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upgrading XFree86 from 4.3 to 4.4rc3


paleo
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I just went through the trouble of compiling and installing XFree86 4.4rc3 and wanted to share the little I learned with the installation.

 

First thing: don't do it if you have a working XFree86. It's probably not worth it. I regret having gone through the headaches. and there's the whole questionable licensing thing.

 

If you do want to do it anyway:

 

1. backup the directories /usr/X11R6 to /usr/X11R6-4.3 and /etc/X11 to /etc/X11-4.3. This is important or else you might end up with a hosed system with a lot of trouble getting back a working X. Better yet, backup the whole system...

 

2. compile and install X. The instructions are here:

http://www.xfree86.org/4.3.0/BUILD.html

I decided not to bother messing with the config files. The documentation for doing it is dismal

 

3. the new X is in /usr/X11R6. Move this to /usr/x11R6-4.4 (or whatever) and then create a symlink /usr/X11R6 to /usr/X11R6-4.4. The same with /etc/X11. Move it to /etc/X11-4.4 and then symlink /etc/X11 to /etc/X11-4.4 (I actually just copied /etc/X11-4.3 to /etc/X11-4.4)

 

4. go into /usr/X11R6-4.4/lib

 

5. remove libfreetype*. I think there are three. Remove them. I also recompiled freetype2 but I'm not sure if it's needed.

 

6. remove libfont*. I think there are six or so. Remove them too. I had font rendering problems for qt-based apps (all kde apps) before figuring this one out. I even recompiled qt but I doubt it's necessary. There's definitely no need to recompile gtk.

 

7. run ldconfig

 

8. startx and hope everything works. (if you didn't stop the xfs service, do so and restart it before startx)

 

9. if it looks like there are things not working, you can compare /usr/X11R6-4.3 and /usr/X11R6-4.4 and see if you might want to remove/add things from /usr/X11R6-4.4 (this is how I figured out step 7.)

 

10. if it still doesn't work and you are tired of messing around, symlink /usr/X11R6 to /usr/X11R6-4.3 and /etc/X11 to /etc/X11-4.3 and you'll have the old X back. You can still tinker around with the new version of X since it's still in /usr/X11R6-4.4 and the configs in /etc/X11-4.4.

Edited by paleo
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