X environment for Atari Mint

A X environment is available for Atari Mint. Though the X Server of this X environment is still under beta, there are already several software packages ported for it. This tutorial will guide you to install a working X environment on your Atari. For more information or how to use X, please look elsewhere in the Internet.

X Windows looks nice on Unix because of the vast number of fonts that are available on those system. For Atari systems, the normal fonts availble are bitmapped GDOS fonts. With the introduction of Speedo GDOS by Atari, further font types such as Bitstream Speedo fonts, True Type fonts as well as Adobe Type 1 fonts were supported. Likewise, NVDI which is required by the Atari X-Server, supports these fonts. This guide also provide the procedure to use the fonts from the XFree86 distribution.

Prerequisites

To get the X Server running at a useable speed, a 68030 CPU is needed and a minimum of 10MB of RAM. It requires Free Mint higher then version 1.15.6 and NVDI higher than version 4.1. You also need MintNet to be installed.

It is assumed in this tutorial that you have installed the RPM packages as per listed on the RPM package installation sequence page.

Installation steps

1. Download the X-Windows RPM package

The following packages will install a minimum working X-windows environment.

1. 1. 1. • XServer-0.14-1.m68kmint.rpm -- This is the Server

         • XFree86-4.0-1.m68kmint.rpm -- gives the environment and configurations

         • XFree86-tools-4.0-1.m68kmint.rpm -- (optional) contains some fun stuff for the X environment

         • gdos-X-fonts-03.tgz -- required fonts for Atari X environment

Download the packages from Sparemint and transfer them to your Atari. Beware that they are rather big packages.

3. Set the DISPLAY environment

The environment variable DISPLAY is required by X Clients to "throw" or return the graphics output to. As this environment variable is required by all X clients, we will place it inside our MINT.CNF file. Add the following line into the section where you find lots of other setenv assignments.

setenv DISPLAY 127.0.0.1:0.0

4. Install the X Fonts for NVDI

3. Setup the "fixed" and "variable" default fonts. Find the lines

!fixed -Bitstream-Courier10Pitch-Medium-R-Normal-Serif-17-100-0-0-C-80-ISO8859-1

!variable -Bitstream-Charter-Medium-R-Normal-Serif-17-100-0-0-P-73-ISO8859-1

and remove the ! sign in column 1 of each line. Replace the suggested fonts to one of the X GDOS fonts, as these are for sure to be available. If you have a variable font, use your variable font instead (there is no variable X fonts in the GDOS X-fonts pack).

fixed -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--10-100-75-75-C-60-ISO8859-1

variable -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--10-100-75-75-C-60-ISO8859-1

4. Add the following lines into the /etc/X11/fonts.alias file. You can add them anywhere but I placed them near the end.

nil2 -Misc-Nil-Medium-R-Normal--2-20-75-75-C-10-Misc-FONTSPECIFIC

6x10 -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--10-100-75-75-C-60-ISO8859-1

6x13 -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-SemiCondensed--13-120-75-75-C-60-ISO8859-1

7x13 -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-ISO8859-1

7x13bold -Misc-Fixed-Bold-R-Normal--13-120-75-75-C-70-ISO8859-1

8x13 -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-SemiExpanded--13-120-75-75-C-80-ISO8859-1

8x13bold -Misc-Fixed-Bold-R-SemiExpanded--13-120-75-75-C-80-ISO8859-1

9x15 -Misc-Fixed-Medium-R-Normal--15-140-75-75-C-90-ISO8859-1

5. Save the file

You may of course change the fonts to your own taste depending on the font in your system.

6. Restart MINT and run the X-Server

• • • • • • • 1. Reboot the system so that the new NVDI fonts are loaded into the system.

              2. Once MINT loads and the desktop appears, open your favourite shell.

              3. Before using X applications, you need start the X Server first. You start X Server from the shell and in background mode. Enter the following into the shell.

X.app &

Note the case of X. It is case sensitive. You will see a big black X flashes for a second or two in the middle of your screen. You will also see some messages displayed all over the shell, this is fine. Check that you do not see any error messages. You should see the X Server application menu bar at the top of the screen. A small Xconsole should also be opened on your lower right of your screen. Your X Server is running. If you don't see any of these things described here, something is wrong, go over the configuration and see if you missed something out.

If you are using X environment daily, you may want to make the X Server startup as one of the programs to start by MINT. On how to do this, look up the Configurating Mint to your requirements page.

• • • • • • • 4. Make sure your shell is in focus, then press your RETURN key a few times. You should get back your command prompt.

              5. Run a few X applications. At the command prompt, enter the following command one at a time. Remember to press ENTER key after each line.

xeyes &

xclock &

xlogo &

xterm &

Your shell may display lots of messages and your command prompt may go all over the place. To get back your command prompt, just make sure that your shell is in focus (so that you type into the shell) and press your RETURN key a few times to get back your command prompt.

Fonts Fonts and more Fonts

Given that NVDI knows how to display Adobe Type 1 fonts and True Type fonts, we can find free Type 1 fonts and free True Type fonts to populate our X-windows system. Both Type 1 and True Type fonts are scalable fonts and so they live inside the C:\BTFONTS folder. To provide some house keeping, we will create 2 subfolders, one for Type 1 fonts and the other for True Type fonts.

1. Adding XFree86 Type 1 fonts to NVDI

1. 1. • 1. Create a subfolder called C:\BTFONTS\TYPE1.

        2. Goto the X11 Type 1 font folder at /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1.

        3. Copy all TYPE 1 files with extension .PFA and .PFB into C:\BTFONTS\TYPE1.

        4. When you find more Type 1 fonts, you can just add them to this folder.

2. Adding XFree86 Speedo fonts to NVDI

• • • 1. You will notice that the X11 fonts folder contain a folder called Speedo.

      2. Goto the X11 Speedo font folder at /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/.

      3. Copy all Speedo files with extension .SPD into C:\BTFONTS\.

      4. When you find more Speedo fonts, you can just add them to this folder.

3. Adding True Type fonts

• 1. 1. 1. Create a subfolder called C:\BTFONTS\TRUETYPE.

        2. When you find True Type fonts, copy them into the folder above.

4. Reboot your system

So that NVDI finds these new fonts and create a new font database. After that your new font will be found by the X Server and you can use it in your X applications.

That's it. You X environment is working now.

Have Fun!!

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