Solaris Package Archive -- X11R6.4
Solaris Package Archive
X11R6.4
Mark <mark@ibiblio.org>
What is it
X11R6.4 is a free release of the MIT X11 Windowing system from the X Consortium.
I've offered it here for those who want to use the standard X11 system because
they like it or they want to compile with it etc. All of the X11 packages installed
on this package archive are compiled against this software, often linking with the
libraries only available in this package. This means if you wish to use the X11
packages such as xv, xpm, tetris, xpaint or GNUxboard you will have to install
this package, even if you never start up the included X server on your display.
There is no harm in installing this software, it won't affect any other part
of your system.
SPARC Release
The Solaris SPARC releases are compiled from the releases of the X11R6.4
source code. They will run on most SPARC platforms, however:
X11R6 doesn't support: TCX, SX, ZX, TZX, Creator, Creator3D, so it is of increasingly limited use.
-- Casper Dik - Sun Microsystems
Note: The Solaris 8 version has had cg2 support removed, mainly
because Sun has removed the cg2 header files because Solaris 8 doesn't run on any machines
that have a cg2 display.
The latest Creator Graphics etc systems on UltraSPARCs are not recognized by the X server.
If you get the incorrect ioctl for device errors
then you might try a ln -s /usr/openwin/bin/Xsun
/usr/X11R6/bin/Xsun command. Note I don't think I can support any
problems you might encounter with this. The Solaris FAQ says you can do it,
though you lose the newer X11R6.x features.
Frustrated users might find more frustration, (or not), on this
Sun X11 question and answer site.
Why should I still install it after all that "bad news"? Well it doesn't hurt, and most
importantly the vast majority of the X11 programs available in the Solaris Package Archive
have been compiled with this software installed. Most will reference a library that is
only available in this X11R6.4 software. You can run the standard Sun X servers if you wish
and your X11 tools will use both the Sun and X11R6.4 libraries as needed.
Intel Release
The X11R6.4 release for i86pc machines is the 4.0 release of XFree86. It has been compiled
from the source distribution. Users should be aware that it is regarded as a development
release and a number of the video cards supported in the older 3.3.x XFree86 versions are
not supported in this release, yet. In the future patches will be made available which
will hopefully address the discrepancies.
The package is simply compiled and packaged. Users wishing to start up the Xservers and
use the distribution on their machine, (I'm simply using the libraries to compile more
packages), will need to follow the configuration procedures. These are explained in
ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.0/RELNOTES,
and all the files located in the
ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.0/doc/
directory. Note that these files are also located in
/usr/local/X11R6.4/lib/X11/doc/ after the package
is installed. That documentation will instruct you on how to go about configuring the
distribution to run on your hardware, if supported. To check if you hardware is currently
supported visit the driver database at
http://www.xfree86.org/4.0/Status.html.
Email To
SPARC users send email to xstuff@x.org and xbugs@opengroup.org.
i86pc users first check http://www.xfree86.org/FAQ/, then fill in a bug report if that does not solve your problem.
Solaris Issues
X11R6.4 is custom compiled for the operating system it lives on. Running on
a Solaris release other than the one it was installed on would have undefined
results. It may work, but it's not supported. You'll find the package setup
won't allow you to complete the install anyway in this case.
Click here to read about the 32 bit and 64 bit Solaris 7 and 8 packages.
Source Code
The X11R6.4 source code can be found at ftp://ftp.x.org/pub/R6.4/tars/.
However, it's better if you use a mirror site.
The i86pc XFree86 4.0 release source code can be found at ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.0/source/.
Special Issues
SPARC users should find it will run out of the box, assuming you have a compatible
Sun graphics card. Solaris x86 users will have to configure the system as
mentioned above otherwise they will see big problems with their cards and monitors.
See the main packages README for installation information.