Beyond Linux® From Scratch - Version 7.4

Chapter 24. X Window System Environment

Introduction to Xorg-7.7

Xorg is a freely redistributable, open-source implementation of the X Window System. This system provides a client/server interface between display hardware (the mouse, keyboard, and video displays) and the desktop environment, while also providing both the windowing infrastructure and a standardized application interface (API).

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/Xorg7

Xorg Download and Installation Instructions

Xorg-7.0 introduced a completely auto-tooled, modular build system. With the new modular build system, it is no longer possible to download the entire package in a single file. In fact, there will be well over 100 packages that need to be fetched from the download location. To assist with such a large task, installing Wget-1.14 is strongly recommended for downloading the needed files. A complete wget file list is provided for each page that includes multiple packages.

Given the number of packages available, deciding which packages you need to install for your particular setup may seem a bit overwhelming at first. Take a look at this page and this thread to get an idea of what you will need. If you are unsure, you should install all packages at the cost of extra disk space.

[Note]

Note

Even if you intend to download only the necessary packages, you should download the wget file lists. The list of files are ordered by dependency, and the package versions listed in the files are known to work well with each other. Further, the wget file lists contain comments for specific packages that are deprecated or are not recommended to install. Newer packages are likely intended for the next release of Xorg and have already proved to be incompatible with current versions of software installed in BLFS. The installed size of Xorg can be reduced considerably by installing only the packages that you will need and use, however, the BLFS book cannot account for all dependencies and build options for the individual Xorg packages. The instructions assume that all packages have been built. A wiki page containing dependency information is under development. You are encouraged to add to these pages if you discover additional information that may be helpful to other users who selectively install individual packages.

Additionally, because of the large number of repetitive commands, you are encouraged to partially automate the build. Instructions have been given that utilize the Sudo-1.8.7 package. It is recommended that you use the :NOPASSWD configuration option for the user that will be building the xorg packages.

Setting up the Xorg Build Environment

First, you'll need to create a working directory: 

mkdir xc &&
cd xc

As with previous releases of the X Window System, it may be desirable to install Xorg into an alternate prefix. This is no longer common practice among Linux distributions. The common installation prefix for Xorg on Linux is /usr. There is no standard alternate prefix, nor is there any exception in the current revision of the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard for Release 7 of the X Window System. Alan Coopersmith of Sun Microsystems, has recently stated "At Sun, we were using /usr/X11 and plan to stick with it." Only the /opt/* prefix or the /usr prefix adhere to the current FHS guidelines.

Choose your installation prefix, and set the XORG_PREFIX variable with the following command: 

export XORG_PREFIX="<PREFIX>"

Throughout these instructions, you will use the following configure switches for all of the packages. Create the XORG_CONFIG variable to use for this parameter substitution: 

export XORG_CONFIG="--prefix=$XORG_PREFIX --sysconfdir=/etc \
    --localstatedir=/var --disable-static"

Create an /etc/profile.d/xorg.sh configuration file containing these variables as the root user: 

cat > /etc/profile.d/xorg.sh << "EOF"
XORG_PREFIX="<PREFIX>"
XORG_CONFIG="--prefix=$XORG_PREFIX \
             --sysconfdir=/etc \
             --localstatedir=/var \
             --disable-static"
export XORG_PREFIX XORG_CONFIG
EOF
chmod 644 /etc/profile.d/xorg.sh

If you've decided to use the standard /usr prefix, you can omit the remainder of this page. Otherwise, be sure to add $XORG_PREFIX/bin to your PATH environment variable, and $XORG_PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig and $XORG_PREFIX/share/pkgconfig to your PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable. It is also helpful to specify additional search paths for gcc and an include directory for the aclocal program. Issue the following commands as the root user: 

cat >> /etc/profile.d/xorg.sh << "EOF"

pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/bin             PATH
pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/lib/pkgconfig   PKG_CONFIG_PATH
pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/share/pkgconfig PKG_CONFIG_PATH

pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/lib             LIBRARY_PATH
pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/include         C_INCLUDE_PATH
pathappend $XORG_PREFIX/include         CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH

ACLOCAL='aclocal -I $XORG_PREFIX/share/aclocal'

export PATH PKG_CONFIG_PATH ACLOCAL LIBRARY_PATH C_INCLUDE_PATH CPLUS_INCLUDE_PATH
EOF

You should also add $XORG_PREFIX/lib to the /etc/ld.so.conf file. Again, as the root user, issue the following command: 

echo "$XORG_PREFIX/lib" >> /etc/ld.so.conf

You should also modify /etc/man_db.conf, adding appropriate MANDATORY_MANPATH, MANPATH_MAP, and MANDB_MAP entries following the examples for /usr/X11R6. Issue the following command as the root user: 

sed "s@/usr/X11R6@$XORG_PREFIX@g" -i /etc/man_db.conf

Some applications look for shared files in /usr/share/X11. Create a symbolic link to the proper location as the root user: 

ln -s $XORG_PREFIX/share/X11 /usr/share/X11

Finally, if building on x86_64, you will need to create the $XORG_PREFIX/lib directory and the $XORG_PREFIX/lib64 symlink. Again, as the root user, issue the following commands: 

install -v -m755 -d $XORG_PREFIX &&
install -v -m755 -d $XORG_PREFIX/lib &&
ln -s lib $XORG_PREFIX/lib64

Last updated on 2013-09-09 10:09:36 -0700