xorg 7.2 upgrade

There are several ways to install xorg 7.2:

Method 1: packages (for the impatient)

A tinderbox of packages is available here. You will need to download all of these packages to the same directory. When finished, cd to that directory.

Now, if X is currently not installed, you can simply pkg_add each of the packages that start with "xorg". Depending on what other software is currently installed on your system, you may see warnings (which you can ignore) or you may receive an error about conflicting software. Conflicts will abort the package installation, so you will need to uninstall the specified software using pkg_delete -fx package_name, then repeat the pkg_add command.

If X is currently installed, it will definitely conflict. Close any running X sessions and pkg_delete -fx xorg. You can then proceed as above.

Method 2: ports (for the patient with fast systems)

It's gonna take some time (read: possibly days) to compile the complete xorg port so you'll want a fast system and some time to spare if you go this route. I chose this method as I have a build system and I wanted to try out git to see how it compares to cvsup.

Note: this method replaces the "official" ports tree with an alternate ports collection containing xorg 7.2.

Ready?

* pkg_add -r git

* rehash

* cd /usr

* rm -Rf ports (if you have an existing ports collection)

* git clone git://git.geekfire.com/git/ports.git (this one takes a while as it needs to unpack a ~46 MB download)

* cd ports

* git checkout xorg

* cd /usr/ports/x11/xorg (this is the meta-port, it builds everything)

* make install clean

Again, if X is already installed on the system, remove it first and check your build every now and then in case a conflict arises or an interactive menu appears.

Method 3: build your own packages (for the DIY'er)

Since I was using a build system and wanted to make packages for use on my other systems, I modified that last command as follows:

* mkdir /usr/ports/packages

* make package-recursive

When finished, all of the built packages appeared in /usr/ports/packages/All. Once I sftp'd those packages to my other systems, pkg_add xorg-7.2.r3_1.tbz installed the works.

Post installation

If you have an existing /etc/X11/xorg.conf, it will still work, once you modify one path line:

ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
to:
ModulePath "/usr/X11R6/lib/xorg/modules"

Xorg -configure freezes cold (a known issue), so you're better off running that command BEFORE you upgrade if you don't have an existing xorg.conf.

Possible Errors

During a week of testing, I received two errors when running startx for the first time. I'll record the fixes in case you run across them. The first error was the infamous:

Fatal server error:
could not open default font 'fixed'

Despite some advice on Google, you don't need to run a font server to fix this! You do need a file called fonts.alias in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc. For some reason, only one installation out of dozens lacked this file; I simply copied it over from another system (which, BTW, was running xorg 6.9).

The other error complained about a missing xterm so I simply installed that package which I had built. I don't see this package on the tinderbox; if you need it I can email it to you (it is 188K).