generating xorg.conf does not work

[Polytropon]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 18:24:46 -0400 (EDT), doug at safeport.com wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Aug 2015, Warren Block wrote:
> 
> > On Fri, 28 Aug 2015, doug at safeport.com wrote:
> >> 
> >> Maybe I should have taken the questions one at a time. My highest priority 
> >> question is that the handbook is in error on how to generate xorg.conf.
> >> startx is just not correct.
> >
> > I don't understand what you are saying there.
> 
> This part got cut from my first post. The handbook says:
> 
>      To generate the configuration file and start the X system, issue
>      this command:
> 
>      % startx
> 
> This is clearly wrong.

In some way, yes. X will generate configuration data dynamically
(auto-detect), but will not write an xorg.conf file to be used
later on. "X -configure" will do that.



> 5.4 also says autoconfiguration is the preferred method. 

Works for most things.



> I found a post to forums.freebsd.org on 8/4/15 from wblock@ saying: 
> "Auto-generating xorg.conf is not recommended any more."

Only for the few things where auto-detection magic does not work,
or where you intendedly want to "hard wire" things and summarize
X settings in a central location. To do this, the auto-generated
file is a good starting point, but in many cases, can be stripped
off of many lines.



> > Otherwise, try this for xorg.conf.  Do not add this to an existing file, this 
> > is the *entire* file:
> >
> > Section "Device"
> > 	Identifier  "Card0"
> > 	Driver      "radeon"
> > EndSection
> 
> I assume I can then also add the font commands as needed.

Yes. It should work the same for keyboard language definitions.



> I could find no 
> documentation in the FreeBSD wiki or on Xorg that indicated X would just piece 
> all this together. I assume this would now go in /usr/local/etc/X11.

That's a valid location, but X will also use /etc/X11/xorg.conf
(even with partial content) if it is present. In fact, there are
other locations; you can find them in "man 5 xorg.conf".


-- 
Polytropon
Magdeburg, Germany
Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0
Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...