A blog entry on other blogs, and reconfiguring Xorg...

In case your curious, I've been regularly reading some other blogs out there on the web. Some are continually updated, some aren't. The main one I track is:

• Funtoo by Daniel Robbins: Daniel Robbins is the guy that invented the Gentoo Linux distribution. He (like many other people) hated Linux dependency hell, and came up with a system that downloads source code, compiles it and then installs it on a working system. Any dependencies are resolved when installing a new package. Genius!

Other blogs that I do pop into every so often (since they're somewhat neglected at the time of writing this entry) are:

• Africa: A blog that was maintained by my sister-in-law, Jacquie. Jacquie spent a year in Africa helping out at a school on a volunteer basis. She has since returned to Australia, and is now doing a prestigious hospitality course. Jacquie's blog has some great photos of her trip to Africa.
• Bloggy Hell: This is a blog by a friend of mine, Alex. I had the honor of working with Alex for a period of around two years. He really knew his stuff when it came to Unix / Linux. And better still, he made working with him fun!

Do visit them, do leave comments on them (especially the neglected ones), and see if we can get more posts from them.

On a different note, I'm currently in the process of reconfiguring Xorg on my Toshiba P20. The reason I started doing this was due to many different factors. Firstly, there's been a new kernel to install on my system - that being 2.6.23-gentoo-r3. Secondly, I recently tried the new Ubuntu Linux 7.10 LiveCD / installer and was impressed by the fact that it correctly detected my screen resolution (being 1440x900). Back when I first started using Gentoo, there was no automated installer, and hence it had to be configured by hand. Played around with different drivers, as well as modelines, and other configuration settings I had very little understanding. Things have changed in a period of 4 years - and for the better.

In case you're wondering, this is my current configuration (which is found in /etc/X11/xorg.conf - you may need to cut and paste it into a file on your PC if you find it hard to read):

# File generated by xorgconfig.
#
#
# Copyright 2004 The X.Org Foundation
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a
# copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"),
# to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation
# the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense,
# and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the
# Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in
# all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL
# The X.Org Foundation BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
# WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF
# OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.
#
# Except as contained in this notice, the name of The X.Org Foundation shall
# not be used in advertising or otherwise to promote the sale, use or other
# dealings in this Software without prior written authorization from
# The X.Org Foundation.
#

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf(5x) man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

Load "dbe" # Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
SubSection "extmod"
Option "omit xfree86-dga" # don't initialise the DGA extension
EndSubSection

# This loads the font modules
# Load "type1"
# Load "speedo"
Load "freetype"
# Load "xtt"

# This loads the GLX module
Load "glx"
# This loads the DRI module
# Load "dri"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Files section. This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/misc:unscaled"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/corefonts"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/freefont"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/freefonts"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/sharefonts"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/terminus"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/ttf-bitstream-vera"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/unifont"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/artwiz"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/default"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/dejavu"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/encodings"
# FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/util"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Keyboard0"
Driver "kbd"
Option "CoreKeyboard"
Option "XkbRules" "xorg"
Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
Option "XkbLayout" "us"
Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "MS Wireless Mouse"
Driver "mouse"
Option "CorePointer"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Protocol" "ExplorerPS/2"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
Option "Buttons" "7"
# Option "Protocol" "ImPS/2"
# Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
Identifier "Synaptics Touchpad"
Driver "synaptics"
Option "SendCoreEvents" "true"
Option "Device" "/dev/input/event2"
Option "Protocol" "auto-dev"
Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "0"
Option "SHMConfig" "on"
Option "Emulate3Buttons" "true"
Option "LeftEdge" "130"
Option "RightEdge" "840"
Option "TopEdge" "130"
Option "BottomEdge" "640"
Option "FingerLow" "7"
Option "FingerHigh" "8"
Option "MaxTapTime" "180"
Option "MaxTapMove" "110"
Option "VertScrollDelta" "20"
Option "HorizScrollDelta" "20"
Option "MinSpeed" "0.60"
Option "MaxSpeed" "1.10"
Option "AccelFactor" "0.0030"
EndSection

Section "Device"
Identifier "nVidia GeForce FX Go5200 64M"
# Driver "nv"
# Driver "vesa"
Driver "nvidia"
BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
# VideoRam 65536
# Option "NoLogo" "0"
Option "CursorShadow" "1"
Option "CursorShadowAlpha" "64"
Option "CursorShadowYOffset" "3"
Option "CursorShadowXOffset" "4"
# Option "NvAGP" "3"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "LCD Panel 1440x900"
Option "DPMS"
#HorizSync 28-72
#VertRefresh 43-60
HorizSync 29.0 - 55.0
VertRefresh 0.0 - 61.0
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "nVidia GeForce FX Go5200 64M"
Monitor "LCD Panel 1440x900"
DefaultDepth 24
Option "metamodes" "1440x900_60 +0+0"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Screen0"
InputDevice "Keyboard0"
InputDevice "MS Wireless Mouse"
InputDevice "Synaptics Touchpad"
EndSection

I hope it assists someone out there. Do feel free to leave comments or queries about it!