Xorg
This section details the manual installation and configuration of the Xorg display server and common related services and utilities. If you would just like to install a full desktop environment, it is recommended to try the xfce image.
Installation
Void provides a comprehensive xorg
package which installs the server and all
of the free video drivers, input drivers, fonts, and base applications. This
package is a safe option, and should be adequate for most systems which don't
require proprietary video drivers.
If you would like to select only the packages you need, the xorg-minimal
package contains the base xorg server only. If you install only
xorg-minimal
, you will likely need to install a font package (like
xorg-fonts
), a terminal emulator (like xterm
), and a window manager to have
a usable graphics system.
Video Drivers
Void provides both open-source and proprietary (non-free) video drivers.
Open Source Drivers
Xorg can use two categories of open source drivers: DDX or modesetting.
DDX
The DDX drivers are installed with the xorg
package by default, or may be
installed individually if the xorg-minimal
package was installed. They are
provided by the xf86-video-*
packages.
For advanced configuration, see the man page corresponding to the vendor name, like intel(4).
Modesetting
Modesetting requires the mesa-dri
package, and no additional vendor-specific
driver package.
Xorg defaults to DDX drivers if they are present, so in this case modesetting must be explicitly selected: see Forcing the modesetting driver.
For advanced configuration, see modesetting(4).
Proprietary Drivers
Void also provides proprietary NVIDIA drivers, which are available in the nonfree repository.
Input Drivers
A number of input drivers are available for Xorg. If xorg-minimal
was
installed and a device is not responding, or behaving unexpectedly, a different
driver may correct the issue. These drivers can grab everything from power
buttons to mice and keyboards. They are provided by the xf86-input-*
packages.
Xorg Configuration
Although Xorg normally auto-detects drivers and configuration is not needed, a
config for a specific keyboard driver may look something like a file
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/30-keyboard.conf
with the contents:
Section "InputClass"
Identifier "keyboard-all"
Driver "evdev"
MatchIsKeyboard "on"
EndSection
Forcing the modesetting driver
Create the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-modesetting.conf
:
Section "Device"
Identifier "GPU0"
Driver "modesetting"
EndSection
and restart Xorg. Verify that the configuration has been picked up with:
$ grep -E -m1 '\(II\) modeset\([0-9]+\):' /var/log/Xorg.0.log
If there is a match, modesetting is being used.
Starting X Sessions
startx
The xinit
package provides the startx(1)
script as a frontend to xinit(1), which can
be used to start X sessions from the console. For example, to start
i3(1), edit ~/.xinitrc
to contain exec /bin/i3
on the last line.
To start arbitrary programs together with an X session, add them in ~/.xinitrc
before the last line. For example, to start
xscreensaver(1) before starting i3,
add xscreensaver &
before the last line.
A ~/.xinitrc
file which starts xscreensaver
and i3
is shown below:
xscreensaver &
exec /bin/i3
Then call startx
to start a session.
If a D-Bus session bus is required, you can manually start one.
Display Managers
Display managers (DMs) provide a graphical login UI. A number of DMs are
available in the Void repositories, including gdm
(the GNOME DM), sddm
(the
KDE DM) and lightdm
. When setting up a display manager, be sure to test the
service before enabling it.