[Techtalk] X11 config-4

[Malcolm Tredinnick]

On Sat, Oct 05, 2002 at 10:07:24AM -0400, Andrew wrote:
> On 04 Oct 2002 23:14:34 -0400
> Beth Johnson <linux.chick at verizon.net> wrote:
[...]
> > Hmm, perhaps you could post a copy of your current config, then we can
> > actually show you what to change!
> 
> 	I am a little disapointed at how difficult it was for me to copy this
> thing. As root I cold not figure out how to copy it to the my usr
> (non-root) desktop, blocked by permissions. In M.Comander copy did
> nothing, same with emacs. Finally after 40 minutes I opened it in
> Konquror and found sucess.  Gawd knows this can be frustrating.

I don't use any of the tools you mention above, but I am a bit surprised
by your comment. Not in a "why couldn't he work that out" fashion, but
because it reminds me that some things which some of us do every day are
not blindingly obvious to everybody. So I've just received a smack over
the head to remind me to be nicer on this list.

Maybe your distribution really locks down permissions on the config
files, but in my case (a pretty standard Red Hat box),
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 is readable by everybody (and owned by root.root).
So simply copying as a normal user should work. Did you try that?

Alternatively, for a file that is only readable by root (in which case
you need to think about whether posting it to a public mailing list is a
good idea), try this

(1) log into a terminal window as root
(2) cp /some/file.txt ~
(3) chown fred file.txt

(where 'fred' is replace by your username).

I don't actually have anything constructive to say about the XFree86
problems you are having, since I am not privileged/cursed enough to have
a video card requiring special modules.

Cheers,
Malcolm