where do I learn about my hardware for X11/Xorg config details

SaintDanBert · 10-10-2011, 03:18 PM

In ancient times, one poured over hardware manuals to find arcane facts and then hand-coded the config file for X-windows. Today, many things "just work" and the configuration is hidden away in automatic
detection and settings land. Suppose for the moment that I need (or want) to know these details? Where do I find them?

Automatic detection is built-into the driver(module) for each hardware part
udev I think handles whatever needs to happen when each device announces that it exists.
Running Xorg -configure tells some things but not much

I've attached my generated configuration for reference:

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "X.org Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi"
	FontPath     "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType"
	FontPath     "built-ins"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "dri2"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "dbe"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "record"
	Load  "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "NoAccel"            	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "SWcursor"           	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "ColorKey"           	# <i>
        #Option     "CacheLines"         	# <i>
        #Option     "Dac6Bit"            	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "DRI"                	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "NoDDC"              	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "ShowCache"          	# [<bool>]
        #Option     "XvMCSurfaces"       	# <i>
        #Option     "PageFlip"           	# [<bool>]
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver      "intel"
	VendorName  "Intel Corporation"
	BoardName   "Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller"
	BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     1
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     4
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     8
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     15
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Where do I discover details for "mode lines"?

Where are the details for my keyboard and three(3) pointing devices
-- the built-in glidepoint, the built-in eraser mouse, the USB trackball?

I didn't bother to connect the external monitor until I knew more about what was going on.

Here is what I get from xinput -list

Code:

⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint                     id=10   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Serial Wacom Tablet                       id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Serial Wacom Tablet eraser                id=12   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ Macintosh mouse button emulation          id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎣ Virtual core keyboard                         id=3    [master keyboard (2)]
    ↳ Virtual core XTEST keyboard               id=5    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Power Button                              id=6    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Video Bus                                 id=7    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ Sleep Button                              id=8    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ AT Translated Set 2 keyboard              id=9    [slave  keyboard (3)]
    ↳ ThinkPad Extra Buttons                    id=11   [slave  keyboard (3)]

There are items here that do not appear in the xorg.conf.new file.
Where does X11/Xorg store these details away? Are they in-ram for
runtime only instead of any sort of "permanent" record? Frankly, I would expect:

X-server startup
Do I find a config?
- YES, use it
- NO, dance with detected hardware
- configure whatever I detected
- tuck whatever I find away for use next time
X-server running

I've read most of whatever I could get my hands on with little satisfaction. Most is so stale and dusty -- relative to what is going on with X11/Xorg on Ubuntu v10.04 and later -- as to be pretty
useless.

Stumped,
=$===~~ 0;-Dan

yooy · 10-10-2011, 03:43 PM

have you tried lsusb?

EDDY1 · 10-10-2011, 04:26 PM

A lot of it is controlled by udevd's hotplug events.
Monitors are almost considered plug&play although you can adjust resolutions.
dmesg is where I would look because it will make a list of detected and failed devices.

SaintDanBert · 10-11-2011, 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EDDY1

A lot of it is controlled by udevd's hotplug events.
Monitors are almost considered plug&play although you can adjust resolutions.
dmesg is where I would look because it will make a list of detected and failed devices.

I can get a raw list of hardware. What I cannot find is the config details that
X11/Xorg assign for whatever it finds (automatically) on my xinput -list and similar display, keyboard, pointer, and related parts.

Thanks,
~~~ 0;-Dan

EDDY1 · 10-11-2011, 02:49 PM

http://www.x.org/wiki/Development/Do...ventProcessing

SaintDanBert · 10-13-2011, 05:19 PM

From /var/log/Xorg.NNN.log I found "modelines" and some other details about my X11 hardware parameters.

Is there anyone who will explain how to accomplish what I want to do?

Yes, X11/xorg make really good guesses about this and mostly work pretty well most of the time using those guesses. I think that the preferred way to specify configuration details for X11/xorg involves placing files into /etc/.../xorg.conf.d/... folder with names like NN-somename.conf.

Here is what I would like to accomplish through a family of NN-somename.conf files:

create one file for my laptop's built-in Intel Graphics adapter
create one file for my laptop's built-in LCD display
create one file for a generic, works fine all the time, "fallback" display
create one file for my laptop's built-in keyboard and ThinkPad buttons
create one file for my laptop's built-in serial, Wacom "tablet-PC" digitizer pointer
create one file for my laptop's built-in eraser-mouse (is that called "TrackPoint"?)
create one file for each of the 2 external displays and 1 projectors I use
create one file for my external, Logitech USB trackball
create one file for my external, Logitech USB keyboard
create one file for my external, Wacom Intuuos 3, USB digitizer pointer

I know that some of these details will duplicate what happens auto-magically. However,
once I have these files, I can selectively enable and disable details that I want to
tinker with. Better still, I'll understand what happens with my hardware so that
when I get better or different hardware [external displays? pointers? keyboards? etc]
I'll know how to make them dance well even if the auto-magic configuration has warts.

I can use an editor and make files NN-somename.conf, where 'NN' provides a
sequencing of the file processing. Can someone tell me how I determine appropriate values of 'NN'? I know the numbers are relative rather than absolute -- do 11 before 33 before 55 before 88, etc. could just as easily be 2 before 3 before 4 before 5. Actually, they are shell glob order if you really want to know. It makes sense to have adapter details before display details then extra displays. With those in place, it makes sense to have keyboard then pointer before extra keyboards or pointers. Any "extras" could be in any order once the main parts are in place.

Also, since the complete set of NN-somename.conf files get combined into one in-memory configuration according to xorg.conf rules, section and device "names" must be unique across all files so that X11/Xorg can sort out what is going on.

What am I missing, if anything?
~~~ 0;-/ Dan

Thanks in advance,
~~~ 0;-Dan