( make WORLDOPTS="" World 2>&1 | tee xfree-compile.log && exit $PIPESTATUS ): This command runs multiple makefiles to completely rebuild the system. WORLDOPTS="" disables the default setting to continue after encountering an error. 2>&1 redirects error messages to the same location as normal output. The tee command allows viewing of the output while logging the results to a file. The parentheses around the command run the entire comand in a subshell and finally the exit $PIPESTATUS ensures the result of the make is returned as the result and not the result of the tee command. When rebuilding XFree86, a separate command that may be used if only minor changes are made to the sources is make Everything. This does not automatically remove generated files and only rebuilds those files or programs that are out of date. ln -sf ../X11R6/bin /usr/bin/X11 ln -sf ../X11R6/lib/X11 /usr/lib/X11 ln -sf ../X11R6/include/X11 /usr/include/X11 These commands are present to enable other (broken) packages to build against XFree86. We do this even though the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard says: "In general, software must not be installed or managed via the above symbolic links. They are intended for utilization by users only." make CC=/opt/gcc-2.95.3/bin/gcc -f Makefile.linux: This builds the XFree86 compatible kernel modules using the same compiler used to compile the kernel. cp gamma.o radeon.o sis.o r128.o i810.o i830.o mga.o tdfx.o /lib/modules/`uname -r`/kernel/drivers/char/drm/: Put the kernel module(s) where the kernel can find them. You only need to copy the driver you need to support your video card. depmod -a: Update the modules.dep file for module management.