Project D

Sax 2 is a X configurator GUI created by freedesktop.org using qt as its graphic library.

It’s also the defacto X configurator for SUSE linux distribution.

After trying this software in Gentoo, personally I found a little use for this software in my laptop, maybe because my laptop has already been configured.

And sadly, Sax2 failed to detect my Trident card. It detected my card as vesa card thus setting it using vesa driver which is not right at all.

But for those who want to use GUI to config their X server configuration may want to try this software.

Screenshots:

You may want to visit the developer homepage for more detailed information regarding sax.

Anyway, if you persist want to install this software in gentoo, as for today there is no ebuild for it. I tried to create an ebuild for it but failed. I will post the ebuild when its fixed.

As for now, to install this software in gentoo you will need to manually download the rpm source, unpack it, hack the makefile a bit, compile it and install it.

First step : -Get the dependencies first

emerge the following packages :
sys-libs/readline
sys-apps/dbus
dev-lang/perl
media-libs/netpbm
sys-devel/bison
sys-apps/hal
x11-libs/qt
sys-libs/ncurses
app-doc/doxygen
app-arch/rpm2targz

you can do this by :

emerge sys-libs/readline sys-apps/dbus dev-lang/perl media-libs/netpbm sys-devel/bison sys-apps/hal x11-libs/qt sys-libs/ncurses app-doc/doxygen app-arch/rpm2targz

Second Step -Get the SAX2 RPM source

Go to /root, create sax directory and download the source
cd /root
mkdir sax
cd sax
wget http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/SaX2/SL10.3/src/sax2-8.1-568.1.src.rpm

Third Step -Unpack SAX2 RPM, modified it and install

Assuming you are still in /root/sax/ , then you will need to unpack the rpm, patch the makefile, make the software and install it.

rpm2tarbz2 sax2-8.1-568.1.src.rpm
tar -jxvf sax2-8.1-568.1.src.tar.bz2
tar -jxvf sax2.tar.bz2
cd sax

--- Makefile	2009-02-09 00:46:44.000000000 +0800
+++ Makefile	2009-02-09 00:46:55.000000000 +0800
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 # Status: Up-to-date
 #
 # Build init
-buildroot      = /
+buildroot      =
 mandir         = /usr/share/man
 bindlib        = lib

@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@
 	install -m 644 ./modules/export/*                       ${MODULEVZ}
 	install -m 644 ./parse/XFree.pm                         ${MODULEVZ}
 	install -m 644 ./api/data/cdb/*                         ${CDBVZ}
-	cp -l ./api/figures/*                                   ${PIXVZ}
+	cp ./api/figures/*                                   ${PIXVZ}
 	install -m 755 ./startup/sax.sh                         ${SBINVZ}
 	install -m 755 ./startup/sax2-vesa                      ${SBINVZ}
 	install -m 755 ./startup/SaX2                           ${SBINVZ}

Copy & Paste the patch above in /root/sax2/sax/makefile.patch

patch Makefile < makefile.patch
make
make install

Fourth Step -Small patch up

Finally you will need to make symbolic link for lspci and install the .desktop file. Reminder the original .desktop file doesn’t work. You can try running sax2 from a terminal with root password.

assuming you are still in /root/sax2/sax

ln -s /usr/sbin/lspci /sbin/lspci
/usr/bin/desktop-file-install ../sax2.desktop

In gentoo sax still need an ebuild to automate all of this and a better .desktop to allow it to be run from a desktop menu.

-= end transmission =-