Announcing tinyx - our X server fork

[curaga]

Our current Xvesa and Xfbdev hail from the XFree86 4.8.0 era. Not easy to build with a current environment, and so hard to fix bugs in. They are also somewhat bigger than necessary.

So, as one of the last few users of Xvesa, we're announcing a fork of xorg-server-1.2.0. It's been updated to build in a current environment, had everything unnecessary stripped, and some custom tweaks for user-friendliness and faster startup.

Compared to the existing ~700kb 32-bit binaries, these are ~500kb when built with -Os, while at the same time supporting much more functionality (15 extensions vs 8, DPMS among the most important).

Clone with "git clone http://git.tinycorelinux.net/tinyx" to try it out. Packages may be updated into the next (or next+1) release.
Or grab a release tarball from http://www.tinycorelinux.net/~curaga/tinyx-1.0rc1.tar.bz2 for an easier build.

Test packages available at http://tinycorelinux.net/~curaga/

[gerald_clark]

How about some instructions.
I loaded compiletc, autoconf, perl5, automake, libtool, and gettext.
I still can't get it to compile under Core 5.

[curaga]

Sure, I think you're missing the X headers - Xorg-7.7-dev should do. libtool-dev is also needed to generate the configure script.

The autofoo are only needed for git builds, for (future) release tarballs only compiletc + Xorg-7.7-dev are enough.

edit: Added libXfont-dev as Xorg-dev's dep.

[Zendrael]

Very nice!

Will get some tcz on the repo soon? There are already some "benchmarks" against the Xvesa? The tinyX will suport more resolutions? Support for Xcompmanger?

Thanks!

[tinypoodle]

Interesting news

[curaga]

TCZ packages will get there in a week or two.

There are already some "benchmarks" against the Xvesa? The tinyX will suport more resolutions? Support for Xcompmanger?

- benchmarks: the main goal for fbdev and vesa is to be small. They have no render acceleration, for that, use Xorg.
- more resolutions: this is not possible, as fbdev uses the existing resolution, and vesa gets the resolutions from your BIOS.
- Xcompmgr: no, composite support is not included. Please use Xorg for this.

As mentioned in the README, a possible future "Xmodesetting" would be able to use any resolution, as long as an open KMS kernel driver existed in graphics-KERNEL.tcz. However, you can already get the best resolution by loading graphics- and Xfbdev, so the new server is not a high priority.

[Misalf]

With current Xvesa, I can't move windows via mouse (in fluxbox) while numlock is activated. Could this possibly be fixed with this version?

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I tryed compiling both, git and tarball. Both fail to launch for me.
I did load the mentioned extensions for compiling.

Compiler flags as mentioned in wiki.
For the git version, I did first ran  autogen.sh .

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$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local
...
$ make
...
$ make DESTDIR=/tmp/tinyx install-stripCompiling finishes without errors.
I did also try  make install  with  sudo  but I guess that doesn't make a difference when 'installing' to /tmp ?

Then I have repacked the current Xvesa.tcz with  /usr/local/bin/Xvesa  replaced with that newly created one.
I tryed  chown root:staff (like default Xvesa), root:root  and  tc:staff  on Xvesa before packing. Always same result:

$ startx  gives error: "failed in waitforX"
$ Xvesa  gives error: "Server must be suid root"

[tinypoodle]

What happens when you try to run it as root?

[Misalf]

Then it complains about bad resolution and being unable to find fonts - "fixed" in particular.
Same if I add  -screen 1280x1024

I will test on a clean install later.

[coreplayer2]

With current Xvesa, I can't move windows via mouse (in fluxbox) while numlock is activated. Could this possibly be fixed with this version?

I can't remember off-hand how to resolve this issue but is not related to Xvesa iirc,   strangely i've experienced this before once..   though haven't had the issue for a while, then today while trying to duplicate the NumLK/typing/move windows issue with the hope of finding the resolution, I've gone and activated the feature accidentally.   So now I have the issue where you can either type or you can move windows, but not both. and i can't remember how I arrived here.  Though I believe this is fluxbox related


Nice work on the Xvesa/Xfbdev,  after compiling I noticed that Xfbdev is half the size of the version it replaces  :thumbup:
going to take them both for a spin here if I can regain control of my keyboard  :p

[tinypoodle]

Then it complains about bad resolution and being unable to find fonts - "fixed" in particular.
Same if I add  -screen 1280x1024

I will test on a clean install later.

Try this:

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sudo chmod u+rwxs,a+rx /path/to/Xvesa

[curaga]

Sorry about that, my fault in not posting better instructions.

The existing Xvesa had --prefix=/usr, and was later moved to /usr/local. Per this, the bitmap fonts are in /usr. So the recommended configure is:

./configure --with-fontdir=/usr/lib/X11/fonts

This installs to /usr/local but also finds the existing fonts.

[Misalf]

My first days with tinycore + fluxbox + Xvesa, I thought it would be unstable until I discovered that I just have to re-deactivate the numlock in order to move windows. I have qwertzy layout thus I use the numpad a lot for inserting the  '/'  character (instead of SHIFT+7). Under Xorg it works.

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Thanks curaga, I'll try that.

[coreplayer2]

./configure --with-fontdir=/usr/lib/X11/fonts

Thanks, Ok will also try this (since I appear to have the same issue with the fonts)



@Misalf  I couldn't find which key combo I pressed to change the NumLK/windows position state from having control to not having any control, so I rebooted restoring the Fluxbox default configuration and the numlk window feature is acting normally again in Xvesa.  good luck

[Misalf]

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sudo chmod u+rwxs,a+rx /path/to/XvesaDid not help.

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./configure --with-fontdir=/usr/lib/X11/fontsNow I'm able to lauch  sudo Xvesa  (allone) but  startx still doesn't work.
So I edited  ~/.xsession  to start Xvesa with  sudo  and this now results in a seemingly workin X desktop.

Is it OK or even required for Xvesa to be ran as root?

However, after exiting X and running  startx  again, fluxbox fails to launch (my conky lives, though).
/tmp/wm_errors

Code: [Select]

Error: Couldn't connect to XServer:0.0(Numlock/window-move bug still there with this Xvesa; but can't test with default fluxbox configs)

running  startx  for a 3rd time, I also have a wbar.

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[Don't worry guys, i did not backup so I can go back any time][/code]