Arch Linux Installation log pt. 9 – Installing and configuring X

October 15, 2009  |  Arch Linux

So far we have wandered in the land of the command line interface. It is time to install a graphical interface, don’t you agree? In this post I will show you how I installed and configured X on my Arch Linux installation.

Install X

pacman -S xorg dbus

Edit /etc/rc.conf and add “hal” to the DAEMONS list.

Install and configure input drivers

pacman -S xf86-input-keyboard xf86-input-mouse xf86-input-synaptics
cp /usr/share/hal/fdi/policy/10osvendor/10-keymap.fdi /etc/hal/fdi/policy/

Edit /etc/hal/fdi/policy/10-keymap.fdi

Find the line that say “… “input.xkb.layout” type=”string”>us” and replace “us” with “no”

hal_keymap

Install Video Driver

pacman -S nvidia mesa

Choose “yes” to remove libgl

Install Fonts

pacman -S ttf-ms-fonts ttf-dejavu ttf-bitstream-vera ttf-cheapskate artwiz-fonts

Reboot

reboot

Test X

startx
startx

X should now start. Type “exit” in the login window to exit X.

So now we know that running X works. Good!

Configure X

nvidia-xconfig --composite --add-argb-glx-visuals
nvidia_xconfig

Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Update Section “Device” by adding:

  • Option “NvAGP” “0″
  • Option “NoLogo” “True”
  • Option “AllowGLXWithComposite” “True”
xconf_device

Update section “Screen”, subsection “Display” by adding:

  • Modes “1920×1200″ “1600×1200″ “1024×768″ “800×600″ “640×480″
xconf_screen

Add new section “InputDevice” and add:

  • Identifier “Synaptics Touchpad”
  • Driver “synaptics”
  • Option “SendCoreEvents” “true”
  • Option “Device” “/dev/psaux”
  • Option “Protocol” “auto-dev”
  • Option “SHMConfig” “on”
  • Option “HorizScrollDelta” “0″
  • Option “MaxTapTime” “180″
  • Option “MinTapTime” “50″
xconf_touchpad

Add to section “ServerLayout”:

  • InputDevice “Synaptics Touchpad”
xconf_serverlayout

Let’s check that X still works:

startx
cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc ~/.xinitrc

Repeat the above command for all user accounts that you want to use X with.

Further reading at Arch Linux Wiki

2 people like this post.
 

Other posts of the serie

  1. Arch Linux Installation log pt. 1 - Introduction - September 25, 2009
  2. Arch Linux Installation log pt. 2 - Core system - October 2, 2009
  3. Arch Linux Installation log pt. 3 - Getting online - October 7, 2009
  4. Arch Linux Installation log pt. 4 - Updating the system - October 11, 2009
  5. Arch Linux Installation log pt. 5 - Add user(s) - October 11, 2009
  6. Arch Linux Installation log pt. 6 - Configure Network Time Protocol - October 11, 2009
  7. Arch Linux Installation log pt. 7 - Configure Power Management - October 13, 2009
  8. Arch Linux Installation log pt. 8 - Configure Sound - October 13, 2009
  9. Arch Linux Installation log pt. 9 - Installing and configuring X (This post) - October 15, 2009

Related Posts

Leave a Reply