On Fri, 1 Nov 2002 00:57:55 -0500 (EST) "Mike A. Harris" <mharris@redhat.com> wrote: > > There are several tools for configuring XFree86 that exist inside > XFree86, and externally from XFree86, some of which are rather > obsolete, and some of which are no longer shipped for one reason > or another in Red Hat Linux. Since a lot of these configuration > utilities have similar names, people very very often get them > mixed up, or spell them incorrectly. > > xf86config - ancient original commandline based question and > answer config tool that has been part of XFree86 for > ages. This is entirely text commandline based and > sucks majorly. It is included in RHL 8.0 still more > or less because it got missed by my axe. Most > likely this will die painfully next release. The > cavemen still using this can feel free to complain > to /dev/null when this happens. <grin> > > XF86Setup - First GUI based config tool included with XFree86 > itself. It is TCL/TK based, 16 color vga, > horrendously ugly, non-intuitive UI, unmaintained, > and obsolete. It is included still in XFree86 > source code, but it is disabled and most likely > contains many bugs. Hasn't been in RHL for quite a > while. > > xf86cfg - New GUI/TUI config tool that first appeared in > XFree86 4.0. It supports a GUI mode implemented > in using Xt/Xaw/whatever (shudder), and also has a > text mode which is ncurses based (which most people > are unaware of also). While the GUI is an > improvement over the other older caveman tools > above, it is only marginally better IMHO. This was > in RHL up until 7.3, but was removed from RHL 8.0 > intentionally, and will not be returning. I made > this a spec file conditional build time thing to > satiate any complainers. <grin> > > Xconfigurator - The text mode Red Hat XFree86 config tool which > has been the default X config tool for ages, > but is now obsolete and removed from the distro > in 8.0. Xconfigurator originally was > basically a newt based front end glued on top of > xf86config which was kludged and abused more and > more over time into the unmaintainable mess that > it is today. A new config tool was needed which > is more modern, user friendly, etc. and > continuing to kludge things into Xconfigurator > simply wasn't scalable or maintainable, so it was > dropped for 8.0, and redhat-config-xfree86 was > born in its place. It won't return. > > X -configure - The X server itself can generate a config file > in a pinch which can be used as is in many cases, > or can be tweaked by hand if necessary. > > redhat-config-xfree86 - The current supported XFree86 config tool > in Red Hat Linux 8.0 and future releases. > It is python+gtk based, and is the only > officially supported X config tool. > > This tool will be enhanced over time to try and provide the most > useful configuration tasks that end users really need to have. > The goal of the tool is to be end-user friendly, and to minimize > the amount of configuration required. As many things that can be > sensibly autoconfigured generally will be. Complex config items > will likely not be supported in the tool, or will only be > available with some -advanced option or somesuch - if anything. > A lot of the things that have traditionally _needed_ to be > configured before, are starting to gain autodetection support in > the X server. As more and more things go towards autodetection, > etc. - the need to explicitly configure them in the config file > becomes less and less of a need. The tools become simplified, > the users don't run away in fear, and life is good. > > Be sure to report bugs that occur with this tool, as well as > feature enhancement requests into Red Hat bugzilla. > > > Hope this helps. > > > > -- > Mike A. Harris ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris > OS Systems Engineer > XFree86 maintainer > Red Hat Inc. May I suggest that this email be added to one of redhats webpages and that a link be made pointing new users to it :) Mike, you da man. -- /dTd Perl 6 will give you the big knob. - Larry Wall -- Psyche-list mailing list Psyche-list@redhat.com https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/psyche-list
