No devices to configure. Configuration failed.

[Marc Haber]

On Tue, Sep 29, 2015 at 04:32:14AM -0400, Felix Miata wrote:
> Marc Haber composed on 2015-09-29 09:10 (UTC+0200):
> > I would like my X to generate a configuration file to write some
> > additional options in the correct stanzas. I am not planning to
> > actually use the full xorg.conf.
> 
> > Anyway, X -configure doesn't work on my system and results in "No
> > devices to configure.  Configuration failed."
> ...
> > What am I doing wrong?
> 
> X -configure is a virtually useless anachronism.

If it doesn't work any more, it shouldn't be documented any more.
There are gazillions of more-or-less skilled HOWTO "docs" on the net
that refer to that command. If it should not be used any more

>  Build an xorg.conf that only has in it whatever sections need to be
>  there to provide the options you need, and let automagic do the rest.

That would be much more easy if one had something non-empty to start
with. Of course I would have stripped down the file to the bare
minimum necessary, but writing that from scratch is just
unneccessarily hard for someone who is not used to writing manual X
configuration.

I do fully understand that people will use the entire output of X
-configure as their X server configuration, inadvertently turning off
all the magic they might need and causing more support burden that
way, but that can be prevented by, for example, making the generated
file subtly syntactically incorrect or by requiring the user to remove
a certain generated line before the X server will eat the file.

Not having X -configure any more, however, will make writing manual X
configuration to alchemy science as it was fifteen years ago.

Greetings
Marc

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Haber         | "I don't trust Computers. They | Mailadresse im Header
Leimen, Germany    |  lose things."    Winona Ryder | Fon: *49 6224 1600402
Nordisch by Nature |  How to make an American Quilt | Fax: *49 6224 1600421