Please could you enhance Xorg config with auto_probed secontions. I mean: now, you have to configure devices, monitors, inbut in a monolitic config file which is more than archaic compared to other GUIs (OsX / Windows / ...) It's a shame to have to start X -probeonly, parse the log and discover that the LCD panel of a laptop is 1400x900, and then put that mode in the config file in order to have X start. Even worse, sometimes, the config file has bad config regarding modes and fail to start while it has detected things that could allow some display (common example is the refresh rate incompatible with monitor). The most upsetting thing is when you have a correct mode defined, a monitor capable to handle this resolution, but the monitor section is wrong. The X probes the monitor, but drops the mode because it is incompatible with the section in the config file!!! Instead of putting fixed values why not probe things and use values if probe fails! Example of config file could be: =========================== Section "Module" Profile "Multimedia" DontLoad "glx" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Probe "all" # Arg could be: keyboards, mice, touchpads, ...) Option "DefaultXkbLayout" "en_US" # Some USB kbd provides language, use this if language cannot be probbed. EndSection Section "Monitor" Probe "all" # where to probe for screen. could be "dvi, vga, hdmi, svideo, internal external, ... Subsection "default" # Used if no monitor detected Identifier "Default" VendorName "Generic" ModelName "17inch CRT" HorizSync 24.0-80.0 VertRefresh 56.0-85.0 EndSubsection EndSection Section "Device" Probe "all" # arg could be: pci, agp, pcix, usb (yes there are usb vga cards), ... Subsection "R128" # gfx board type (chipset name) Driver "radeon" # force radeon driver instead of prefered ati for R128 chipsets EndSubsection EndSection Section "Screen" Probe "all" # Could be vga, dvi, internal, external, ... DefaultColorDepth 24 DefaultMode "best" # could be failsafe, vga, svga. Best would set to lcd panel resolution if detected monitor is an LCD or would chose best fitted resolution for a CRT screen (eg: 1280x1024 on 19 inche CRT). EndSection Section "ServerLayout" Screen "IVM,4698" primary # Manufacturer,model number: if available, use it as main display (where xdm appears). Screen "Seiko,DFP-0" RightOf "IVM,4698" # If IVM 4898 present, then place Internal flat panel right of the external screen, else use it as primary display. InputDevice "Mices" "all" # use all, could be a list of detected mices InputDevice "Keyboards" "all" # use all, could be a list of detected keyboards. EndSection =========================== In all above sections, Identifier would be generated from what was probed. Identifier for an usb mouse could be "Logitech,Optical Mouse" or "Generic PS2, 3buttons" Of course this is a basic example, but the idea is here: having a default configuration that simply works by default using probing whenever possible. Most if not all detections routines are here. Even better would be to have one file per section. Having xdm read user preferences and apply them at login would be a must as well (screen layout, screen orientation, ...)
yes, we have actually thought about this ... xorg-server 1.2.0 (from the 7.2 release) starts and works just fine without a config file.
You're great guys. This is wonderfull news (from my sysadmin point of view at least ;-) ). Xorg fork from XFree is one of the best fork I've ever seen (IMHO). Continue your great work, Xorg rocks :-)
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