From owner-freebsd-questions  Fri Feb  3 21:43:53 1995
Return-Path: questions-owner
Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.9/8.6.6) id VAA04673 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 3 Feb 1995 21:43:53 -0800
Received: from netcom16.netcom.com (fod@netcom16.netcom.com [192.100.81.129]) by freefall.cdrom.com (8.6.9/8.6.6) with ESMTP id VAA04667 for <questions@freebsd.org>; Fri, 3 Feb 1995 21:43:52 -0800
Received: by netcom16.netcom.com (8.6.9/Netcom)
	id VAA26141; Fri, 3 Feb 1995 21:42:31 -0800
Date: Fri, 3 Feb 1995 21:42:31 -0800
From: fod@netcom.com (Frank O'Donnell)
Message-Id: <199502040542.VAA26141@netcom16.netcom.com>
To: questions@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Problem starting X (and mouse config)
Cc: fod@netcom.com
Sender: questions-owner@FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

I have just installed FreeBSD 2.0 (Jan 95 Walnut Creek CD)
on my 486DX66 on the second of two Maxtor 540MB IDE drives.
After some false starts I found the magic alt-F2 key that
allowed me to complete the XFree86-3.1 install off the CD-ROM;
I did a full install.  Per /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/README.FreeBSD,
I left /usr/X11R6/bin/X as a symbolic link to XF86_VGA (my
graphics card uses the Cirrus GD-5428 chip), then I put path
statements for /usr/X11R6/bin in /etc/csh.login and /etc/profile,
and added a line in /etc/ttys for
  ttyv4  "/usr/X11R6/bin/xdm -nodaemon" xterm on secure
I also copied /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.eg to XF86Config.

I have about four unresolved issues:

1)  When I reboot, around the time it gets to "Login:" the
screen flashes four times as if it's trying to do a video mode
change; however, the video mode appears to remain the same
alphanumeric mode.  Isn't it supposed to go into a graphics
mode at this point?

2)  The only thing I can see for sure in XF86Config that I
definitely need to change is the mouse configuration (and if
I try to execute "startx" it results in a fatal error of being
unable to work with the mouse).  My mouse is a Microsoft serial
mouse, but it's on the second serial port.  The default entry
in XF86Config is "/dev/com1", but I don't see a "/dev/com{1,2}"
in my system.  In dmesg I see sio1 being recognized on startup,
but there isn't a /dev/sio{0,1} either.  Could anyone tell me
what device the system would normally map sio1 to?  (Or if I
need to do this manually, what commands exactly do I need to
execute?)

3)  Just to see what would happen I also tried executing "xterm"
and got a "Cannot open display" error.  Do I also need to do
something like a "setenv DISPLAY xyz" somewhere?  Or does the
fact that I'm just typing at the console make this unnecessary?

4)  Finally, on the hardware setup outlined above can anyone see
anything else I'd need to do to make X go?

Thanks for any help -- despite the odd hurdle, FreeBSD is turning
out to be very interesting.

Frank
fod@netcom.com