C.3.3.4. The ServerLayout Section

The ServerLayout section binds together the input and output devices controlled by the X server. At a minimum, this section must specify one input device and one output device. By default, a monitor (output device) and a keyboard (input device) are specified.
The following example shows a typical ServerLayout section: 
Section "ServerLayout"
  Identifier "Default Layout"
  Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
  InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
  InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection
The following entries are commonly used in the ServerLayout section:
  • Identifier — Specifies a unique name for this ServerLayout section.
  • Screen — Specifies the name of a Screen section to be used with the X server. More than one Screen option may be present.
    The following is an example of a typical Screen entry: 
    Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
    The first number in this example Screen entry (0) indicates that the first monitor connector, or head on the video card, uses the configuration specified in the Screen section with the identifier "Screen0".
    An example of a Screen section with the identifier "Screen0" can be found in Section C.3.3.8, “The Screen section”.
    If the video card has more than one head, another Screen entry with a different number and a different Screen section identifier is necessary.
    The numbers to the right of "Screen0" give the absolute X and Y coordinates for the upper left corner of the screen (0 0 by default).
  • InputDevice — Specifies the name of an InputDevice section to be used with the X server.
    It is advisable that there be at least two InputDevice entries: one for the default mouse and one for the default keyboard. The options CorePointer and CoreKeyboard indicate that these are the primary mouse and keyboard. If the AutoAddDevices option is enabled, this entry needs not to be specified in the ServerLayout section. If the AutoAddDevices option is disabled, both mouse and keyboard are auto-detected with the default values.
  • Option "option-name" — An optional entry which specifies extra parameters for the section. Any options listed here override those listed in the ServerFlags section.
    Replace <option-name> with a valid option listed for this section in the xorg.conf(5) man page.
It is possible to put more than one ServerLayout section in the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. By default, the server only reads the first one it encounters, however. If there is an alternative ServerLayout section, it can be specified as a command-line argument when starting an X session; as in the Xorg -layout <layoutname> command.