Introduction to Xorg Server
The Xorg Server is the core of the
X Window system.
![[Note]](../images/note.png)
Note
Development versions of BLFS may not build or run some packages
properly if LFS or dependencies have been updated since the most
recent stable versions of the books.
Package Information
Additional Downloads
Xorg Server Dependencies
Required
libxcvt-0.1.3, Pixman-0.44.2,
Xorg
Fonts (only font-util), and at runtime: xkeyboard-config-2.43
Recommended
libepoxy-1.5.10 (needed for glamor),
libtirpc-1.3.6, Systemd-256.5 (runtime), and xorg-libinput-1.5.0 (runtime)
Note
Although it's possible to run the Xorg server without
Systemd-256.5
(rebuilt with PAM) functioning, it would require running
the Xorg server as the root user
or Xorg server will malfunction or even fail to start. The BLFS
editors strongly discourage skipping this
dependency. Do not attempt to do so unless you really know
what you are doing.
Optional
acpid-2.0.34 (runtime), Doxygen-1.12.0
(to build API documentation), fop-2.10 (to build
documentation), libunwind-1.8.1, Nettle-3.10,
libgcrypt-1.11.0, XCB Utilities (to
build Xephyr), xmlto-0.0.29 (to build documentation), xkeyboard-config-2.43 (for tests),
rendercheck
(for tests), and xorg-sgml-doctools
(to build documentation)
Kernel
Configuration
The traditional Device Dependent X (DDX) drivers have been removed
from BLFS in favor of the modesetting_drv driver which will be built as a
part of this package. To use the modesetting_drv driver, the kernel must provide a
Direct Rendering Manager (DRM) driver for your GPU.
If your GPU supports 3D acceleration and Mesa-24.3.1 provides a
Gallium3D driver for utilizing its 3D capability, you should have
already enabled the necessary kernel configuration options in
Mesa Kernel Configuration. Otherwise,
you need to find the kernel configuration option of the DRM driver
for the GPU and enable it. Notably, the virtual GPUs provided by
some virtual machine managers:
Device Drivers --->
Graphics support --->
<*/M> Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support) --->
... [DRM]
< /*/M> DRM driver for VMware Virtual GPU [DRM_VMWGFX]
< /*/M> DRM Support for bochs dispi vga interface (qemu stdvga)
... [DRM_BOCHS]
< /*/M> Virtual Box Graphics Card [DRM_VBOXVIDEO]
If the kernel does not provide a DRM driver for your GPU, on most
x86 systems the “simple
frame buffer” DRM driver running on VESA or UEFI
frame buffer can be used as a fallback. Enable the following
options in the kernel configurations if you don't have a dedicated
DRM driver for the GPU, or you want to keep the simple frame buffer
driver as a fallback in case the dedicated driver fails:
Device Drivers --->
Firmware Drivers --->
[*] Mark VGA/VBE/EFI FB as generic system framebuffer [SYSFB_SIMPLEFB]
Graphics support --->
<*> Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support) --->
... [DRM]
<*> Simple framebuffer driver [DRM_SIMPLEDRM]
To allow the kernel to print debug messages at an early boot stage,
CONFIG_DRM and CONFIG_DRM_SIMPLEDRM should not be built as kernel
modules unless an initramfs will be used.
If you want to use the simple frame buffer driver on a system
booted via BIOS (instead of UEFI), add the following line before
the first menuentry block in the
/boot/grub/grub.cfg file to
initialize the VESA frame buffer:
set gfxpayload=1024x768x32
You may replace 1024, 768, and 32 with a
resolution and color depth setting suitable for your monitor.
If all of these DRM drivers do not work for you and you need to use
a DDX driver with a non-DRM kernel GPU driver (usually named
CONFIG_FB_* in the kernel
configuration, or existing as out-tree kernel modules), or you need
an device specific functionality requiring a DDX driver, consult
a
prior version of BLFS, or an
even earlier prior version for more DDX drivers.
Installation of Xorg Server
First, if you need the TearFree option to work around screen
tearing, apply the backported patch:
patch -Np1 -i ../xorg-server-21.1.14-tearfree_backport-2.patch
Install the server by running the following commands:
mkdir build &&
cd build &&
meson setup .. \
--prefix=$XORG_PREFIX \
--localstatedir=/var \
-D glamor=true \
-D xkb_output_dir=/var/lib/xkb &&
ninja
To test the results, issue: ninja
test. You will need to run ldconfig as the root user first or some tests may fail.
Now as the root user:
ninja install &&
mkdir -pv /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d
Command Explanations
-D glamor=true: Ensure
building the Glamor module. It's needed to build the modesetting_drv driver which replaces the
traditional Device Dependent X (DDX) drivers.
-D suid_wrapper=true: Builds the
suid-root wrapper for legacy DDX driver support on rootless xserver
systems.
-D xephyr=true: This option allows
building Xephyr if its dependencies are met.