After installing NetBSD/i386 1.6 with XFree86 4.2 as the default X system,
I've come up a little stuck configuring X.

I used "XFree86 -configure" as root to generate a configuration file.
This appears now to be more or less correct in many ways.  It is, however,
totally useless w.r.t. resolutions.  It only comes up in one, very low,
resolution.  I recall that XFree86 4.0, when *first* released, did a much
better job of determining acceptable output resolutions.  Is there an easy
way to get XFree86 to fill in whatever 4.x uses as the equivalent of 3.x's
modelines/etc?  Or do I need to cut from old files and perhaps do manual
conversion to the new config format?


Additionally, the last time that I tried to run "startx", I met with
failure.  (I had to run XFree86 as "XFree86", which didn't use my .xinitrc
script and brought up a rather empty X server on a 320x200 display.  Not
very useful.  (^&)

The message is something like:

 /~~~

xf86OpenConsole: Server must be running with root permissions
You should be using Xwrapper to start the server or xdm.
We strongly recommend against making the server SUID root!

 \___

...surely abject failure is not the standard behavior for the normal way
of manually invoking X (startx is precisely that, as I've understood it
for the past 5 years).

What do I need to do to make X work?

Short of resorting to xdm, that is.  (^&


If it helps any in answering these questions: The present machine does not
have a history of running X.  (Not in the past couple of years.)  It's
mostly been a headless machine.

It's not immediately important that *this* machine run X correctly.
However, once I have 1.6 working adequately for my purposes, I intend to
upgrade my laptop.  X is essential, there.  (I use the laptop for TeX, and
I "need" xdvi for previews.)


  ``I probably don't know what I'm talking about.'' --rauch@math.rice.edu