Why is setting up X so arcane?
I have a machine here I would like to run X on. I am not sure of the
specs of the VGA card, and have no manuals for it. I think I have a
manual for the monitor (it has no manufacturer marked on it, but I have
found a single sheet of paper which has a picture on it that looks
vaguely like the front on my monitor).
How on earth am I supposed to set up X?
Why is it so difficult? I can install Microsoft Windows (spit), and it
will find out for itself what card and monitor I have, and set itself
up accordingly. Why isn't there a program to do the same thing with X?
I have experimented as best I can, and I have got an X display. It is a
640 x 480 window on a larger desktop, and is really difficult to use.
If I reboot into Windows NT, the thing displays 1024 x 768 quite
happily.
I have studied the stderr output of xinit, and it says
(--) VGA16: clocks: 25.17 28.32 28.32 28.32
(--) VGA16: Maximum allowed dot-clock: 90.000 MHz
(**) VGA16: Mode "640x480": mode clock = 25.175, clock used = 25.170
(--) VGA16: There is no defined dot-clock matching mode "800x600"
(--) VGA16: Removing mode "800x600" from list of valid modes.
(--) VGA16: There is no defined dot-clock matching mode "1024x768"
(--) VGA16: Removing mode "1024x768" from list of valid modes.
(**) VGA16: Virtual resolution set to 800x600
Where do I go from here?
--
Nikki Locke, Trumphurst Ltd. PC & Unix consultancy & programming
nikki@trumphurst.com http://www.trumphurst.com/
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