No system-config-display, so what now?

[Bill Davidsen]

Rahul Sundaram wrote:
> Anne Wilson wrote:
> 
>>
>> I expect it's because having an xorg.conf is now discouraged, but as 
>> often happens, many of us have hardware that can't really do without 
>> it.  I'm sure the day is coming - but it's not here yet :-)
> 
> We will get there faster, if people report bugs when autoconfiguration 
> does not work. It doesn't yet on systems where the hardware reports it 
> incorrectly, returns junk data or no data at all for instance but we can 
> still make it work if we knew the hardware details. In a report, you can 
> file the output of lspci, /var/log/Xorg.log without a custom xorg.conf 
> and any further information you want to provide.
> 
> system-config-display is a bandaid from the time when XFree86 was 
> stagnating badly but now that Xorg is going rapid development, it makes 
> sense to fix the underlying issues instead.
> 
The underlying issue is that no one can write software to automate correct 
handling of (a) hardware which hasn't been created when you write the software 
or (b) people who want something you wouldn't have picked as the default.

Therefore you need an easy way for people to tell the system what they have and 
how they want to use it. Any tool which assumes that you have a working 
graphical display to run the display configure tool is not going to be a 
solution. You must have some way to exchange information with the user using the 
hardware you can make work, and that seems to be system-config-display.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot