XFree86 on Darwin and Mac OS X
: Run the X Window System
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4. Run the X Window System
4.1. Setting Your Path
You need to add the X Window System executables to your path. Your path
is the list of directories to be searched for executable commands.
The X11 commands are located in /usr/X11R6/bin, which needs to be
added to your path. In Quartz mode, the XDarwin application does this for
you automatically. It can also be configured to add additional directories
where you have installed command line applications. When running from the
Darwin console, you will need to set the path correctly for your shell as
XDarwin will not do this for you.
More experienced users will have already set their path correctly using the
initialization files for their shell. In this case, you can inform XDarwin
not to modify your path in the preferences. XDarwin launches the initial
X11 clients in the user's default login shell. (An alternate shell can also
be specified in the preferences.) The way to set the path depends on the
shell you are using. This is described in the man page documentation for
the shell.
In addition you may also want to add the man pages from XFree86 to the list
of pages to be searched when you are looking for documentation. The X11 man
pages are located in /usr/X11R6/man and the MANPATH
environment variable contains the list of directories to search.
4.2. Starting the X Server
On Mac OS X, you can run XFree86 from the Darwin
text console or in parallel with Aqua. To get to the text
console in Mac OS X you need to logout and type ``>console'' as
the user name. This will shutdown Core Graphics and
bring up the console login prompt. Login again as your user.
From the text console you can start the X Window System by typing
``exec startx''.
When you are ready to quit XFree86 type ``exit'' in the main
terminal window or quit with the window manager if you have one
running. Unfortunately in IOKit mode, the X server does not shutdown
correctly and if you did not start with ``exec startx'', you
will get an apparently frozen screen with only a spinning beachball
cursor on it. Nothing you type shows up on the screen, but in fact
your keystrokes are being received by the console. Type
``logout'' to return to normalcy after a brief delay. With
Darwin, this should put you back at the text console login prompt. With
Mac OS X, Core Graphics will restart and you should be given a login
window.
To start XFree86 in Quartz mode you can launch the XDarwin application
in the /Applications folder, or from the command line type
``startx -- -quartz''. By default this will give you a mode picker to
choose between full screen or rootless mode. You can change the default
to always use a particular mode in the preferences, or you can specify
the ``-fullscreen'' or ``-rootless'' options on the command line instead
of ``-quartz''.
4.3. Double-clickable X11 Executables
Mac OS X 10.3 can be configured to automatically launch XDarwin when
you double-click an X11 executable in the Finder. When an executable file
is double-clicked Launch Services checks to see if it is linked against
the X11 libraries. If it is, Launch Services opens the default X server.
To set the default X server, do the following:
- Create a simple file which ends in ''.x11app''.
- Open the file with Get Info in the Finder.
- Under ''Open with:'' select the XDarwin application.
- Select ''Change All...'' to set XDarwin as the default.
On Mac OS X 10.3 the default X server is started when an X11
executable is double-clicked, whether or not its extension is
''.x11app''. On previous versions of Mac OS X, an X11 executable must
have a ''.x11app'' extension for this to work.
4.4. Customize the X Window System
The X Window System is very customizable and you will certainly want to
change some things. There is a lot you can do to control how your windows
look, how the windows are moved, resized, etc. You will likely want to
get a fancier window manager than twm, which is included with
XFree86. The .xinitrc file in your home directory controls what
programs are run when you start the X Window System. You can find a sample
.xinitrc file in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.
There are many window managers that have been ported to Darwin. The
following pages contain collections of window managers and other X
window system clients:
- DarwinPorts: An easy way to install various open-source software
products on Darwin and Mac OS X.
- Fink: A
package manager that will easily download, compile, and install lots
of open source software from the Internet.
- GNU-Darwin:
A source for tons of software ported to Darwin.
Good luck!
XFree86 on Darwin and Mac OS X
: Run the X Window System
Previous: Getting Started
Next: XFree86 on Darwin and Mac OS X
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