source: x/installing/installing.xml@ cf60b15

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<chapter id="x-window-system" xreflabel="a graphical environment">
  <?dbhtml filename="installing.html" ?>

  <title>Graphical Environments</title>

  <para>
    This chapter contains instructions to build and configure a graphical
    user environment.
  </para>

<!-- Historical but not very useful now
  <para>
    <application>Xorg</application>, in addition to clearing up some
    licensing issues with <ulink url="http://www.xfree86.org/">XFree86</ulink>,
    introduced a completely auto-tooled build for the X Window system. This
    means that the packages build and install using the conventional
    <command>configure</command>, <command>make</command>, and <command>make
    install</command> commands, as opposed to a proprietary build system that
    required hand editing of configuration parameters in a C-like syntax.
  </para>

  <para>
    <application>Xorg</application> also brought with it a modular build
    system. While this separation into modules resulted in full control of the
    features available to the X server on any given installation, it also made
    the installation more tedious as it requires installing more than 100
    different packages to obtain a functional X Window environment. Most large
    commercial distributions have elected to use <application>Xorg</application>
    over the <application>XFree86</application> distribution due to both
    licensing issues and the increased functionality provided by it over
    <application>XFree86</application>. With the modular build system, also came
    incremental updates to individual packages. The distribution of
    <application>Xorg</application> is given a release number by the developers,
    in this case Xorg-&xorg-version;, and is referred to as the "katamari" by
    the upstream developers.
  </para>

  <para>
    Additionally, the BLFS book appends a build number
    to the end of version string to indicate whether a group of incremental
    updates has been applied, while still retaining the versioning scheme of the
    upstream developers. For instance, Xorg-&xorg-version;-1 would indicate that
    this is the 1st release, and is consistent with the katamari, while
    Xorg-&xorg-version;-2 would indicate that individual package updates have
    been applied to the katamari.
  </para>
-->

  <para>
    For a long time the only graphical environment usable with GNU/Linux has
    been the <emphasis>X Window System</emphasis>. It uses a client/server
    model which allows writing applications completely independent of
    the graphical hardware. This has the drawback that accessing modern
    hardware acceleration is difficult, so that other approaches are developed.
    Two new systems are available: <emphasis>Wayland</emphasis> and
    <emphasis>Vulkan</emphasis>. The former is a simpler replacement for
    X, easier to develop and maintain, using the OpenGL framework. The main
    desktop environments GNOME and KDE have been ported to it. The later allows
    direct access to graphical hardware through a portable interface. It is
    newer and not yet included in BLFS.
  </para>

  <para>
    This chapter provides the basic components of the X Window System and
    Wayland. For X, the chosen implementation is Xorg, which is a modular
    implementation and requires more than 100 packages to be installed.
    The distribution of Xorg is given a release number by the developers,
    in this case Xorg-&xorg-version;, and is referred to as the "katamari" by
    the upstream developers. Individual packages are updated as needed without
    changing this number.
  </para>

  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xorg7.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="util-macros.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xorgproto.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="libXau.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="libXdmcp.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xcb-proto.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="libxcb.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="x7lib.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="libxcvt.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xcb-util.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xcb-util-image.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xcb-util-keysyms.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xcb-util-renderutil.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xcb-util-wm.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xcb-util-cursor.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="mesa.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xbitmaps.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="x7app.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xcursor-themes.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="x7font.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xkeyboard-config.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xwayland.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xorg-server.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="x7driver.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="twm.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xterm.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xclock.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xinit.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="xorg-config.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="tuning-fontconfig.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="TTF-and-OTF-fonts.xml"/>
  <xi:include xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude" href="x7legacy.xml"/>
</chapter>