is a multi-step process. The first step is to build an initial configuration file with the option to XFree86. As the super user, simply run: &prompt.root; XFree86 -configure This will generate a skeleton XFree86 configuration file in the current working directory called XF86Config.new. The XFree86 program will attempt to probe the graphics hardware on the system and will write a configuration file to load the proper drivers for the detected hardware on the target system. The next step is to test the existing configuration to verify that XFree86 can work with the graphics hardware on the target system. To preform this task, the user needs to run: &prompt.root; XFree86 -xf86config XF86Config.new If a black and grey grid and an X mouse cursor appears, then the configuration was successful. To exit the test, just press Ctrl Alt Backspace simultaneously. XFree86 4 Tuning Next, tune the XF86Config.new configuration file to taste. Open up the file in a text editor such as &man.emacs.1; or &man.ee.1;. The first thing to do is add the frequencies for the target system's monitor. These are usually expressed as a horizontal and vertical synchronization rate. These values are added to the XF86Config.new file under the "Monitor" section: Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Monitor Vendor" ModelName "Monitor Model" Horizsync 30-107 VertRefresh 48-120 EndSection The Horizsync and VertRefresh keywords may not exist in the configuration file. If they do not, they need to be added, with the correct horizontal synchronization rate placed after the Horizsync keyword and the vertical synchronization rate after the VertRefresh keyword. In the example above the target monitor's rates where entered. XF86Config While the XF86Config.new configuration file is still open in an editor, next select what the default resolution and color depth is desired. This is defined in the Screen section: Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Card0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultColorDepth 24 SubSection "Display" Depth 24 Modes "1024x768" EndSubSection EndSection The DefaultColorDepth keyword describes the color depth to run at by default. This can be overridden with the -bpp command line switch to &man.XFree86.1; The Modes keyword describes the resolution to run at for the given color depth. In the example above, the default color depth is twenty four bits per pixel. At this color depth, the accepted resolution is one thousand twenty four pixels by seven hundred and sixty eight pixels. To run at a resolution of one thousand twenty four pixels by seven hundred sixty eight pixels at twenty four bits per pixel, then add the DefaultColorDepth keyword with the value of twenty four, and add to the "Display" subsection with the desired Depth the Modes keyword with the resolution the user wishes to run at. Note that only VESA standard modes are supported as defined by the target system's graphics hardware. Finally, write out the configuration file and test it using the test mode given above. If all is well, then the configuration file needs to be installed in a common location where &man.XFree86.1; can find it. This is typically /etc/X11/XF86Config or /usr/X11R6/etc/X11/XF86Config. &prompt.root; cp XF86Config.new /etc/X11/XF86Config Once the configuration file has been placed in a common location, configuration is complete. In order to start XFree86 4.X with &man.startx.1;, install the x11/wrapper port. XFree86 4.X can also be started with &man.xdm.1;. Advanced Configuration Topics Configuration with Intel i810 Graphics Chipsets Intel i810 graphic chipset Configuration with Intel i810 integrated chipsets requires the agpgart AGP programming interface for XFree86 to to drive the card. To agpgart, the agp.ko kernel loadable module needs to be loaded into the kernel with &man.kldload.8;. This can be done automatically with the &man.loader.8; at boot time. Simply add this line to /boot/loader.conf: agp_load="YES" Next, a device node needs to be created for the programming interface. To create the AGP device node, run &man.MAKEDEV.8; in the /dev directory: &prompt.root; cd /dev &prompt.root; sh MAKEDEV agpgart This will allow configuration the hardware as any other graphics board. Murray Stokely Contributed by Using Fonts in XFree86 Type1 Fonts The default fonts that ship with XFree86 are less than ideal for typical desktop publishing applications. Large presentation fonts show up jagged and unprofessional looking, and small fonts in Netscape are almost completely unintelligible. However, there are several free, high quality Type1 (PostScript) fonts available which can be readily used with XFree86, either version 3.X or version 4.X. For instance, the URW font collection (x11-fonts/urwfonts) includes high quality versions of standard type1 fonts (Times Roman, Helvetica, Palatino and others). The Freefont collection (x11-fonts/freefont) includes many more fonts, but most of them are intended for use in graphics software such as the Gimp, and are not complete enough to serve as screen fonts. In addition, XFree86 can be configured to use TrueType fonts with a minimum of effort: see the section on TrueType fonts later. To install the above Type1 font collections from the ports collection, run the following commands: &prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/x11-fonts/urwfonts &prompt.root; make install clean And likewise with the freefont or other collections. To tell the X server that these fonts exist, add an appropriate line to the XF86Config file (in /etc/ for XFree86 version 3, or in /etc/X11/ for version 4), which reads: FontPath "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW/" Alternatively, at the command line in the X session run: &prompt.user; xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/URW &prompt.user; xset fp rehash This will work but will be lost when the X session is closed, unless it is added to the startup file (~/.xinitrc for a normal startx session, or ~/.xsession when logging in through a graphical login manager like XDM). A third way is to use the new XftConfig file: see the section on anti-aliasing. TrueType Fonts XFree86 4.X has built in support for rendering TrueType fonts. There are two different modules that can enable this functionality. The "freetype" module is used in this example because it is more consistent with the other font rendering back-ends. To enable the freetype module just add the following line to the module section of the /etc/X11/XF86Config file. Load "freetype" For XFree86 3.3.X, a separate TrueType font server is needed. Xfstt is commonly used for this purpose. To install Xfstt, simply install the port x11-servers/Xfstt. Now make a directory for the TrueType fonts (for example, /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType) and copy all of the TrueType fonts into this directory. Keep in mind that TrueType fonts cannot be directly taken from a Macintosh; they must be in Unix/DOS/Windows format for use by XFree86. Once the files have been copied into this directory, use ttmkfdir to create a fonts.dir file, so that the X font renderer knows that these new files have been installed. ttmkfdir is available from the FreeBSD Ports Collection as x11-fonts/ttmkfdir. &prompt.root; cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType &prompt.root; ttmkfdir > fonts.dir Now add the TrueType directory to the font path. This is just the same as described above for Type1 fonts, that is, use &prompt.user; xset fp+ /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/TrueType &prompt.user; xset fp rehash or add a line to the XF86Config file. That's it. Now Netscape, Gimp, StarOffice, and all of the other X applications should now recognize the installed TrueType fonts. Extremely small fonts (as with text in a high resolution display on a web page) and extremely large fonts (within StarOffice) will look much better now. Anti-Aliased Fonts Starting with version 4.0.2, XFree86 supports anti-aliased fonts. Currently, most software has not been updated to take advantage of this new functionality. However, Qt (the toolkit for the KDE desktop) does; so if XFree86 4.0.2 is used (or higher), Qt 2.3 (or higher) and KDE, all KDE/Qt applications can be made to use anti-aliased fonts. To configure anti-aliasing, create (or edit, if it already exists) the file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XftConfig. Several advanced things can be done with this file; this section describes only the simplest possibilities. First, tell the X server about the fonts that are to be anti-aliased. For each font directory, add a line similar to this: dir "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/Type1" Likewise for the other font directories (URW, truetype, etc) containing fonts to be anti-aliased. Anti-aliasing makes sense only for scalable fonts (basically, Type1 and TrueType) so do not include bitmap font directories here. The directories included here can now be commented out of the XF86Config file. Antialiasing makes borders slightly fuzzy, which makes very small text more readable and removes staircases from large text, but can cause eyestrain if applied to normal text. To exclude point sizes between 9 and 13 from anti-aliasing, include these lines: match any size > 8 any size < 14 edit antialias = false; Spacing for some monospaced fonts may also be inappropriate with anti-aliasing. This seems to be an issue with KDE, in particular. One possible fix for this is to force the spacing for such fonts to be 100. Add the following lines: match any family == "fixed" edit family =+ "mono"; match any family == "console" edit family =+ "mono"; (this aliases the other common names for fixed fonts as "mono"), and then add: match any family == "mono" edit spacing = 100; Supposing the Lucidux fonts as desired whenever monospaced fonts are required (these look nice, and do not seem to suffer from the spacing problem), replace that last line with these: match any family == "mono" edit family += "LuciduxMono"; match any family == "Lucidux Mono" edit family += "LuciduxMono"; match any family == "LuciduxMono" edit family =+ "Lucidux Mono"; (the last lines alias different equivalent family names). Finally, it is nice to allow users to add commands to this file, via their personal .xftconfig files. To do this, add a last line: includeif "~/.xftconfig" One last point: with an LCD screen, sub-pixel sampling may be desired. This basically treats the (horizontally separated) red, green and blue components separately to improve the horizontal resolution; the results can be dramatic. To enable this, add the line somewhere in the XftConfig file match edit rgba=rgb; (depending on the sort of display, the last word may need to be changed from from ``rgb'' to ``bgr'', ``vrgb'' or ``vbgr'': experiment and see which works best.) Anti-aliasing should be enabled the next time the X server is started. However, note that programs must know how to take advantage of it. At the present time, the toolkit Qt does, so the entire KDE environment can use anti-aliased fonts (see on KDE for details); there are patches for gtk+ to do the same, so if compiled against such a patched gtk+, the GNOME environment and Mozilla can also use anti-aliased fonts. In fact, there is now a port called x11/gdkxft which allows one to use antialiased fonts without recompiling: see for details. Anti-aliasing is still new to FreeBSD and XFree86; configuring it should get easier with time, and it will soon be supported by many more applications. Seth Kingsley Contributed by The X Display Manager Overview The X Display Manager (XDM) is an optional part of the X Window System that is used for login session management. This is useful for several types of situations, including minimal X Terminals, desktops, and large network display servers. Since the X Window System is network and protocol independent, there are a wide variety of possible configurations for running X clients and servers on different machines connected by a network. XDM provides a graphical interface for choosing which display server to connect to, and entering authorization information such as a login and password combination. Think of XDM as providing the same functionality to the user as the &man.getty.8; utility (see for details). That is, it performs system logins to the display being connected to and then runs a session manager on behalf of the user (usually an X window manager). XDM then waits for this program to exit, signaling that the user is done and should be logged out of the display. At this point, XDM can display the login and display chooser screens for the next user to login. Using XDM The XDM daemon program is located in /usr/X11R6/bin/xdm. This program can be run at any time as root and it will start managing the X display on the local machine. If XDM is to be run every time the machine boots up, a convenient way to do this is by adding an entry to /etc/ttys. For more information about the format and usage of this file, see . There is a line in the default /etc/ttys file for running the XDM daemon on a virtual terminal: ttyv8 "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm off secure By default this entry is disabled, and in order to enable it change field 5 from off to on and then restart &man.init.8; using the directions in . The first field, the name of the terminal this program will manage, is ttyv8. This means that XDM will start running on the 9th virtual terminal. Configuring XDM The XDM configuration directory is located in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm. In this directory there are several files used to change the behavior and appearance of XDM. Typically these files will be found: File Description Xaccess Client authorization ruleset. Xresources Default X resource values. Xservers List of remote and local displays to manage. Xsession Default session script for logins. Xsetup_* Script to launch applications before the login interface. xdm-config Global configuration for all displays running on this machine. xdm-errors Errors generated by the server program. xdm-pid The process ID of the currently running XDM. Also in this directory are a few scripts and programs used to setup the desktop when XDM is running. The purpose of each of these files will be briefly described. The exact syntax and usage of all of these files is described in &man.xdm.1; The default configuration is a simple rectangular login window with the hostname of the machine displayed at the top in a large font and Login: and Password: prompts below. This is a good starting point for changing the look and feel of XDM screens. Xaccess The protocol for connecting to XDM controlled displays is called the X Display Manager Connection Protocol (XDMCP). This file is a ruleset for controlling XDMCP connections from remote machines. By default, it allows any client to connect, but that does not matter unless the xdm-config is changed to listen for for remote connections. Xresources This is an application-defaults file for the display chooser and the login screens. This is where the appearance of the login program can be modified. The format is identical to the app-defaults file described in the XFree86 documentation. Xservers This is a list of the remote displays the chooser should provide as choices. Xsession This is the default session script for XDM to run after a user has logged in. Normally each user will have a customized session script in ~/.xsessionrc that overrides this script. Xsetup_* These will be run automatically before displaying the chooser or login interfaces. There is a script for each display being used, named Xsetup_ followed by the local display number (for instance Xsetup_0). Typically these scripts will run one or two programs in the background such as xconsole. xdm-config This contains settings in the form of app-defaults that are applicable to every display that this installation manages. xdm-errors This contains the output of the X servers that XDM is trying to run. If a display that XDM is trying to start hangs for some reason, this is a good place to look for error messages. These messages are also written to the user's ~/.xsession-errors file on a per-session basis. Running a Network Display Server In order for other clients to connect to the display server, edit the access control rules, and enable the connection listener. By default these are set to conservative values. To make XDM listen for connections, first comment out a line in the xdm-config file: ! SECURITY: do not listen for XDMCP or Chooser requests ! Comment out this line if you want to manage X terminals with xdm DisplayManager.requestPort: 0 and then restart XDM. Remember that comments in app-defaults files begin with a ! character, not the usual #. More strict access controls may be desired. Look at the example entries in Xaccess file, and refer to the &man.xdm.1; manual page. Replacements for XDM Several replacements for the default XDM program exist. One of them, KDM (bundled with KDE) is described later in this chapter. KDM offers many visual improvements and cosmetic frills, as well as the functionality to allow users to choose their window manager of choice at login time. Valentino Vaschetto Contributed by Desktop Environments This section describes the different desktop environments available for X on FreeBSD. A desktop environment will mean anything ranging from a simple window manager, to a complete suite of desktop applications such as KDE or GNOME. GNOME About GNOME GNOME is a user-friendly desktop environment that enables users to easily use and configure their computers. GNOME includes a panel (for starting applications and displaying status), a desktop (where data and applications can be placed), a set of standard desktop tools and applications, and a set of conventions that make it easy for applications to cooperate and be consistent with each other. Users of other operating systems or environments should feel right at home using the powerful graphics-driven environment that GNOME provides. Installing GNOME The easiest way to install GNOME is through the Desktop Configuration menu during the FreeBSD installation process as described in Chapter 2. They can also be easily installed from a package or the ports collection: To install the GNOME package from the network, simply type: &prompt.root; pkg_add -r gnome To build GNOME from source, use the ports tree: &prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/x11/gnome &prompt.root; make install clean Once GNOME is installed, the X server must be told to start GNOME instead of a default window manager. If a custom .xinitrc is already in place, simply replace the line that starts the current window manager with one that starts /usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session instead. If nothing special has been done to configuration file, then it is enough to simply type: &prompt.root; echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session" > ~/.xinitrc Next, type startx, and the GNOME desktop environment will be started. If a display manager, like XDM, is being used, this will not work. Instead, create an executable .xsession file with the same command in it. To do this, edit the file and replace the existing window manager command with /usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session: &prompt.root; echo "#!/bin/sh" > ~/.xsession &prompt.root; echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session" >> ~/.xsession &prompt.root; chmod +x ~/.xsession Another option is to configure the display manager to allow choosing the window manager at login time; the section on KDE2 details explains how to do this for kdm, the display manager of KDE. Anti-aliased fonts with GNOME While anti-aliased fonts made their first appearance on XFree86 desktops in the KDE environment and are supported there in the standard installation, it is also possible to use them with gtk applications such as the GNOME environment. The most straightforward way is probably by using the libgdkxft library, in the x11/gdkxft port. After installing this port, read the /usr/X11R6/share/doc/gdkxft/README file carefully. Then, all that is needed is to do is tell gtk applications to look for their font-rendering functions in libgdkxft.so before looking in the standard place, libgdk.so. This is easily accomplished by setting an environment variable to point to the right place; with the Bourne shell (/bin/sh) or similar shells, type the command (to start The Gimp, say) &prompt.user; LD_PRELOAD=/usr/X11R6/lib/libgdkxft.so gimp and with csh and similar shells, type &prompt.user; setenv LD_PRELOAD /usr/X11R6/lib/libgdkxft.so &prompt.user; gimp Or, the commands LD_PRELOAD=/usr/X11R6/lib/libgdkxft.so export LD_PRELOAD can be put into .xinitrc, .xsession or in the appropriate place(s) in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession, depending on how X is normally started. However, this short-cut may cause problems if Linux GTK binaries are run. KDE2 About KDE2 KDE is an easy to use contemporary desktop environment. Some of the things that KDE brings to the user are: A beautiful contemporary desktop A desktop exhibiting complete network transparency An integrated help system allowing for convenient, consistent access to help on the use of the KDE desktop and its applications Consistent look and feel of all KDE applications Standardized menu and toolbars, keybindings, color-schemes, etc. Internationalization: KDE is available in more than 40 languages Centralized consisted dialog driven desktop configuration A great number of useful KDE applications KDE has an office application suite based on KDE's KParts technology consisting of a spread-sheet, a presentation application, an organizer, a news client and more. KDE also comes with a web browser called Konqeuror, which represents a solid competitor to other existing web browsers on Unix systems. More information on KDE can be found on the KDE website. Installing KDE2 Just like with GNOME or any other desktop environment, the easiest way to install KDE is through the Desktop Configuration menu during the FreeBSD installation process as described in Chapter 2. Once again, the software can be easily installed from a package or from the ports collection: To install the KDE2 package from the network, simply type: &prompt.root; pkg_add -r kde2 To build KDE from source, use the ports tree: &prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/x11/kde2 &prompt.root; make install clean After KDE2 has been installed, the X server must be told to launch this application instead of the default window manager. This is accomplished by editing the .xinitrc file: &prompt.root; echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/startkde" > ~/.xinitrc Now, whenever invoke X-Windows with startx, KDE2 will be the desktop. If a display manager such as xdm is being used, then configuration is slightly different. Edit the .xsession file instead. Instructions for kdm are described later in this chapter. More Details on KDE2 Now that KDE2 is installed on the system, most things can be discovered through the help pages, or just by pointing and clicking at various menus. Windows or Mac users will feel quite at home. The best reference for KDE is the on-line documentation. KDE comes with its own web browser, Konqueror, dozens of useful applications, and extensive documentation. The remainder of this section discusses the technical items that are difficult to learn by random exploration. The KDE display manager An administrator of a multi-user system may wish to have a graphical login screen to welcome users. xdm can be used, as described earlier. However, KDE includes an alternative, KDM, which is designed to look more attractive and include more login-time options. In particular, users can easily choose (via a menu) which desktop environment (KDE2, GNOME, or something else) to run after logging on. To begin with, run the KDE2 control panel, kcontrol, as root. It is generally considered unsafe to run the entire X environment as root. Instead, run the window manager as a normal user, open a terminal window (such as xterm or KDE's konsole, become root with su (the user must be in the wheel group in /etc/group for this), and then type kcontrol. Click on the icon on the left marked System, then on Login manager. On the right there are various configurable options, which the KDE manual will explain in greater detail. Click on sessions on the right. Click New type to add various window managers and desktop environments. These are just labels, so they can say KDE and GNOME rather than startkde or gnome-session. Include a label failsafe. Play with the other menus as well, they are mainly cosmetic and self-explanatory. When are done, click on Apply at the bottom, and quit the control center. To make sure kdm understands what the labels (KDE, GNOME etc) mean, edit the files used by xdm. In KDE 2.2 this has changed: kdm now uses its own configuration files. Please see the KDE 2.2 documentation for details. In a terminal window, as root, edit the file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession. There is a section in the middle like this: case $# in 1) case $1 in failsafe) exec xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0 ;; esac esac A few lines need to be added to this section. Assuming the labels from used were KDE2 and GNOME, use the following: case $# in 1) case $1 in KDE2) exec /usr/X11R6/bin/startkde ;; GNOME) exec /usr/X11R6/bin/gnome-session ;; failsafe) exec xterm -geometry 80x24-0-0 ;; esac esac For the KDE login-time desktop background to be honored, the following line needs to be added to /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xdm/Xsetup_0: /usr/X11R6/bin/kdmdesktop Now, make sure kdm is listed in /etc/ttys to be started at the next bootup. To do this, simply follow the instructions from the previous section on xdm and replace references to the /usr/X11R6/bin/xdm program with /usr/local/bin/kdm. Anti-aliased Fonts Starting with version 4.0.2, XFree86 supports anti-aliasing via its "RENDER" extension, and starting with version 2.3, Qt (the toolkit used by KDE) supports this extension. Configuring this is described in on antialiasing X11 fonts. So, with up-to-date software, anti-aliasing is possible on a KDE2 desktop. Just go to the KDE2 - menu, go to Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Style, and click + menu, go to Preferences -> Look and Feel -> Fonts, and click on the check box Use Anti-Aliasing for Fonts and Icons. For a Qt application which is not part of KDE, the environment variable QT_XFT needs to be set to true before starting the program. XFCE About XFCE XFCE is a desktop environment based on the GTK toolkit used by GNOME, but is much more lightweight and meant for those who want a simple, efficient desktop which is nevertheless easy to use and configure. Visually, it looks very much like CDE, found on commercial Unix systems. Some of XFCE's features are: A simple, easy-to-handle desktop Fully configurable via mouse, with drag and drop, etc Main panel similar to CDE, with menus, applets and app launchers Integrated window manager, file manager, sound manager, GNOME compliance module, and other things Themeable (since it uses GTK) Fast, light and efficient: ideal for older/slower machines or machines with memory limitations More information on XFCE can be found on the XFCE website. Installing XFCE A binary package for xfce exists (at the time of writing). To install, simply type: &prompt.root; pkg_add -r xfce Alternatively, to build from source, use the ports collection: &prompt.root; cd /usr/ports/x11-wm/xfce &prompt.root; make install clean Now, tell the X server to launch XFCE the next time X is started. Simply type this: &prompt.root; echo "/usr/X11R6/bin/startxfce" > ~/.xinitrc The next time X is started, XFCE will be the desktop. As before, if a display manager like xdm is being used, create an .xsession, as described in the section on GNOME, but with the /usr/X11R6/bin/startxfce command; or, configure the display manager to allow choosing a desktop at login time, as explained in the section on kdm.