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6.Select the video card capabilities. At this stage of configuration, a screen warns that you need the information that you’ve gathered about the video card. Select the chipset, then choose the general type of card, as shown in Figure 6-7. Then, select the RAMDAC and ClockChip setting used with the video card. This can vary from card to card — even in the same model — so use care when verifying this information.

For more information about hardware identification, see Chapter 5.

After you have selected these settings, the program asks you to save the configuration file, which is the final step of the basic configuration of the X Window System. You can use the xf86config, XF86Setup, and many more configuration utilities to not only configure the X Window System, but to also reconfigure it. Remember this method for performing configurations or reconfigurations: Back up the working configuration and document every selected setting to allow reconfiguration if the system is damaged and to prevent poor configurations from being repeated.

Figure 6-7: The xf86config Video Card Configuration Screen

Custom X Window System Programs

The configuration tools XF86Setup and xf86config are not the most user-friendly tools. Most distributions include configuration programs that allow you to reconfigure the X Window System, Window Manager, and desktop environment. Userfriendly applications — such as the Mandrake Control Center, shown in Figure 6-8 — allow you to easily select all settings in one screen.

190 Part III Configuration

Figure 6-8: The Mandrake Control Center

These applications often allow you to configure the monitor and video card at the same time. Red Hat Linux uses Xconfigurator, which you can use as the initial configuration utility or to reconfigure an X Window System. SuSE uses the SaX and SaX2 (for XFree86 4.0) utilities to configure the X Window System. These are just a few of the custom programs that are available in distributions for configuring the X Window System. These various graphical configuration utilities, however, are customized for each distribution and often contain support files for hardware that are not included in the XFree86 package.

Custom programs are not available in all distributions of Linux; therefore, you should focus on the generic tools XF86Setup and xf86config. It is important for the exam that you gain experience with these two tools. All tools, however, use the same format, so don’t ignore the custom tools — especially Xconfigurator, which is included with Red Hat.

Manual Configuration of the X Window System

You can also manually manipulate the X Window System with the use of the configuration file. The initialization file for the X Window System is often the xf86config file, which is often located at /etc/X11/XF86Config. Every setting is available at this