1 Binary Distribution

Contents of this section

The following files are provided in the binary distribution, where XXX is the new version and NNN is the previous version:

README.SCO

This file.

gunzip.Z

The GNU uncompress utility.

*XFXXX-doc.tz

The XFree86 specific documentation.

XFNNN-XXX.tz

Files to upgrade from all NNN versions to XXX. This file may not be present if the upgrade is too substantial (ie., X11R5 -> X11R6).

XFXXX-Mono.tz

The Mono server

XFXXX-VGA16.tz

The 16 colour VGA server

XFXXX-SVGA.tz

The Super VGA server

XFXXX-S3.tz

The S3 server

There will most likely be more servers than listed here. You should select the server you need. Check the directory listing for any other servers that may be there.
*XFXXX-cfg.tz

The local configuration files for xdm/fs/xinit.

*XFXXX-bin.tz

The bin directory, contains most executables.

*XFXXX-lib.tz

The shared and unshared libraries.

*XFXXX-fnt1.tz

75dpi and misc fonts.

XFXXX-fnt2.tz

100dpi and Speedo fonts.

*XFXXX-inc.tz

The X11 include files.

XFXXX-man.tz

The formatted man pages.

XFXXX-lkit.tz

The server link kit (all drivers + PEX).

XFXXX-util.tz

Lots of PD utilities provided as is.

XFXXX-pex.tz

All files relating to PEX including libraries and header files. The LinkKit is required to obtain servers capable of running PEX.

To obtain a minimum XFree86 installation you will require the archives marked with a '*' above, the server binary best suited to your machine and optionally "gunzip.Z". All the files are compressed with "gzip" except of course "gunzip.Z" which is compressed using the conventional compress program.

To install the XFree86 binaries just follow these steps.

  1. Obtain the files you require.

    as root,

  2. create a directory /usr/X11R6, permissions 755 should do nicely.
  3. cd /usr/X11R6
  4. extract the archives, for example: 
                gunzip < XFXXX-bin.tz | tar xvf -
  5. if you have installed man pages see the later section on setting up man pages.
  6. Look through /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/INSTALL, especially section 2 on configuring and using XFree86. This should allow you to get a server up and running. Before starting the server check in the later section Before Running XFree86 , in this document, to see if there are any system requirements you have to make for the server to operate correctly.
If you intend using the programs from the utilities archive then you should be aware that they are provided as is. They are not part of the XFree86 distribution nor are they part of the standard MIT distribution. Every attempt is made to ensure that they work to a usable degree but they are not perfect. All programs in the utilities archive come with a manual entry (which is also in the utilities archive). Information on the author(s) can usually be located in the man page or by running the executable.

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