What is XFree86?
tinyX Window System Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) ListStrictly speaking, the various groups that have developed the X Window System over the years have been standardization groups, not software developers. However, they have also developed a reference implementation of the standards, and this source code is what is popularly called the X Window System. The license on this source code freely permits modification and redistribution, and this what many software vendors have done. The XFree86 Project, Inc.
Related QuestionsAnswers to Frequently Asked Questions about XFree86XFree86 is a trademark of The XFree86 Project, Inc., a non-profit organization that provides X Window System servers (as well as some supporting materials) for several operating systems on PCs and other microcomputers. The X servers, client programs, documentation, etc. supplied by the XFree86 Project, Inc., are collectively, also known as XFree86. All programs are provided with source code, free of charge. The XFree86 Project, Inc. is currently funded entirely by donations.Related Questions
Sao's Place - Macosxhints-forums Apple's X11 v0.1 FAQThe XFree86 Project, Inc is the "organisation which produces XFree86, a freely redistributable open-source implementation of the X Window System which runs on UNIX(R) and UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux, all of the BSD variants, Sun Solaris x86, Mac OS X (via Darwin), as well as other platforms like OS/2 and Cygwin." Just as the Classic environment makes it possible to run classic Mac OS applications in Mac OS X, so does Xfee86 make it possible to run X11 applications in Mac OS X.Related Questions
XStrikeForce/FAQ - Debian Wikinoted above, the various groups that have developed the X Window System over the years have had standardization as their primary goal, not software development. The liberal license terms used by the SI since its very early days have ensured that any organization (or even individual) can come up with their own implementation of the X Window System or one of its components, and have confidence that their code will interoperate with other code respecting the same standard.Related Questions
Q.A2- What is the current release of XFree86?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about XFree86The latest full release is XFree86 version 3.3.5. It is based on X11R6.3pl2 and was released in August 1999. See the Release Notes for more info.
Related QuestionsQ.A17- How do I report a bug in XFree86?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about XFree86Use the bug report form on our WWW server (http://www.XFree86.org/), or send email to XFree86@XFree86.org. Before sending a bug report, make sure you are using the current release of XFree86. In the bug report, include the full server output, details of the XFree86 version, server, description of the problem, and some way of repeating it and most importantly, the full server startup output.
Related QuestionsQ.E12- Is XFree86 Year2000 compliant?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about XFree86The X window system is not subject to year2000 problems. Neither is XFree86. See the y2k statement from The Open Group for reference.
Related QuestionsQ.A15- Can I use more than one video card in the same machine with XFree86?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about XFree86Although it is technically possible to use multiple PCI-based SVGA cards in the same machine, none of the servers currently support this. The VGA16 and Mono servers are both capable of running both a VGA compatible card and a non-VGA compatible monochrome card in the same machine.
Related QuestionsQ.E16- Can TrueType fonts be used with XFree86?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about XFree86While XFree86 does not, at the time of writing, natively support TrueType fonts, there is a number of third party solutions. Some information about these options is included below. The XFree86 project is not responsible for any of these; please send any inquiries about them to relevant newsgroups or, eventually, to their authors.
Related QuestionsQ.F23- How do I get XFree86 to work with my new ATI card?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about XFree86First, you need to get the XFree86 3.3.5 Mach64 server if you don't already have it. It should automatically detect the ATI chips available up to the time of its release (July 1999), except for all Rage128 cards (like the Fury). See below for Rage128 support. One exception from this is the Rage Pro LT chipset, as the server doesn't support the LCD with that chipset. A fix for this problem is known and will be included in XFree86-3.3.5.
Related QuestionsHow do I disable XFree86 XVideo acceleration?
Simple DirectMedia LayerYou can disable all YUV hardware acceleration by setting the environment variable SDL_VIDEO_YUV_HWACCEL to "0".
Related Questionsa. But I need xfree86 4.3. Isn't there anything I can do?
Gnome 2.2 Backport FAQIt is possible (but unsupported) to run the backport with xfree86 > 4.2. Please see Xfree86 4.3 with Gnome 2.2 for details.
Related QuestionsHow can I install/use XFree86 from pkgsrc?
Chapter 8. Frequently Asked QuestionsIf you want to use XFree86 from pkgsrc instead of your system's own X11 (/usr/X11R6, /usr/openwin, ...), you will have to add the following line into /etc/mk.conf: X11_TYPE=XFree86
Related QuestionsWhat is the story with XFree86's license?
XStrikeForce/FAQ - Debian WikiThe "wait-and-see" approach adopted by most vendors in the wake of Xouvert and freedesktop.org forks changed in January 2004, when the XFree86 project announced its intention to change the license on its codebase. The license, called the "XFree86 1.1 license", combined elements of the traditional MIT/X11 license, the original 4-clause BSD license (containing the infamous " advertising clause"), and the Apache Software License in a novel way.
Related QuestionsWhat is the story with XFree86 3.''x''?
XStrikeForce/FAQ - Debian Wikiof September 2003, packages of XFree86 3.x are no longer supported by the Debian Project. Please note that the XFree86 3.x codebase is not maintained by anyone, even for security fixes. If you run XFree86 3.x on your system, you may be vulnerable to CAN-2002-0164, CAN-2003-0063, CAN-2003-0071, CAN-2003-0690, CAN-2003-0730, CAN-2004-0083, CAN-2004-0084, CAN-2004-0093, CAN-2004-0094, CAN-2004-0106, CAN-2004-0687, and CAN-2004-0688 (as indexed by the MITRE CVE project), among other flaws.
Related QuestionsAn X app I am building depends on XFree86 3.3.X, but I have XFree86 4.X installed. What should I do?
FreeBSD Documentation - Chapter 11 The X Window System and V...To tell the port build to link to the XFree86 4.X libraries, add the following to /etc/make.conf, (if you do not have this file, create it): XFREE86_VERSION= 4
Related QuestionsQ.C7- How can I swap mouse buttons? How do I get an XFree86 for Left-Handers?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about XFree86Q.D1- Part of the Displayed Image is Wrapping-around or is Duplicated on the Other Side of the Screen
Related QuestionsQ.A12- Is XFree86 being ported to OS/2?
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about XFree86Yes, there has been some work done on porting the servers, libraries, and some of the clients to OS/2. This port runs in parallel to the Presentation Manager desktop, similarly to a WinOS/2 fullscreen session (there is no equivalent to a seamless WinOS/2 configuration). See http://borneo.gmd.de/~veit/os2/xf86os2.html for more information. OS/2 binaries of the latest beta release are available. There will also be a specific FAQ for XFree86/OS2.
Related QuestionsHow do you install XFree86 on Solaris?
Solaris on Intel - x86 FAQWhy would you want to? You would if you prefer the window managers that come with XFree86, are tired of CDE's restrictiveness or style, or XSun's lack of color depths or non-support for your graphics board. (If board support is the only problem, consider 3rd party drivers from XiGraphics, http://www.xig.com/). Of course, it's much easier to install CDE, if it works for you. Here's one person's experiences with installing XFree86.
Related QuestionsWhat is the story with XFree86 being forked?
XStrikeForce/FAQ - Debian WikiAfter XFree86 rose to prominence, X.Org began to incorporate parts of its codebase into its own SI; however, this process tended to lag XFree86's own releases, and until 2004 X.Org's SI did not offer features compelling enough to motivate a switch, at least within the Free / Libre / Open Source community. Recent events have challenged XFree86's pre-eminence, but they have their roots in long-standing trends and practices.
Related QuestionsWhy does your backport conflict with my xfree86 packages?
Gnome 2.2 Backport FAQxfree86 >= 4.2.1 and < 4.3 is required by gnome 2.2. The gnome2.2 backport provides xfree86 4.2.1 packages, so just install those.
Related QuestionsHow can I help debug the XFree86 X server?
XStrikeForce/FAQ - Debian WikiYou can often help Debian and upstream driver maintainers fix problems by narrowing down exactly where a crash or lockup is. You don't need to do this when filing an initial bug report you can do it for any problem you can reproduce and follow-up to an existing bug report. The reportbug program will give you the opportunity to add information to an already-filed report when it displays the list of bugs already filed against a package.
Related QuestionsWhy does XFree86 crash as I'm starting?
AfterStep FAQ: General usage, features and bugsThere are many reasons why this might happen, but one bug in particular has surfaced which might be important. Apparently, XFree86 has some bugs in the shaped windows handling code. The effect of these bugs is that, if you are using an as-app, and another window overlaps that as-app's window while the app is starting, X will crash. This usually happens at startup time in AfterStep, during the time when Wharf is starting.
Related QuestionsWhat are Debian's plans with respect to X.Org and XFree86?
XStrikeForce/FAQ - Debian WikiBecause the XFree86 relicensing came at a time when Debian was trying to stabilize its XFree86 packages for the sarge release, there was some question among Debian's X Window System package maintenance team (the "X Strike Force") and much speculation among Debian's users as to what direction Debian would take. There was never a serious proposal to attempt to ship anything other than XFree86 4.3.0 in sarge, so work on that continued while discussion on the debian-x mailing list took place.
Related QuestionsBefore, I was able to run XFree86 as a regular user. Why does it now say that I must be root?
FreeBSD Documentation - Chapter 11 The X Window System and V...All X servers need to be run as root in order to get direct access to your video hardware. Older versions of XFree86 (<= 3.3.6) installed all bundled servers to be automatically run as root (setuid to root). This is obviously a security hazard because X servers are large, complicated programs. Newer versions of XFree86 do not install the servers setuid to root for just this reason. Obviously, running an X server as the root user is not acceptable, nor a good idea security-wise.
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