X Window System

X.Org

In order to use a graphical environment it's necessary to install X.Org, which is an implementation of the X Window system.

Before we start it's a good idea to make sure that your system is configured correctly. If you've installed your kernel using the binary USE flag, chances are that your video card is already supported.

In order for Portage to know which video card(s) you want to support, you'll need to add a line to your make.conf.

root # nano -w /etc/portage/make.conf
...
VIDEO_CARDS="intel"

In the example above we're using Intel integrated graphics drivers. Examples of valid entries include radeon for AMD Radeon cards, and nouveau or nvidia for NVIDIA cards. If you haven't yet switched to the desktop profile it's a good idea to do it now.

Next comes the actual installation:

root # emerge xorg-x11

Now we need to test to make sure X.Org is working properly. To test it we will install twm, a simple window manager which has traditionally served as the standard window manager for X.Org. In Funtoo Linux it is included in the core X.Org meta-package x11-apps/xinit, but is not installed by default.

It is possible to install twm directly by merging x11-wm/twm but for the sake of this tutorial we will install the meta-package, which includes a few extra utilities which may come in handy. There are two ways to do this depending on whether you want it to be installed temporarily or permanently. If you just want it to test X.Org use the following command:

root # USE="-minimal" emerge -1 xinit

The minimal USE flag is used in some ebuilds to install the bare minimum needed to get a working system. By passing USE="-minimal" to the command line before emerge, we are telling Portage to disable the flag and install the complete package. The -1 (--oneshot) following emerge tells Portage not to add the package to world. This is useful when installing packages which are automatically pulled in as dependencies by other packages.

If you want the package installed permanently you will need to add a line to package.use:

root # mkdir -p /etc/portage
root # echo x11-apps/xinit -minimal >> /etc/portage/package.use

Next we reinstall x11-apps/xinit:

root # emerge -1N xinit

Once that's done, we're able to finally test X.Org:

root # startx

If everything is well, a simple GUI along with an analog clock and a terminal will appear.

   Note

If you are on an notebook with hybrid graphics, you may get an "no screens found" error message instead

If this is the case you may try the following (tested on a notebook with AMD and Intel graphic chips):

root # nano -w /etc/portage/make.conf
...
VIDEO_CARDS="fglrx intel"

Thereafter do

root # emerge -auDN @world

to update your system so the changes take effect.

root # aticonfig --initial --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf

Set the OpenGL driver to use fglrx:

root # eselect opengl set ati

Once that's done, test X.Org again:

root # startx