[gentoo-user] Forcing X.org video driver without xorg.config

[gentoo-user] Forcing X.org video driver without xorg.config

[Black Napalm]

Hello!

I am trying to set up X.org and the Gentoo X Server configuration
HOWTO says that HAL should be used and that xorg.conf should only be
used as a last resort. However, when running X without a configuration
file, it autodetects the video card and tries to load the wrong
drivers, which I haven't installed, and therefore fails.
Is there a way to force X to use a specific driver without using a
configuration file? I am not really familiar with HAL, but it seems as
though none of the provided policies have anything to do with video
cards.

Thank you in advance!

Re: [gentoo-user] Forcing X.org video driver without xorg.config

[William Kenworthy]

My experience with my own systems is that (at least on mostly older
hardware), disabling hal is the only way to get a properly working
system.  I would suggest trying with hal at first (which you have done),
then overiding it with xorg.conf where necessary - but often xorg seems
to prefer hal over the conf file so in more problematic cases, compile
with -hal.

They will probably get it working properly eventually, but for the
moment hal is one of those things that sounded good in theory, but ...


BillK




On Mon, 2010-04-05 at 14:37 +0300, Black Napalm wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> I am trying to set up X.org and the Gentoo X Server configuration
> HOWTO says that HAL should be used and that xorg.conf should only be
> used as a last resort. However, when running X without a configuration
> file, it autodetects the video card and tries to load the wrong
> drivers, which I haven't installed, and therefore fails.
> Is there a way to force X to use a specific driver without using a
> configuration file? I am not really familiar with HAL, but it seems as
> though none of the provided policies have anything to do with video
> cards.
> 
> Thank you in advance!
> 
-- 
William Kenworthy <billk@iinet.net.au>
Home in Perth!

Re: [gentoo-user] Forcing X.org video driver without xorg.config

[Mike Edenfield]

On 4/5/2010 7:37 AM, Black Napalm wrote:
> Hello!
> 
> I am trying to set up X.org and the Gentoo X Server configuration
> HOWTO says that HAL should be used and that xorg.conf should only be
> used as a last resort. However, when running X without a configuration
> file, it autodetects the video card and tries to load the wrong
> drivers, which I haven't installed, and therefore fails.
> Is there a way to force X to use a specific driver without using a
> configuration file? I am not really familiar with HAL, but it seems as
> though none of the provided policies have anything to do with video
> cards.

1. Dale, preemptive shush.

2. HAL is going away, so I'd suggest you just ignore everything the
HOWTO says about it and use the previous method of defining everything
in xorg.conf.

3. If you want to keep HAL: the HOWTO isn't really referring to your
video hardware when it says not to use a configuration file.  It's
mostly talking about your input devices and other hardware.  If X isn't
auto-detecting your hardware properly, adding configuration sections to
xorg.conf is still correct.

Re: [gentoo-user] Forcing X.org video driver without xorg.config

[Black Napalm]

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On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 5:02 PM, Mike Edenfield <kutulu@kutulu.org> wrote:
> On 4/5/2010 7:37 AM, Black Napalm wrote:
>> Hello!
>>
>> I am trying to set up X.org and the Gentoo X Server configuration
>> HOWTO says that HAL should be used and that xorg.conf should only be
>> used as a last resort. However, when running X without a configuration
>> file, it autodetects the video card and tries to load the wrong
>> drivers, which I haven't installed, and therefore fails.
>> Is there a way to force X to use a specific driver without using a
>> configuration file? I am not really familiar with HAL, but it seems as
>> though none of the provided policies have anything to do with video
>> cards.
>
> 1. Dale, preemptive shush.
>
> 2. HAL is going away, so I'd suggest you just ignore everything the
> HOWTO says about it and use the previous method of defining everything
> in xorg.conf.
>
> 3. If you want to keep HAL: the HOWTO isn't really referring to your
> video hardware when it says not to use a configuration file.  It's
> mostly talking about your input devices and other hardware.  If X isn't
> auto-detecting your hardware properly, adding configuration sections to
> xorg.conf is still correct.
>
>

Thanks for the advice! I will then gladly define it in xorg.conf, maybe even
remove HAL.

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Re: [gentoo-user] Forcing X.org video driver without xorg.config

[Dale]

Black Napalm wrote:
>
>
> On Mon, Apr 5, 2010 at 5:02 PM, Mike Edenfield <kutulu@kutulu.org 
> <mailto:kutulu@kutulu.org>> wrote:
> > On 4/5/2010 7:37 AM, Black Napalm wrote:
> >> Hello!
> >>
> >> I am trying to set up X.org and the Gentoo X Server configuration
> >> HOWTO says that HAL should be used and that xorg.conf should only be
> >> used as a last resort. However, when running X without a configuration
> >> file, it autodetects the video card and tries to load the wrong
> >> drivers, which I haven't installed, and therefore fails.
> >> Is there a way to force X to use a specific driver without using a
> >> configuration file? I am not really familiar with HAL, but it seems as
> >> though none of the provided policies have anything to do with video
> >> cards.
> >
> > 1. Dale, preemptive shush.
> >
> > 2. HAL is going away, so I'd suggest you just ignore everything the
> > HOWTO says about it and use the previous method of defining everything
> > in xorg.conf.
> >
> > 3. If you want to keep HAL: the HOWTO isn't really referring to your
> > video hardware when it says not to use a configuration file.  It's
> > mostly talking about your input devices and other hardware.  If X isn't
> > auto-detecting your hardware properly, adding configuration sections to
> > xorg.conf is still correct.
> >
> >
>
> Thanks for the advice! I will then gladly define it in xorg.conf, 
> maybe even remove HAL.

I'll never shush.  lol

By all means try it with a xorg.conf first with hal enabled.  You can 
use X -configure to generate a xorg.conf file.  Make sure it puts it 
where it is needed.  It has been while since i had to do this but 
sometimes it puts it in /root for testing and you have to move it to 
/etc/X11/ yourself.  Just plain ole copy works fine.  Nothing special 
about the copy process.

If it still doesn't work, just add xorg.conf -hal to your package.use 
file/directory and re-emerge xorg.  If you use KDE, you may have to 
leave the hal USE flag turned on for everything else.  If you don't use 
KDE, you may can disable it system wide.  I only use KDE here so I'm not 
sure if other destops use hal or not.  Now if you are brave and know 
that xml stuff, you can always jump in with both feet and try to figure 
out the hal config files.  Good luck on that.  LOL

Dale

:-)  :-)