Updating X

[John]

Thanks for the reply! I run an ATI 9800XT. I have downloaded the ATI 
drivers, but I keep getting wierd messages. It just won't install. It 
doesn't reconize X.org I guess. Any ideas??? I did put out a topic on this. 
Thanks!
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James Wilkinson" <james at westexe.demon.co.uk>
To: <fedora-list at redhat.com>
Sent: Tuesday, December 21, 2004 5:24 PM
Subject: Re: Updating X


> John Heffington wrote:
>> Howdy! First off, what graphical environment does X use??? Is it
>> XFree86, DRI, or X.org???? Secondly, depending on which environment, how
>> do I upgrade? I want 3D OpenGL support, I could use some help here. 
>> Thanks!!
>
> Hmm. Good luck.
>
> Short answer: Fedora uses X.org, DRI is something else altogether, and
> we'll need to know your video chipset manufacturer and model (e.g. ATi
> Radeon 9200, Nvidia GeForce 4, etc) to give you much help.
>
> Long answer: X is the basic underlying protocol. The definition, if you
> like. Computers can't run definitions: they need to be implemented
> (turned into programs).
>
> Historically, there was a standard implementation of *most* of what was
> necessary for X, released by the X Consortium. A project called XFree86
> turned this into something that could be (relatively) easily installed,
> which was used by those Linux and BSD distributions that included
> graphics support.
>
> In the past couple of years, underlying resentment about the pace and
> style of development came to a head when the XFree86 Project made what
> was seen as an autocratic change to licenses, and wouldn't back down. So
> a relatively new group, X.org, took over the X Consortium's role and
> XFree86's role, and now practically every distribution (including
> Fedora) uses the X.org version of X.
>
> X is a pretty low-level protocol. It has been described as a network
> protocol that knows how to draw. So you need a window manager, like
> Sawfish or Metacity, and a user environment like Gnome or KDE to make a
> usable desktop.
>
> With Fedora, all this is configured for you. But you should know it's
> there.
>
> DRI, the Direct Rendering Infrastructure, is something else that does a
> different job. It works with X.org and XFree86. It allows 3D
> applications to efficiently communicate with the 3D hardware in the
> video card.
>
> As for how you upgrade, by far the easiest way is to get the latest
> Fedora release. That should be pretty well up to date.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> James.
>
> -- 
> E-mail address: james | We still have enough spare cardboard sitting 
> around
> @westexe.demon.co.uk  | to send a bus by Parcelforce, although not enough
>                      | wrapping to be sure they wouldn't deliver it broken
>                      | into two pieces.  -- Alan Cox
>
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