pyrox.dev
1<chapter xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
2 xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"
3 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"
4 version="5.0"
5 xml:id="sec-x11">
6
7<title>X Window System</title>
8
9<para>The X Window System (X11) provides the basis of NixOS’ graphical
10user interface. It can be enabled as follows:
11<programlisting>
12services.xserver.enable = true;
13</programlisting>
14The X server will automatically detect and use the appropriate video
15driver from a set of X.org drivers (such as <literal>vesa</literal>
16and <literal>intel</literal>). You can also specify a driver
17manually, e.g.
18<programlisting>
19services.xserver.videoDrivers = [ "r128" ];
20</programlisting>
21to enable X.org’s <literal>xf86-video-r128</literal> driver.</para>
22
23<para>You also need to enable at least one desktop or window manager.
24Otherwise, you can only log into a plain undecorated
25<command>xterm</command> window. Thus you should pick one or more of
26the following lines:
27<programlisting>
28services.xserver.desktopManager.kde4.enable = true;
29services.xserver.desktopManager.xfce.enable = true;
30services.xserver.windowManager.xmonad.enable = true;
31services.xserver.windowManager.twm.enable = true;
32services.xserver.windowManager.icewm.enable = true;
33</programlisting>
34</para>
35
36<para>NixOS’s default <emphasis>display manager</emphasis> (the
37program that provides a graphical login prompt and manages the X
38server) is SLiM. You can select KDE’s <command>kdm</command> instead:
39<programlisting>
40services.xserver.displayManager.kdm.enable = true;
41</programlisting>
42</para>
43
44<para>The X server is started automatically at boot time. If you
45don’t want this to happen, you can set:
46<programlisting>
47services.xserver.autorun = false;
48</programlisting>
49The X server can then be started manually:
50<screen>
51$ systemctl start display-manager.service
52</screen>
53</para>
54
55
56<simplesect><title>NVIDIA Graphics Cards</title>
57
58<para>NVIDIA provides a proprietary driver for its graphics cards that
59has better 3D performance than the X.org drivers. It is not enabled
60by default because it’s not free software. You can enable it as follows:
61<programlisting>
62services.xserver.videoDrivers = [ "nvidia" ];
63</programlisting>
64You may need to reboot after enabling this driver to prevent a clash
65with other kernel modules.</para>
66
67<para>On 64-bit systems, if you want full acceleration for 32-bit
68programs such as Wine, you should also set the following:
69<programlisting>
70hardware.opengl.driSupport32Bit = true;
71</programlisting>
72</para>
73
74</simplesect>
75
76<simplesect><title>AMD Graphics Cards</title>
77
78<para>AMD provides a proprietary driver for its graphics cards that
79has better 3D performance than the X.org drivers. It is not enabled
80by default because it’s not free software. You can enable it as follows:
81<programlisting>
82services.xserver.videoDrivers = [ "ati_unfree" ];
83</programlisting>
84You will need to reboot after enabling this driver to prevent a clash
85with other kernel modules.</para>
86
87<para>On 64-bit systems, if you want full acceleration for 32-bit
88programs such as Wine, you should also set the following:
89<programlisting>
90hardware.opengl.driSupport32Bit = true;
91</programlisting>
92</para>
93
94</simplesect>
95
96<simplesect><title>Touchpads</title>
97
98<para>Support for Synaptics touchpads (found in many laptops such as
99the Dell Latitude series) can be enabled as follows:
100<programlisting>
101services.xserver.synaptics.enable = true;
102</programlisting>
103The driver has many options (see <xref linkend="ch-options"/>). For
104instance, the following enables two-finger scrolling:
105<programlisting>
106services.xserver.synaptics.twoFingerScroll = true;
107</programlisting>
108</para>
109
110</simplesect>
111
112
113</chapter>