               Installation Details for XFree86[tm] 4.3.99.15

                          The XFree86 Project, Inc

                              24 February 2003

                                  Abstract

     How to install XFree86.

1.  Introduction

This document contains information about installing the XFree86 binaries as
provided by The XFree86 Project.

The XFree86 binaries that we provide for UNIX-like OS's (Linux, the BSDs,
Solaris, etc) are packaged in a platform-independent gzipped tar format (aka
"tarballs" identified by the .tgz suffix).  Along with the binaries we pro-
vide a customized version of the GNU tar utility called "extract" and an
installation script.  We recommend that these be used to install the bina-
ries.  (The source for this customized version of GNU tar can be found in the
XFree86 CVS repository's "utils" module, and from our ftp site
<URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/misc/utils-1.1.0.tgz>.)

Note: for snapshot releases like this one, binaries are only available for a
small number of platforms.

2.  Downloading the XFree86 4.3.99.15 binaries

We provide XFree86 4.3.99.15 binaries for a range of operating systems at our
ftp site <URL:ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/snapshots/4.3.99.15/bina-
ries/> and our web site <URL:http://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/snap-
shots/4.3.99.15/binaries/>.  Often during releases our site is heavily
loaded.  Instead of downloading directly from us we recommend that instead
you use one of our mirror sites.

Our binaries are organized by sub-directories which correspond to each of the
OS/platforms for which we provide binaries.  First go to the sub-directory
that represents your OS platform. In some cases (e.g., Linux) there may be a
number of choices depending on the architecture or libc version your platform
uses.  In all case we recommend that you first download the Xinstall.sh
script, and run it as in the following example to find out which binary dis-
tribution you should download.

     sh Xinstall.sh -check

The output of this utility tells you which is the correct set of binaries for
you to download.  If you are careful with this step you will save yourself a
lot time and trouble from NOT downloading an incompatible distribution.

NOTES:

   o The Xinstall.sh script must be downloaded in binary mode, otherwise it
     won't run correctly.  If you get lots of "command not found" messages
     when you try to run it, then it is most likely because the script wasn't
     downloaded in binary mode.  Some web browsers won't do this for files of
     that name, so we also have a copy of it called "Xinstall.bin", and most
     browsers should download that correctly.  When downloading it under this
     name, select "save as" on your browser, and save the file under the name
     "Xinstall.sh".

   o The Xinstall.sh script requires some system commands and utilities to
     function correctly.  While most systems will have these, some Linux
     installations may not.  If you find that the script is failing because
     of some missing system command, you will need to install it before you
     can continue.  If you don't know how to do this, then we recommend that
     you obtain this version of XFree86 from your Operating System distribu-
     tor.

   o Always use the version of the Xinstall.sh script that's provided with
     the release you're installing.  Older versions of the script may not
     install newer releases correctly.

   o If the binary distribution reported by the Xinstall.sh script isn't
     present on our site, then there are two possibilities.  The first is
     that it hasn't been prepared and uploaded yet.  This is likely if you
     are looking soon after the release date.  The second possibility is that
     we won't have it available at all for this release.  This is likely if
     it's still not there about two weeks after the release date.  Check here
     <URL:http://www.xfree86.org/4.3.99.15/UPDATES.html> for information
     about updates to our binary distributions, and here
     <URL:http://www.xfree86.org/4.3.99.15/ERRATA.html> for errata related to
     this release.

Once you're run the Xinstall.sh script and found which binary distribution is
suitable for your system, download the necessary files.  The  mandatory files
for all installations are listed below.  If you have not downloaded all of
the files, the installer script will complain.

NOTES:

   o Some web browsers have a problem downloading the extract utility cor-
     rectly.  If you encounter this problem, download the version called
     extract.exe instead.  This should fix the problem.  (This is not a
     DOS/Windows executable.)

   o The Darwin/Mac OS X distribution doesn't have or require the
      tarball.

   o Some distributions may have additional mandatory tarballs.  While rare,
     the installer script will tell you if any are missing.

3.  Installing XFree86 4.3.99.15 using the Xinstall.sh script

We strongly recommend that our XFree86 4.3.99.15 binaries be installed using
the Xinstall.sh script that we provide.  There are a lot of steps in the man-
ual installation process, and those steps can vary according to the platform
and hardware setup.

You must login as the super user (root) to run the installer script.  Place
all of the downloaded files into a single directory (choose a temporary loca-
tion with enough space).  Use the cd command to change to that directory and
then run the installer script as follows:

     sh Xinstall.sh

Answer the prompts as they come up.  If you are missing something that is
required, the installer may tell you to install it before trying again.  If
the problem is that you did not download all of mandatory files aforemen-
tioned, then the installer will tell you which ones are missing and ask you
to download them before proceeding.

3.1  Questions the installer may ask

The installer asks some questions that may not have obvious answers.  The
information here should help you answer them.  In most cases, apart from the
first question, the default answers should be OK.

If you run the installer from within an X session (the installer checks if
$DISPLAY is set), you will be warned that doing so is not a good idea.
Unless you have a good reason for knowing that this won't be a problem, you
should exit your X session, including stopping xdm or equivalent if it is
running, before continuing.  If you ignore this warning and run into prob-
lems, well, you were warned!

will be warned that proceeding with this installation will overwrite it.
Only those things that are part of our standard distribution will be over-
written.  Other X applications that you may have installed will not be
removed.  Some configuration files may be overwritten though, but the
installer should prompt you before doing so.  As the opening greeting says,
it is strongly recommended that you backup any existing installation before
proceeding.  If you want your old applications to still be there after you've
installed, don't do the "backup" by simply renaming your old /usr/X11R6
directory.  It is better to make a copy of it, and then install over the top
of the original one.  If you run into problems and want to revert to the old
installation, you can then delete the overwritten one and copy the saved ver-
sion back.

During the first part of the installation over an existing version, the
script may remove some old files or directories that would get in the way of
the new installation.  It will list which files/directories have been
removed.  If none are listed, then none were removed.

3.2  After the installation is complete

The next step is to configure the X server.  That is covered in detail in an
as-yet unwritten document :-(.  In the meantime, there are three ways to cre-
ate a basic X server configuration file for XFree86 4.3.99.15.  One is to run
the xf86config utility.  Another is to run the xf86cfg utility.  The third
option is to use the new -configure X server option:

     XFree86 -configure

Note that if you are running Darwin/Mac OS X, there is no step 3 :-).  You
should skip this step, as configuration is not required or possible.  The X
server configuration file is not used on Darwin/Mac OS X.

The X server config file (XF86Config) format has changed compared to 3.3.x.
Also, its default location is now /etc/X11.  Finally, there is now only one X
server for driving video hardware, and it is called "XFree86".  Once you're
satisfied with the operation of the new X server, you can safely remove the
old XF86_* and/or XF98_* X server binaries from /usr/X11R6/bin.

After the X server configuration is done, it may be advisable to reboot,
especially if you run xdm (or equivalent) or the font server (xfs).

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$XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/Install,v 1.23 2003/10/19 19:57:12 dawes Exp $
