----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike A. Harris" <mharris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <xfree86@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 8:14 PM Subject: Re: Improvement > On Sat, 17 Jan 2004, Ben Phillips wrote: > >It would probably be better to tell Red Hat (or your favorite linux > >distributor) about this, if they have a feature-request page somewhere. I use debian. If there is something similar I would like to heard about it. But, this can direct to the distro/desktop babel..., when we are using the same XFree ( that creates the problem and can offer an universal solution). > >Because I don't think there's a reason to modify the actual X server to > >do this; > The end user really should not ever have to know that there is > such a thing as an X server config file. There is a powerfull reason : the newbies. In Knoppix I could use Knoppix xmodule=fbdev ( because I bought a SiS no-linux graphic card http://www.winischhofer.net/linuxsisvga.shtml The average Windows > user doesn't know about the Windows registry, Windows is more plug-and-play and driver ready for the newbie. > It is intentional > that the Windows registry doesn't have an icon for editig it > placed on the desktop by default nor in the "start" menu. I didn´t speak about an icon, but about a program to copy the config file to a diskette... This is not dangerous ( dangerous would be continue withot solving my XFree problem...). . David's done some work which is in CVS, and will be > in 4.4.0 which will further help to make less users need to know > the X config file's existance or muck with it. > For me it didn´t work, when I installed Knoppix in my hard disk... I know about the X existence with un-pleassure ;( because of the messages I see when initializing Gnome... , probably should in the future permit per-user > overrides via some dotfile in users' homedirs. > It would be very interesting the user could change some things and show an asking box : is this resolution OK ?? Yes/No ( if no response within 20 seconds the system is going to be restored to the previous values ). > Any user can _view_ the file, by firing up any file manager, and > surfing into the /etc/X11 directory, which for the most part, is > even easier in Linux to do than it is for an end user to figure > out what the Registry is, fire up regedit by hand, and then get > lost in the maze of HKEY_FOO to find what they're looking for, > even then guessing mostly. > > So, it's very unlikely at least on the distribution side of > things, that the XFree86 config file is going to be presented to > end users in any way other than what it is currently, which is to > edit the file using a text editor as root if required. > If you know what root is. Sometime ago, my distro-er said the floppy disk were mounted. But it wasn´t . I had to mount it handly. When you are just a newbie, a copy to floppy is risk-less and can help to solve the problem (i.e. the user can send it to the technical service using a graphical email program in a good-working operating system in another partition ). Remember, my Windows OS cannot read the EXT3 partitions where I have Knoppix/Debian (and their configuration files for XWindow ). > If our configuration tool redhat-config-xfree86 is missing some > important functionality however, we welcome requests for > enhancments and features. Sorry, I don´t use RedHat ;( It´s more easy to find between the friends, Gnobian ( http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnobian ) like Morphix Gnome > > >Although, it would be nice to just write an XFree86-crash.HOWTO and have > >the last thing the X server says in the event of a crash be: > > > > For help, try typing: less $( locate XFree86-crash.HOWTO ) > > That is indeed a good idea, For sure it is a good idea !!!!!. Go ahead with it ;) What I'd like to do is start out with > something like that, but also have some kind of troubleshooter > wizard which pops up if the server SEGVs (and the system is still > useable in any way). > I love this idea too... > I realize that there are some situations which users may > encounter, in which they need to learn way more about the X > server and it's configuration file than they would prefer to > know, and that they might prefer something simpler than "edit the > config file" as a solution, however developing such a solution > goes against the goals of simplicity, and doesn't solve the > _real_ problem, which is why the user needs to find the config > file in the first place. To see something ;) I think that aside from fixing driver > and server bugs so that users don't experience them to begin > with, that the focus should be on making things "just work", to > avoid complex configuration, and any rocket science. > > Just my personal opinion. > Again you are right. See also http://www.seedwiki.com/page.cfm?wikiid=4149&doc=UserFriendlyLinux . Regards and thank you a lot because your excellent ideas . _______________________________________________ XFree86 mailing list XFree86@xxxxxxxxxxx http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xfree86
