Re: Why is setting up X so arcane?
Greets Nikki,
I have learned to hate x as well. yet if I want great x features, I have to
dig and play too. I finally picked up the voodoo 3 and am really pleased to
see good support and very nice rendering.
Now I wanted to advise you that you can KILL x without locking up your box. I
don't really think your computer "hung" but it simply went into a mode your
video card/monitor could not render. So, next time it happens, please try the
linux 3 finger solute: control+alt+BACKSPACE This will kill x and dump
you right back into the console where you started it from.
Next trick is after you have x running and all that good stuff, you can STILL
go back to the real console with: control+alt+F1(thru)F6. To get bck to x
just press: alt+F7 !
Finally, you can REBOOT the box with: control+alt+DEL
Anyway, I agree, x sucks when you need to get these cards to play nice. Next
release of debian will have far better tools (wahoo), and the new version of
x.
tatah and don't give up!
On Thursday 28 June 2001 07:35, Nikki Locke wrote:
> Why must I know? I bought the machine about 4 years ago. I have moved house
> twice since then, and no longer have the receipt, or the manuals.
>
> > If you cannot make it
> > clear to xfree86 what type of chip it is to be dealing with, how can it
> > know what registers to program on the chip?
>
> As far as I know, the card is Plug and Play. Why can't X probe the card and
> find out for me?
>
> > Go read the X-files at http://xfree86.org.
>
> On my way.
> [Later]
> I booted Windows NT, and asked it about the VGA card. It said I had ...
> s3 compatible display adapter
> Chip Type S3 Vision964
> DAC Type: Brooktree Bt485
> Memory size: 2MB
> Adapter String: Diamond Stealth
>
> Which documents should I be reading?
>
> I had a look at "XFree86 Video Card and X server list", and it said
> S3 964 (generic) ....................................... XF86_S3
> and a lot of the Diamond cards said the same.
>
> I attempted to read XFree86 configuration guide (which the FAW said is
> available from http://www.XFree86.org/3.3.5/Config.html) but I got "The
> requested URL /3.3.5/Config.html was not found on this server".
>
> So, having drawn a blank, I went in and used XF86Setup to set up the S3
> driver, but clicking the "Done" button hung my machine solid. Rebooting
> showed my filesystems to be partly trashed. Oh great!
>
> I'll restate my original complaint - Why is it so difficult to set up X?
--
Jaye Inabnit\ARS ke6sls/TELE: USA-707-442-6579\/A GNU-Debian linux user
Email: ke6sls@arrl.net WEB: http://www.qsl.net/ke6sls ICQ: 12741145
If it's stupid, but works, it ain't stupid. SHOUT JUST FOR FUN.
Free software, in a free world, for a free spirit. Please Support freedom!
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