Upgrading to XFree86 3.3.3

This article is now obsolete, since XFree86 4.0 has been released. It is retained for historical purposes only.

Lately I've been getting quite a few emails from people who need to upgrade to XFree86 3.3.3 to get support for their video card to run X. While I haven't performed this upgrade myself, I have compiled a modicum of information here that should help you get started with this upgrade.

First off, the latest list of supported video cards is available online at the XFree86 Project web site. Check this list for your video card. If your card is not there, upgrading won't help you. If your card is on the list, note the name of the X server you will need.

The latest version of X for Linux is XFree86 3.3.3.1. At the time of this writing (20 February, 1999) there were no RPM or DEB packages available for this upgrade. That may change at any moment, so you may want to check the rpm2html database to see if any one has built one since then.

There are binary packages built for Linux in .tgz format available from ftp.XFree86.org and its mirrors. The file RELNOTES contains installation instructions (skip to item 7 in the file). Here's an excerpt to help you get started:

[quote]

What follows is a list of the XFree86 3.3.3 components.  There may be some
variations in this for some OSs. The following are required for all new
installations, or when upgrading from a version older than 3.3:

preinst.sh      Pre-installation script
postinst.sh     Post-installation script
extract         XFree86 extraction utility
Xbin.tgz        Clients, run-time libs, and app-defaults files
Xdoc.tgz        Documentation
Xfnts.tgz       75dpi, misc and PEX fonts
Xlib.tgz        Data files required at run-time
Xman.tgz        Manual pages
Xset.tgz        XF86Setup utility
Xjset.tgz       XF86Setup utility (if you prefer the Japanese version)
XVG16.tgz       16 colour VGA server (XF86Setup needs this server)
Xcfg.tgz        sample config files for xinit, xdm

While it isn't essential to update the standard fonts, this version does
include some minor fixes to some of them, as well as the addition of two
basic ISO 8859-15 fonts.  If you want to upgrade the standard fonts
you will also need:

Xfnts.tgz       75dpi, misc and PEX fonts

[end quote]

Download all those files, and don't forget your X server that you found on the card list.

Once you've got all the necessary files, follow the instructions in the RELNOTES file to get it installed properly. Read the whole thing before you begin, because the process is not obvious. The preinst.sh script is supposed to do a clean-up of your old installation to prevent it from mucking up the new one. It may not work, so if it fails, you'll need to uninstall or just move the current X11 directories (under /usr/X11R6). Save that for a last resort.