3. Getting Started

Following are instructions for building and running your own copy of XFree86. The procedure for getting your X server up and running on Darwin and Mac OS X are very similar. Where there are differences I have noted them below. Note that to build XFree86 for yourself on Mac OS X, you need to install the Developers' Tools.

If you don't feel the need to live on the cutting edge, you can save some time and effort by using the precompiled binaries available on the XFree86 FTP server at ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.3.0/binaries/. Follow the instructions in the Install document to install it. This will create two new directory trees, /usr/X11R6 and /etc/X11 For Mac OS X Quartz support, download the optional Xquartz.tgz tarball. With Quartz support, the XDarwin application will be installed in /Applications.

If you get the precompiled binaries you can skip ahead to the section on running the X Window System On the other hand, if you want to build things yourself from scratch, follow the directions below.

3.1. Get the Code

The first thing you need to do is to get the source code from the XFree86 project.

• Setup CVS: Both Darwin and Mac OS X include CVS (Concurrent Versions System), which is an easy way to download and keep up to date with open source code released by XFree86 and others. You do have to setup CVS properly, however, to tell it where to look. Follow the XFree86 instructions on how to do this either via ssh or via the cvs pserver.
• Now make a directory in some convenient place which will serve as your top level directory for you open source development efforts. I am going to call this directory sandbox/ in the following discussions and you could put this directory, for example, in ~/sandbox/.
• From the command line type:

  cd sandbox
  cvs checkout xc
  

  Wait for all the files to complete downloading.

3.2. Build XFree86

Once you have everything ready it is easy to build and install XFree86. From the command line:

cd sandbox/xc
make World >& world.log

(wait for several hours)

sudo make install >& install.log
sudo make install.man >& man.log