How exactly are you supposed to configure the display (i.e. set up X11) on a CentOS 6 system? I mean, in the past, there was system-config-display, but that's not supported any more. There is gnome-display-properties/System->Preferences->Display, but that seems to rely completely on auto-detection of the graphics card and monitors. What if this fails? Surely there should be a way to specify everything by hand?
Help, anyone?
- Toralf
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On 22/01/13 14:32, Toralf Lund wrote:
How exactly are you supposed to configure the display (i.e. set up X11) on a CentOS 6 system? I mean, in the past, there was system-config-display, but that's not supported any more. There is gnome-display-properties/System->Preferences->Display, but that seems to rely completely on auto-detection of the graphics card and monitors. What if this fails? Surely there should be a way to specify everything by hand?
Yes, Xorg will still use /etc/X11/xorg.conf if present so you can craft a config file by hand.
Help, anyone?
- Toralf
Ned Slider wrote:
On 22/01/13 14:32, Toralf Lund wrote:
How exactly are you supposed to configure the display (i.e. set up X11) on a CentOS 6 system? I mean, in the past, there was system-config-display, but that's not supported any more. There is gnome-display-properties/System->Preferences->Display, but that seems to rely completely on auto-detection of the graphics card and monitors. What if this fails? Surely there should be a way to specify everything by hand?
Yes, Xorg will still use /etc/X11/xorg.conf if present so you can craft a config file by hand.
*sigh* I still miss Xfree86 and the xconfigurator, that was *NOT* desktop-dependant, and let you configure graphically and tune it.
mark
Ned Slider wrote:
On 22/01/13 14:32, Toralf Lund wrote:
How exactly are you supposed to configure the display (i.e. set up X11) on a CentOS 6 system? I mean, in the past, there was system-config-display, but that's not supported any more. There is gnome-display-properties/System->Preferences->Display, but that seems to rely completely on auto-detection of the graphics card and monitors. What if this fails? Surely there should be a way to specify everything by hand?
Yes, Xorg will still use /etc/X11/xorg.conf if present so you can craft a config file by hand.
*sigh* still miss Xfree86 and the xconfigurator, that was *NOT* desktop-dependant, and let you configure graphically and tune it.
Exactly. The tool mentioned above was actually post XFree86, though...
Anyhow, I guess I suspected that the program was removed completely with no real replacement. Bad decision, if you ask me, but I suppose Red Hat is to blame, and not the CentOS people. It's nice to know that you can still use the config file, but creating it from scratch is not always that easy. Perhaps especially if you have to do something like setting up a monitor the system somehow fails to detect automatically, but that may be listed in the config utilities, if you know what I'm saying...
It seems like the system-config-display still can be built and used on the latest versions, though. I actually found a binary version via a little search. It actually turned out that I didn't need it to get my display up and running, as the problem was actually a missing driver package, but I still think it's nice to have.
- Toralf
mark
This e-mail, including any attachments and response string, may contain proprietary information which is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is for the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient or transmission error has misdirected this e-mail, please notify the author by return e-mail and delete this message and any attachment immediately. If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, distribute, forward, copy, print or rely on this e-mail in any way except as permitted by the author.
I think you can also use
X --config
That should build an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for you...
On Wed, 23 Jan 2013, Toralf Lund wrote:
Ned Slider wrote:
On 22/01/13 14:32, Toralf Lund wrote:
How exactly are you supposed to configure the display (i.e. set up X11) on a CentOS 6 system? I mean, in the past, there was system-config-display, but that's not supported any more. There is gnome-display-properties/System->Preferences->Display, but that seems to rely completely on auto-detection of the graphics card and monitors. What if this fails? Surely there should be a way to specify everything by hand?
Yes, Xorg will still use /etc/X11/xorg.conf if present so you can craft a config file by hand.
*sigh* still miss Xfree86 and the xconfigurator, that was *NOT* desktop-dependant, and let you configure graphically and tune it.
Exactly. The tool mentioned above was actually post XFree86, though...
Anyhow, I guess I suspected that the program was removed completely with no real replacement. Bad decision, if you ask me, but I suppose Red Hat is to blame, and not the CentOS people. It's nice to know that you can still use the config file, but creating it from scratch is not always that easy. Perhaps especially if you have to do something like setting up a monitor the system somehow fails to detect automatically, but that may be listed in the config utilities, if you know what I'm saying...
It seems like the system-config-display still can be built and used on the latest versions, though. I actually found a binary version via a little search. It actually turned out that I didn't need it to get my display up and running, as the problem was actually a missing driver package, but I still think it's nice to have.
- Toralf
markThis e-mail, including any attachments and response string, may contain proprietary information which is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is for the intended recipient only. If you are not the intended recipient or transmission error has misdirected this e-mail, please notify the author by return e-mail and delete this message and any attachment immediately. If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, distribute, forward, copy, print or rely on this e-mail in any way except as permitted by the author. _______________________________________________ CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Scot P. Floess RHCT (Certificate Number 605010084735240) Chief Architect FlossWare http://sourceforge.net/projects/flossware http://flossware.sourceforge.net https://github.com/organizations/FlossWare
On Wed, 2013-01-23 at 09:33 -0500, Scot P. Floess wrote:
I think you can also use
X --config
That should build an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for you...
That's a good start (the command is actually "Xorg -configure") but it may leave open questions to the OP and others who may consult this thread in the future.
We've had occasion to use 4 different methods of X-Windows configuration in EL6, without the old system-config-display tool. The choices are:
1. Accept the Xorg auto-detected, "built-in" configuration. If it works, why mess with it? 2. Generate and customize your own xorg.conf file. 3. Use Xorg "hot-plug" config (/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/) to replace only part of the built-in configuration. 4. Use a proprietary video driver and X configurator. This may be necessary with high-end video cards and/or multiple displays.
I've outlined choices #2 and #3 below, as they are probably going to be of primary interest to the OP.
I hope this information is of some use.
./Cal
(I work on a restricted, isolated network without direct Internet access so I may not be able to respond to replies quickly.)
========================================= [Generate and customize a xorg.conf file] =========================================
# Save the Xorg log file to capture any errors (as root):
cd /var/log/ cp Xorg.0.log Xorg.0.log.beforeConfigure
# Drop to run level 3 or boot into run level 3
cd init 3
# Tell Xorg to generate the config file:
Xorg -configure
# Make a copy to work on:
cp -p /root/xorg.conf.new /root/xorg.conf
# Look at the created config - get rid of extra screens and unnecessary data
- Use for reference any xorg.conf in similar machines if you have them available - There should be one section for "Monitor", "Device" (video card), and "Screen" to match the "ServerLayout" section. - See sample below
========================================== [/Generate and customize a xorg.conf file] ==========================================
============================= [Xorg "hot-plug" config file] =============================
# Use the same steps as above to get something to start with or to ensure proper formatting. - We just extracted the data we needed from the Xorg.0.log to create a hot-plug file, then dropped it into /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/. - We were only interested in getting the vnc module to load and vncpassword to work so ours probably has more in it than we need but it works.
Xorg will pull anything not listed in the hot-plug files from its built-in configuration. All the same rules apply to a hot-plug file as do for xorg.conf
See the sample hot-plug file below.
============================== [/Xorg "hot-plug" config file] ==============================
================== [Sample xorg.conf] ==================
## This is an edited, auto-generated xorg.conf from a Dell PowerEdge 2800 running CentOS 6.3
- We were interested in running the native VNC X server (tigervnc-server-module) so we added those entries in the appropriate places. - If you look at the top of your Xorg.0.log you'll see what the Xorg server has auto-detected. It's usually very good at detecting your video hardware. Armed with that information, you should be able to select and load the correct driver. - Some of our machines have high-end nVidia graphics cards so we opted to use the proprietary video drivers from nVidia to maximize the use of dual screens and high resolution. We've found that the open source drivers can sometimes be problematic, like on some of our Dell Precision T3400 machines. - The ATI Radeon driver was automatically listed and configured on this machine. According to our documentation, this machine had a "Radeon 7000" chipset so it matched.
[root@pegasus log]# lspci | grep -i radeon 10:0d.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RV100 QY [Radeon 7000/VE]
# From the Xorg.0.log --------------------- [ 97.240] (--) RADEON(0): Chipset: "ATI Radeon VE/7000 QY (AGP/PCI)" (ChipID = 0x5159) ---------------------
vi /root/xorg.conf ------------------ Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "X.org Configured" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" EndSection
Section "Files" ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules" FontPath "catalogue:/etc/X11/fontpath.d" FontPath "built-ins" EndSection
Section "Module" Load "dbe" Load "record" Load "dri" Load "vnc" Load "extmod" Load "glx" Load "dri2" EndSection
Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection
Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7" EndSection
Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "Monitor Vendor" ModelName "Monitor Model" EndSection
Section "Device" Identifier "Card0" Driver "radeon" BusID "PCI:16:13:0" VendorName "Advanced Micro Devices - AMD" BoardName "ATI Radeon 7000" EndSection
Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Card0" Monitor "Monitor0" SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 1 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 4 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 8 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 15 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 16 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 24 EndSubSection Option "SecurityTypes" "VncAuth" Option "UserPasswdVerifier" "VncAuth" Option "PasswordFile" "/root/.vnc/passwd" EndSection
------------------
# Copied to where it belongs and set SELinux context
cp xorg.conf /etc/X11/
restorecon /etc/X11/xorg.conf
=================== [/Sample xorg.conf] ===================
====================== [Sample hot-plug file] ======================
This hotplug file was created for a headless PowerEdge 2600 for use with remote access vi the native VNC X server (tigervnc-server-module). Because we're using a hotplug file, we didn't have to specify input devices. We didn't really need all the screens either but left them in for redundancy.
10-vnc.conf =========== Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "Builtin Default Layout" Screen "Builtin Default ati Screen 0" Screen "Builtin Default vesa Screen 0" Screen "Builtin Default fbdev Screen 0" EndSection Section "Module" Load "vnc" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Builtin Default ati Device 0" Driver "ati" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Builtin Default ati Screen 0" Device "Builtin Default ati Device 0" Option "SecurityTypes" "VncAuth" Option "UserPasswdVerifier" "VncAuth" Option "PasswordFile" "/root/.vnc/passwd" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Builtin Default vesa Device 0" Driver "vesa" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Builtin Default vesa Screen 0" Device "Builtin Default vesa Device 0" Option "SecurityTypes" "VncAuth" Option "UserPasswdVerifier" "VncAuth" Option "PasswordFile" "/root/.vnc/passwd" EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Builtin Default fbdev Device 0" Driver "fbdev" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Builtin Default fbdev Screen 0" Device "Builtin Default fbdev Device 0" Option "SecurityTypes" "VncAuth" Option "UserPasswdVerifier" "VncAuth" Option "PasswordFile" "/root/.vnc/passwd" EndSection ===========
======================= [/Sample hot-plug file] =======================
=========================== [Sample Xorg.0.log excerpt] ===========================
# Example of the auto-deteced "built-in configuration":
Xorg.0.log.beforeConfigure -------------------------- ... [ 96.996] (==) --- Start of built-in configuration --- [ 96.996] Section "Device" [ 96.996] Identifier "Builtin Default ati Device 0" [ 96.996] Driver "ati" [ 96.996] EndSection [ 96.996] Section "Screen" [ 96.996] Identifier "Builtin Default ati Screen 0" [ 96.996] Device "Builtin Default ati Device 0" [ 96.996] EndSection [ 96.996] Section "Device" [ 96.996] Identifier "Builtin Default vesa Device 0" [ 96.996] Driver "vesa" [ 96.996] EndSection [ 96.996] Section "Screen" [ 96.996] Identifier "Builtin Default vesa Screen 0" [ 96.996] Device "Builtin Default vesa Device 0" [ 96.996] EndSection [ 96.996] Identifier "Builtin Default fbdev Device 0" [ 96.996] Driver "fbdev" [ 96.996] EndSection [ 96.997] Section "Screen" [ 96.997] Identifier "Builtin Default fbdev Screen 0" [ 96.997] Device "Builtin Default fbdev Device 0" [ 96.997] EndSection [ 96.997] Section "ServerLayout" [ 96.997] Identifier "Builtin Default Layout" [ 96.997] Screen "Builtin Default ati Screen 0" [ 96.997] Screen "Builtin Default vesa Screen 0" [ 96.997] Screen "Builtin Default fbdev Screen 0" [ 96.997] EndSection [ 96.997] (==) --- End of built-in configuration --- ... --------------------------
============================ [/Sample Xorg.0.log excerpt] ============================
Toralf Lund wrote:
Ned Slider wrote:
On 22/01/13 14:32, Toralf Lund wrote:
How exactly are you supposed to configure the display (i.e. set up X11) on a CentOS 6 system? I mean, in the past, there was system-config-display, but that's not supported any more. There is gnome-display-properties/System->Preferences->Display, but that seems to rely completely on auto-detection of the graphics card and monitors. What if this fails? Surely there should be a way to specify everything by hand?
Yes, Xorg will still use /etc/X11/xorg.conf if present so you can craft a config file by hand.
*sigh* still miss Xfree86 and the xconfigurator, that was *NOT* desktop-dependant, and let you configure graphically and tune it.
Exactly. The tool mentioned above was actually post XFree86, though...
Right. I hate having to edit xorg.conf by hand - it's a real pain, init 3, edit, startx, wait for it to crap out, or <ctrl><alt><bkspc>....
Anyhow, I guess I suspected that the program was removed completely with no real replacement. Bad decision, if you ask me, but I suppose Red Hat is to blame, and not the CentOS people. It's nice to know that you can still
Oh, of course it was RH's. I think they've gone to "but it'll work out of the box, like WinDoze!!!" (not that they're alone in that). <snip>
It seems like the system-config-display still can be built and used on the latest versions, though. I actually found a binary version via a little search. It actually turned out that I didn't need it to get my display up and running, as the problem was actually a missing driver package, but I still think it's nice to have.
Really! Do you have a link to src?
mark
I ran into a similar problem when using a diskless laptop - the display was not working in graphical mode...and I had not system-config-display (using CentOS 6.3)...
Anyway, you can definitely do "X --config" to configure the xorg.conf file.
On Wed, 23 Jan 2013, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Toralf Lund wrote:
Ned Slider wrote:
On 22/01/13 14:32, Toralf Lund wrote:
How exactly are you supposed to configure the display (i.e. set up X11) on a CentOS 6 system? I mean, in the past, there was system-config-display, but that's not supported any more. There is gnome-display-properties/System->Preferences->Display, but that seems to rely completely on auto-detection of the graphics card and monitors. What if this fails? Surely there should be a way to specify everything by hand?
Yes, Xorg will still use /etc/X11/xorg.conf if present so you can craft a config file by hand.
*sigh* still miss Xfree86 and the xconfigurator, that was *NOT* desktop-dependant, and let you configure graphically and tune it.
Exactly. The tool mentioned above was actually post XFree86, though...
Right. I hate having to edit xorg.conf by hand - it's a real pain, init 3, edit, startx, wait for it to crap out, or <ctrl><alt><bkspc>....
Anyhow, I guess I suspected that the program was removed completely with no real replacement. Bad decision, if you ask me, but I suppose Red Hat is to blame, and not the CentOS people. It's nice to know that you can still
Oh, of course it was RH's. I think they've gone to "but it'll work out of the box, like WinDoze!!!" (not that they're alone in that).
<snip> > It seems like the system-config-display still can be built and used on > the latest versions, though. I actually found a binary version via a > little search. It actually turned out that I didn't need it to get my > display up and running, as the problem was actually a missing driver > package, but I still think it's nice to have.
Really! Do you have a link to src?
mark
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
Scot P. Floess RHCT (Certificate Number 605010084735240) Chief Architect FlossWare http://sourceforge.net/projects/flossware http://flossware.sourceforge.net https://github.com/organizations/FlossWare
On 23/01/13 17:04, m.roth@5-cent.us wrote:
Toralf Lund wrote:
Ned Slider wrote:
On 22/01/13 14:32, Toralf Lund wrote:
How exactly are you supposed to configure the display (i.e. set up X11) on a CentOS 6 system? I mean, in the past, there was system-config-display, but that's not supported any more. There is gnome-display-properties/System->Preferences->Display, but that seems to rely completely on auto-detection of the graphics card and monitors. What if this fails? Surely there should be a way to specify everything by hand?
Yes, Xorg will still use /etc/X11/xorg.conf if present so you can craft a config file by hand.
*sigh* still miss Xfree86 and the xconfigurator, that was *NOT* desktop-dependant, and let you configure graphically and tune it.
Exactly. The tool mentioned above was actually post XFree86, though...
Right. I hate having to edit xorg.conf by hand - it's a real pain, init 3, edit, startx, wait for it to crap out, or<ctrl><alt><bkspc>....
Exactly.
I have to say that I had some major headaches (mostly related to using KVMs) even with system-config-display with CentOS 5, though, related to the fact that the "auto" stuff would sometimes override the xorg.conf settings...
Anyhow, I guess I suspected that the program was removed completely with no real replacement. Bad decision, if you ask me, but I suppose Red Hat is to blame, and not the CentOS people. It's nice to know that you can still
Oh, of course it was RH's. I think they've gone to "but it'll work out of the box, like WinDoze!!!" (not that they're alone in that).
<snip>
Yep. This sort of worries me. I mean, one of the main reasons for using Linux, is that it does not traditionally take that approach - so you're not completely stuck the day things don't "magically" work after all.
It worked out of the box exactly "like Windows", by the way, that's why I needed to fix things ;-)
It seems like the system-config-display still can be built and used on the latest versions, though. I actually found a binary version via a little search. It actually turned out that I didn't need it to get my display up and running, as the problem was actually a missing driver package, but I still think it's nice to have.
Really! Do you have a link to src?
What I found was this:
http://pkgs.org/centos-6-rhel-6/russian-fedora-free-x86_64/system-config-dis...
mark
CentOS mailing list CentOS@centos.org http://lists.centos.org/mailman/listinfo/centos
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-
Cal Webster -
m.roth＠5-cent.us -
Ned Slider -
Scot P. Floess -
Toralf Lund