xf86 in mandrake 8.1

[cheesegoduk]

Hi

I installed mandrake 8.1 today and got it set up ok. However to use my Geforce4 in mandrake I need to use the xfree86 4.0 server which is installed with mandrake. However I was not given the choice whist installing to use the 4.0 server instead its using 3.36. How would I go about changing over to 4.0? Or will I have to download the latest version of xfree?

Thanks for your help
cheesegoduk

[chefer]

You will want to download the latest version, 4.2.0. It has more support for your higher end graphics boards these days. Check out xfree86.org for more information on supported hardware. A decent ftp site to get it : ftp.rge.com - it's pretty easy to navigate.

you will probably first want to download and run Xinstall.sh ("sh Xinstall.sh -check") for verification of the files required for your distro. Once you have all the files downloaded, from the directory you downloaded them to, run "sh install.sh" and you will be walked through the installation process.

Once the install completes, you will want to create a basic XF86Config to give the new X a spin. Easiest method to incorporate support for video board is to run "XFree86 -configure"
This will create the file /root/XF86Config.new - copy, or move the file to proper location (ie "mv /root/XF86Config.new /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config")

Once you have done that, ensure your .xinitrc file exists (ie /root/.xinitrc) and that it points to your favorite window manager. Should only require one line for this to happen. (ie. for gnome you would typically use "gnome-session")

Hope this helps.
Regards and good luck.

[problemchild]

I was not given the choice whist installing to use the 4.0 server instead its using 3.36.

You have to choose the expert install in Mandrake to get the XFree 4.0 option. Additionally, I believe Mandrake uses /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 instead of just /etc/X11/XF86Config, but I couldn't swear to it. I know Red Hat does, though, and I'm thinking Mandrake is the same.

It's generally a good thing to get the latest version, as chefer said, but I don't know that it's necessary if you don't want a truly massive download like that. You'll still be using the same NVidia drivers from nvidia.com no matter which version of X you have. Or at least you should be.

An alternate way to get Xfree 4.2 is to download the source rpm from Cooker. You'll have to get the source because the binaries in Cooker are compiled with GCC 3.2 and won't be compatible.

[slarty]

I believe you can install the RPMs with software manager or urpmi, and they may not conflict with Xfree86 3

However you could install mandrake 8.2 which is good

Also with NVidia you should probably install their driver - it isn't GPL but works very well especially the opengl which is very nice indeed.

Their driver comes in two bits - kernel and user - you install the user as an RPM (can get a kernel RPM too but only if u use the normal kernel)

Then after installing the RPM of the driver and the kernel bit (via RPM or not), make the edits their readme says to /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 (which involves about 2 small changes), and X should work fine.

You definitely want XFree 4 though as you probably won't get any decent accelerated 3d in XFree 3

[cheesegoduk]

Thanks folks for your help. Its really odd, Even thought I did the expert install, it did'nt give me the opition at the end to use xfree864.0 which is strange, whereas when I installed it on my other computer it did.

Anyway Many thanks for your help again, I will leave the pc downloading the new version of xfree today