No system-config-display, so what now?

[Rahul Sundaram]

Timothy Murphy wrote:
> Kevin Kofler wrote:
> 
>> Timothy Murphy wrote:
>>> If in fact X can be set up automatically,
>>> then presumably xorg.conf can be written automatically.
>> That's what X -configure is for.
> 
> If you have to run X -configure 
> (what exactly do you mean by this?)

It is a command.

> then it is not automatic.

Correct. You do it only when you need to.

> But my only point is that I don't understand the philosophy
> behind doing away with xorg.conf ,
> and then saying, "Well, you might need it,
> in which case there are various (unspecified) progams you can run."
> 
> Surely it would be simpler just to write xorg.conf in all cases?

It is not. You cannot rely on a static xorg.conf since the hardware can 
be switched (think new monitor on a desktop for instance) and writing it 
everytime slows down your display startup and doesn't work well in other 
instances (think LTSP). In general, you should avoid writes unless 
absolutely necessary since a hard disk is usually the slowest part of 
your system.

Rahul