Re: Why is setting up X so arcane?
On Fri, Jun 29, 2001 at 12:00:16PM +0100, Nikki Locke wrote:
| In article <[🔎] 20010628152206.B19819@harmony.cs.rit.edu>, D-Man wrote:
| > Maybe try the SVGA driver with no special features enabled? Try just
| > a simple 640x480x8 and see if it is any better. Don't try any special
| > RAMDAC/clock chip specs.
|
| If I don't set any "special features", I am assuming (from the drop-down
| lists supplied) that the driver will probe the card. I suspect it is the
| pobing that is causing the problem.
I don't think so. That is, if you use 'vim' and don't specify
anything like clock chip, RAMDAC, acceleration, etc, you X should just
attempt to use the most basic communication and hope it works (after
all, you said it would ;-)). If you use XF86Setup or something, then
it probably will probe. Ditch XF86Setup already -- you have a
XF86Config file already so just start hacking it. I found that there
is usually a lot of explanatory comments in the file (actually, I
think I used xf86config instead).
| > Hmm. I have found that if I don't have a modeline I get the "no mode
| > named foo" message. If it needs a different HSync of VertRefresh I
| > get "mode removed because vertrefresh out of range".
|
| I got the mode removed messages earlier on, but didn't include them in my
| mail (because there were so many). Sorry for misleading you.
No problem, there are a few different variations on it anyways.
| > 'man XF86Config' (works for potato, woody doesn't have such a manpage,
| > just use the potato one and the readme on the (few) differences)
|
| I think the information I need most is the details of my VGA card. I'm never
| going to find that in the manual, am I.
No, but you will know how to hack the config file so you can try
everything (you want to try) and see what combinations of options have
what affect.
| > | on my video card, and asking XF86Setup to probe it causes the machine
| >
| > I never probed my cards, nor specified a clock chip or RAMDAC. X4
| > (woody) found my clock chip all by itself. Currently I have an
| > SiS6326. I used to have an ATI Rage LT Pro that I used with X 3.3.3
| > -> 3.3.6, both RH and Debian. I didn't have to do much configuring of
| > it by hand with RH 6.2, but RH 7's installer couldn't get it right. I
| > simply copied by (backed up) config from 6.2 to 7.0 and Debian without
| > any trouble.
|
| If only I had such a backup! I have been assuming that, if you don't specify
| things if XF86Setup, the card is probed - otherwise how is the driver going
Maybe.
| to talk to the card at all?
Using just what you said in the XF86Config file. Just use vim and
only say what you know for sure is correct. Once you have basic
functionality (ie 640x480x8) you can start trying options to get
a better display.
BTW, I think the /var/log/XFree86.n.log only exists with X4. With X3
I used 'startx 2>&1 | less' to see all the error messages (don't do it
with X4 -- it hangs the Xserver for some reason).
HTH,
-D
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