Re: round 2

[Peter Evans <peter@example.com>]

Me:

> I trust that RH 7.1 installation won't croak either. We'll see. . . .

It didn't croak, exactly, but it still seemed screwy. For one thing,
just like RH6.2, RH7.1 announced:

"X probe results
"Video card: Trident TGUI9660 (generic)"

without giving me the option to disagree. Funny, as I know precisely,
and not just generically, what video card I have.

Things got better a bit later. I had the opportunity to specify, if not
the card, then at least the amount of VRAM, horizontal and vertical
refresh rates, clock chip (I didn't know that one, and plumped for "No
clockchip setting (recommended)") and color depth. But at the end of
that interrogation, I read

"Starting X
"Xconfigurator will now start X to test your configuration"

and a bit later

"Error
"There is a problem with your X configuration. You may go back and
modify your configuration or exit now."

(No, no indication of what the error was.) Since "Back" led to the same
questions, the second time I saw this screen I chose "Quit".  RH said
that installation was complete. (Not that it was incomplete but finished.)

When I rebooted, I saw for an instant an illustration of a red hat. I
guessed that this meant there was some workable data about my graphics
display. My dummies unleashed book tells me where a pile of XFree86 docs
are; I went to the subdirectory and found but a single file. Thinks:
"What do I do with this? 'list' doesn't work, 'type' doesn't work. . . ."

Yet again I'm glad I bought Volkerding and Reichard, *Linux in Plain
English*, which has a DOS to Linux translation table.  Ah -- "less"!

I type less and there read that the doc is all about the previous
version of XFree86 and that I should go to the website.

I dutifully go to the website. Lots of stuff about how to install 4.1.0, and
(on http://www.xfree86.org/4.0.2/index.html ) lots of "Information for
xxxx users", where xxxx does not equal what I'm using. Ah.

I guess that I'm not running X, but I really don't know. (As I
[mis]understand it, X is a task-switching system and a kind of substrate
for a GUI, not a GUI itself.) And anyway I figure that it won't let me
screw anything up by any attempt of mine to have it run it on top of
itself.

There's no indication in my unleashed dummies book about how to start 
(as opposed to install, etc.) X.  Since "XFree86 -version" (was it?) tells
me the version, I guess that "XFree86" might do the job.

I type XFree86 and Enter.

Wowee, grafix! I get a gray screen with an X cursor.

Very handsome, but not terribly informative. What am I supposed to do
with this? How would I start guh-nome? Or how would I get out? (How do I
turn off the computer so I can go off and meet friends for dinner at
seven?)

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Peter Evans peter@example.com