Re: X server configuration

[Michael Schmitz <MSchmitz@lbl.gov>]

Richard Knight wrote:
> 
> I have a problem with the X server on a Centris 650.  The server starts
> without any errors, but the mouse can scroll off the right side of the
> screen and the colors are funny.  For example, the black cross-hatched

The mouse shouldn't scroll off the screen, but the colors are normal
(read
as: all Macs have this problem). Blame Apple for not releasing
programming
information for their graphics hardware. We can only use a static color
map
(based on what the booter initializes) and the X server seems to ignore
that
static map. 

> background when X starts is red.  I also can't seem to switch the screen
> bit depth to anything other that 8 bpp.  The server is not in the
> "default" mode.

Mode switching isn't supported either (again, thanks Apple). 

This is not to say it's impossible to do - if someone wants to take the 
time ands reverse engineer Apple's hardware drivers and write up
detailed
programming specs I bet we could find someone to incorporate this into
the 
framebuffer driver.

>         Along with the colors, the performance is pathetic.

And? The 650 probably has a 25 MHz 040, no comparison with a 233 MHz
Intel. 
Plus the braindead SCSI hardware design (no DMA), that won't make for a 
good performance by modern standards. Use a PowerPC or Intel machine if
you want high performance.

Just to put 'pathetic' into perspective: the 16 MHz 030 machines with 
5380 SCSI are _truely_ slow. X takes a few minutes to start. The point
is,
these machines still can run Linux if you don't bug them with X (or if 
you feed them enough RAM). A 33 MHz 040, on the other hand, is a pretty
good 
compile and development machine (I've built xfree-3.3.2 overnight on a 
Quadra 800, that takes about four days on a 030).

	Michael