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12. Installing X Window System

12.1 Installing X

make World
make install; make install.man

During the compilation process you will encounter a few errors about the "makedepend" script not being able to find the stddef.h stdarg.h and float.h header files. The script just isn't as smart as the compiler is apparently, since the compilation itself does work fine without compilation errors. Though, creating a few temporary symlinks won't solve the problem; they only will cause more problems.

So you just ignore the many makedepend errors you most likely will be getting. Also errors similar to "pointer targets in passing arg x of somefunction differ in signedness". You can rewrite those files if you feel like it. I won't do it.

12.2 Creating /etc/ld.so.conf

Create a new file /etc/ld.so.conf containing the following:

# Begin /etc/ld.so.conf
 
/lib
/usr/lib
/usr/X11R6/lib
 
# End /etc/ld.so.conf

12.3 Creating the /usr/include/X11 symlink

12.4 Creating the /usr/X11 symlink

Often software copies files to /usr/X11 so it doesn't have to know which release of X you are using. This symlink hasn't been created by the X installation, so we have to create it by ourselves.

12.5 Adding /usr/X11/bin to the $PATH environment variable

There are a few ways to add the /usr/X11/bin path to the $PATH environment variable. One way of doing so is the following:

You need to login again for this change to become effective. Or you can update the path by running export PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11/bin manually

12.6 Configuring X

If the XF86Config file created by xf86config doesn't suffice, then you better copy the already existing XF86Config from your normal Linux system to /etc. Cases wherein you need to make special changes to the file which aren't supported by the xf86config program force you to do this. You can always modify the created XF86Config file by hand. This can be very time consuming, especially if you don't quite remember what needs to be changed.

12.7 Testing X

Now that X is properly configured it's time for our first test run.

The X server should start and display 3 xterm's on your screen. If this is true in your case, X is running fine.

12.8 Installing Window Maker

I choose to install Window Maker as the Window Manager. This is because I've used WindowMaker for quite a while now and I'm very satisfied with it. As usual, you don't have to do what I'm doing; install whatever you want. As you might know, you can install several Window Managers simultaneously and choose which one to start by specifying it in the $HOME/.xinitrc (or $HOME/.xsession in case you decide to use xdm) file.

12.9 Preparing the system for the Window Maker installation

Installing libPropList

./configure
make; make install

Installing libXpm

xmkmf; make Makefiles; make includes; make depend
cd lib; make; make install
cd ..; make; make install

This slightly different installation is necessary due to a bug in one of the Makefiles. It depends on files in the lib directory which aren't installed yet and it's not searching for them in the lib directory, so we have to install those files first before compiling the actual package.

Installing libpng

make -f scripts/makefile.lnx; make -f scripts/makefile.lnx install

Installing libtiff

./configure
make; make instal

Installing libjpeg

./configure --enable-shared --enable-static
make libjpb.a; make install

Installing libungif

./configure
make; make install

Installing WindowMaker

./configure
make; make install

12.10 Updating dynamic loader cache

12.11 Configuring WindowMaker

Every user who wishes to use WindowMaker has to run the wmaker.inst script before he or she can use it. This script will copy the necessary files into the user's home directory and modify the $HOME/.xinitrc file (or create it if it's not there yet).

12.12 Testing WindowMaker


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