From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Aug 19 21:45:36 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 329121065672 for ; Sun, 19 Aug 2012 21:45:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@dreamchaser.org) Received: from nightmare.dreamchaser.org (nightmare.dreamchaser.org [12.32.44.142]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F0C8F8FC08 for ; Sun, 19 Aug 2012 21:45:35 +0000 (UTC) Received: from breakaway.dreamchaser.org (breakaway.dreamchaser.org. [12.32.36.73]) by nightmare.dreamchaser.org (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id q7JLjTer011414; Sun, 19 Aug 2012 15:45:29 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from freebsd@dreamchaser.org) Message-ID: <50315E78.6090603@dreamchaser.org> Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 15:45:28 -0600 From: Gary Aitken User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:13.0) Gecko/20120609 Thunderbird/13.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Polytropon References: <503125EF.1020500@dreamchaser.org> <20120819195118.00427f87.freebsd@edvax.de> <50314EB5.9040900@dreamchaser.org> <20120819230119.c6030dad.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <20120819230119.c6030dad.freebsd@edvax.de> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0.2 (nightmare.dreamchaser.org [12.32.36.65]); Sun, 19 Aug 2012 15:45:29 -0600 (MDT) Cc: FreeBSD Mailing List Subject: Re: user specific xorg.conf? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: freebsd@dreamchaser.org List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2012 21:45:36 -0000 On 08/19/12 15:01, Polytropon wrote: > On Sun, 19 Aug 2012 14:38:13 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote: >> Combining a couple of responses into one to cut down traffic... >> >> On 08/19/12 11:51, Polytropon wrote: >>> On Sun, 19 Aug 2012 11:44:15 -0600, Gary Aitken wrote: >>>> In attempting to zero in on my system crash problem, >>>> I need to customize xorg.conf. >>>> As I read the documentation, >>>> there is no way for an ordinary user to provide an xorg.conf; >>>> Xorg looks for files in the normal server search path, >>>> which does not include any user directories -- >>>> unless the user is root. >>> >>> What if you do (as a user) the "startx" command and try >>> to hand the -config to the program, like this: >>> >>> % Xorg -file /home/user/test/xorg.conf >>> >>> I haven't tried that myself, but according to "man Xorg" >>> this option does exist. However, I'm not sure if xinit >>> or startx honors this option if you use them (to make >>> use of ~/.xinitrc). >> >> According to the man page: >> "This option will work for any file when the server is run as root >> (i.e, with real-uid 0), >> or for files relative to a directory in the config search >> path for all other users." >> The config search path only includes system directories, not user directories. > > Read: "config search path". In my interpretation, this applies > to _path names_ in where config files (default name: xorg.conf) > will be searched. This does _not_ contradict to explicitely > naming a _file_ as in: > > % X -config /home/someuser/test/xorg.conf > > It could also be possible to give the file a totally different > name. However, the X server might refuse to use that file. You > could easily try it. I have prefixed the example with "%" indicating > that this command could be executed from a user (non-root) terminal, > just the same way you would usually call > > % xinit > > or the > > % startx > > script to benefit from the ~/.xinitrc startup file. Also you > could try to add the -config option to the two commands mentioned. > I haven't looked into their specific implementation on if and how > they will allow X parameters to be included. I thought about that path vs file distinction; looks like my original interpretation was correct: %startx -- -config ~/xorg.conf Fatal server error: Invalid argument for -config For non-root users, the file specified with -config must be a relative path and must not contain any ".." elements. Using default xorg.conf search path. Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support at http://wiki.x.org for help. xinit: giving up xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused xinit: server error >> Again, I think that is for security reasons, but I'm not certain. > > Primarily it is, but also about complexity. Imagine the X server > would scan the whole (!) directory structure, beginning in /, to > find a valid configuration file... I assumed if no user directories were in the search path, you would have to specify a complete path, not a relative one. I never expected it to search all possible paths. I was surprised to see that no user directories are in the default path, but upon reflection decided it was probably because of security concerns. >> On 08/19/12 12:38, Jeff Tipton wrote: >>> Gary, why do you need user-specific xorg.conf? >>> By default, there's no xorg.conf file, >>> so if you generate one and put it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf, >>> your file will be used instead of the default options. >>> And before putting the file there, you can test it, >>> as suggested in the Manual: >>> >>> X -config /root/xorg.conf.new -retro >> >> I wanted a user-specific xorg.conf for test purposes. >> The server already generated one when I first installed it, IIRC. > > No. The server can generate a file that is then typically > placed as /root/xorg.conf.new which you'd have to copy to > /etc/X11/ in order to have further X starts recognize and > use it (in case you are _not_ explicitely calling the X server > with the config file at the location in /root). Bad memory on my part for what occurred when I originally installed. IIRC remapped to IRI (I recalled incorrectly...)