5.3.2 How do I setup video card, monitor and mouse for the X-server?
This should be set-up during your Linux initial installation unless you skipped the step. To set it up now, you may try, as root, one of these text-mode configurators (as root):
Xconfigurator
XF86Setup
xconf
Under RedHat, you can also run the command setup (as root) and access Xconfigurator from there.
To setup X-windows under Linux, you may need to know your hardware. You may want to dust your monitor manual to see what maximum synchronization frequencies (vertical and horizontal) your monitor supports. The message when the computer boots may give you a clue about what type of video card you have and with how much video memory. Also running these commands will likely provide helpful information:
lspci
SuperProbe
Read the label underneath your mouse to find out about the mouse type. Next time you buy a mouse, get a 3-button "Linux-ready" Logitech or similar (Linux makes good use of all three mouse buttons). A standard (clone or not) mouse always makes a good sense--I would never buy an unusual mouse because it may requires a weird driver or otherwise be a installation/functional pain.
During testing of the X-server, if the screen goes blank, displays funny lines, or otherwise obviously does not function as designed, kill it fast with <Ctrl><Alt><BkSpace> and re-check your monitor sync frequencies. Running too high frequencies can be harmful to your monitor.
If you really have problems, set up a plain vga X server first (resolution 640x480 pixels, 16 or 256 colours). You can fine-tune it later, after you get some understanding of how things work on your system, or perhaps with the help of some nicer setup tools available under X.
After setting up X, you can start it manually using:
startx &
The "&" makes your command run in the background so that your text terminal is not blocked. You could also use:
init 5
which will switch your system to runlevel 5, which means "the graphical user interface run level". To start X automatically (or not, your choice) on the system reboot, read the next few paragraphs.
5.3.3 Can I have a GUI login prompt?
To start your X-server automatically on the system start-up and display a graphical login prompt, you have to change (as root) just one character in the file /etc/inittab. This file specifies something like:
id:3:initdefault:
Change it to
id:5:initdefault:
This sets up the default runlevel to 5, which is X-Windows. The meaning of the different runlevels is explained in the same /etc/inittab file :
0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
1 - Single user mode
2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking)
3 - Full multiuser mode
4 - unused
5 - X11
6 - reboot (Do NOT set initdefault to this)
You can change the runlevel from the command line. E.g., this command (has to be executed as root):
init 6
will reboot your computer, while the following command would switch your computer to a single-user mode:
init 1
To find out which runlevel I am currently at, I use the command runlevel.
To fine-tune the appearance of my X login screen, I can use (under X):
kcontrol &
and select "System"-"Login Manager". I like a login
