From owner-freebsd-x11@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Sep 11 13:40:44 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-x11@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-x11@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A4F8C16A407 for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:40:44 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from arindam.mukerjee@gmail.com) Received: from py-out-1112.google.com (py-out-1112.google.com [64.233.166.183]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E471E43D60 for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:40:40 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from arindam.mukerjee@gmail.com) Received: by py-out-1112.google.com with SMTP id o67so2031345pye for ; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:40:40 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=gYjODQfU5JfEPnU+Rg/JOdjvAffcE4NW48CE+buSglxtp2eHF0ZIwwl9XvMj1zF7snlHWawJI6yysBDlt0GWcZqBKwhPZyCTlzIe8FtBIi6uvu7gOit/La+GGru2l1gp3+P3kGZFAg93wouHamM2KoCfEqLEnApvFk6yw4Q05xE= Received: by 10.35.82.4 with SMTP id j4mr8872848pyl; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:40:39 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.35.13.20 with HTTP; Mon, 11 Sep 2006 06:40:39 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 19:10:39 +0530 From: Arindam To: freebsd-x11@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Xorg Configuration trouble: FreeBSD 5.4 X-BeenThere: freebsd-x11@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: X11 on FreeBSD -- maintaining and support List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:40:44 -0000 I am an absolute FreeBSD Newbie and I decided to give it a try over a lazy weekend - mainly because I don't want to throw away my old PIII box. I picked up FreeBSD 5.4 which was all I got and I am dual booting it with RHEL4.3. My box is rather old ... P3 733 Mhz with 256 megs of SDRAM@100MHz (actually 384 ... but that's another story), and I installed FreeBSD on the first 6.5 Gigs of my Seagate harddrive ... connected to the Primary master IDE interface. Now I had these two FreeBSD 5.4 ISOs ... CD1 and CD2, and I booted from CD1 directly and did the install. There is no automatic X configuration in the installer so I tried running it manually. 1. I tried running "Xorg -configure". For some reason "Xorg -configure" threw an error: xf86EnableIO: could not open /dev/io for extended IO. However, when I did run: ls -l /dev/io I got: crw------- root wheel 246, 14 /dev/io 2. Never figured out what went wrong there but instead used "xorgconfig" and that "worked", as in, it wrote my config file. Here are my Screen details: *** Samsung Samtron 45Bn monitor (33-55 KHz HorSyncRate, 50-120 Hz Vert Refresh Rate). *** Cirrus Logic GD 5465 graphics card on a PCI slot - with 4MB video memory. *** An old Logitech mouse with middle-button connected to a serial port (/dev/cuaa0? /dev/sysmouse? /dev/tty00 ... don't know which device to use). I would have liked to attach my xorg.conf file but don't have access to it right away. I guess there are no probs in it ... I read through the relevant sections of it and from what I remember of my RedHat Linux 6.0 days, this file seems fine. 3. Finally I tried changing the /etc/ttys file and for /dev/ttyv8, turned xterm "on" from "off". ==>> Now each time I boot into FreeBSD, I get a flickering blank, black screen with nothing on it. I keep try [Ctrl+] Alt + F ... n=1..12 ... but no success. ==>> I keep trying Ctrl + Alt + Backspace ... but no breakthrough. ==>> I tried Ctrl + Alt + KP_+/- also, with the Num Lock on ... but again no respite. Some observations: 1. While the screen continuously flickers, the Num Lock of the Keyboard keeps blinking too (if it was on, to start with). 2. A while back, when I had not yet configured X with xorgconfig and just like that switched on "xterm" on /dev/ttyv8, I rememeber the getty program was respawning too quickly, due to which it was going into 30 second sleeps. So I switched xterm off. Of course, after that I found xorgconfig. 3. Here are the modes I have allowed in xorgconfig: a. 8 bit - 800x600, 640x480 (removed 1024x768, 1280x1024) b. 16 bit (default) - 800x600, 640x480 (removed 1024x768, 1280x1024) c. 24 bit - 800x600, 640x480 (removed 1024x768, 1280x1024) 4. Earlier, after completing xorgconfig, while xterm was off on ttyv8 in /etc/ttys, I tried: startx -- -depth 16 :1 vt10 and it gave me the same problems. 5. Finally, during sysinstall installation of the OS, I could not configure moused with my mouse ... and while I would briefly see a tiny pointer, I would not see it move with my mouse movements. Aaaargh!! What a long, bad post!! Still, if you can wade through this nonsense, please help. Cheers, Andy