x

I had the idea of getting my old 19″-screen back onto my table – in addition to my 22″-widescreen, of course!

However, this meant to recompile 350 packages with xinerama-support – sometimes, Windows indeed IS easier than Gentoo….

In order to set up both screens on Linux, I followed the HOWTO Dual Monitors in the Gentoo-Wiki, mostly. As I have an Nvidia with Twinview, I went for this option.

Issueing lspci gave this result for the graphic card:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G71 [GeForce 7950 GT] (rev a1)

So, here’s the section for the card in /etc/X11/xorg.conf (note that this readme file was also helpful on some options):

Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia"
VendorName "nVidia Corporation"
BoardName "7950GT"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
Option "NoLogo" "1"
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
Option "backingstore" "true"
Option "AddARGBGLXVisuals" "true"
Option "UseEdidDpi" "false"
Option "DPI" "96 x 96"
# added this for TwinView
Option "TwinView"
Option "MetaModes" "1680x1050,1280x1024; 1680x1050"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "RightOf"
Option "SecondMonitorHorizSync" "UseEdidFreqs"
Option "SecondMonitorVertRefresh" "UseEdidFreqs"
EndSection

After restarting X, I had dual screens – and it seems, thanks to KDE, that I don’t even need to load xinerama… Maybe Linux is still just as easy as Windows?

After reading through some materials, I decided not to go for simple X forward with SSH – instead, I will set up a VNC server so that I can use X on the server as well.

I read through the VNC overview document on Gentoo Wiki, and decided to go for tightvnc; emerging it pulled some X libraries onto the box (naturally). Here’s a howto from the Wiki. Oh, and before the emerge, I add the “server” USE flag to /etc/make.conf.

Then, as normal user, I start vncserver on the server and create a password. On the client, I test with vncviewer – works! Finally, I configure /etc/conf.d/vnc, specifying the display variable.

Now, it seems that vnc is up and running and that I can connect to an X; but I still need a WM. I haven’t decided about it – after messing up a little with enlightenment, I found it too complicated… Will have to wait, I want an easy-to-use, lightweight WM… let’s see.

I fixed an annoying behaviour in Firefox: When I scrolled fast with the scroll wheel on my mouse, Firefox would go back and forth (depending on the scroll direction) in my browser history.
I found some resource that described the solution: I had to change the ZAxisMapping in xorg.conf. I did as suggested – the problem is now gone!

Another day to play around on the new client…
Today, I was up to a) beautify KDE and b) finalising some stuff, i. e. make sure I have all the programs I use for daily work.
In terms of beautify, I emerged whatever I found in the x11-themes section that related to either icons, KDE or mousecursors.
I also followed the HOWTO on integrating GTK-apps into Qt on the Gentoo wiki.
Then, I emerged the following additional software:

• kdevelop
• kmymoney2
• kplayer
• kmplayer
• nvidia-settings
• eclipse-sdk

But before emerging this, I added the following lines to /etc/portage/package.use:
dev-java/sund-jdk doc
dev-util/kdevelop cvs sql subversion
Also, before emerging eclipse-sdk, I re-emerged sun-jdk because of the doc flag.

In the meantime, I integrated Firefox with KDE, as described in the corresponding Wiki article; I also installed some firefox addons, namely:

• All-in-One Sidebar
• Download Statusbar
• Firebug
• Google Toolbar
• Greasemonkey
• Tab Mix Plus

Fore completing the Eclipse installation, I downloaded the PDT framework and the WTP framework (PHP development tools and Web Tools).

Finally, for having a quick access to my homedrive, for example from within some virtual machines, I set up a very basic Samba on the client, that basically shares my homedrive (note: I commented out everything else not shown here, especially the printer settings):
[global]
workgroup = zuhause.own
server string = Samba Server %v
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 50
map to guest = bad user
security = user
encrypt passwords = yes
socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_RCVBUF=8192 SO_SNDBUF=8192
dns proxy = no
[homes]
comment = Home Directories
browseable = no
writable = yes
[thomas]
comment = Thomas home
path = /home/thomas
valid users = thomas
public = no
writable = yes
printable = no
I am now almost there; there is some stuff left to do, especially some things that do not work correctly; but in terms of “having a working environment”, I am almost done…

We are now ready to emerge the X server. There is a handbook doc and a wiki entry.
First thing to do is to emerge the corresponding meta-package (xorg-x11) – this gives a list of 115 packages to emerge…
After the emerge, the nvidia module is compiled. We add it to /etc/modules.autoload.d and reboot for safety reasons.
Now, we issue an Xorg -configure. In the generated file, we adapt the setting for the mouse and set the default depth of the screen – voila, we get the standard X background pattern with the mouse cursor.
However, some error messages appear:
(EE) Failed to load module "wfb" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) NVIDIA(0): Failed to initialize the GLX module; please check in your X
(EE) NVIDIA(0): log file that the GLX module has been loaded in your X
(EE) NVIDIA(0): server, and that the module is the NVIDIA GLX module. If
(EE) NVIDIA(0): you continue to encounter problems, Please try
(EE) NVIDIA(0): reinstalling the NVIDIA driver.
(EE) AIGLX: DRI module not loaded
However, after switching to the nvidia OpenGL interface with “eselect opengl set nvidia”, everything is fine.
Now, we tweak some fonts, as described in this wiki entry. We have to add bitmap-fonts, truetype-fonts and type1-fonts to the USE flags, then emerge the fonts, as given. I then created a /etc/fonts./local.conf, but just with the sections on auto-hinding, and altered xorg.conf, as given.
As I had some problems with starting X (there were some complaints about missing charsets), I went to the forums and found this; emerged the three fonts mentioned and now everything is ok.
The X server is now working – next step is installing KDE…