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To: "Kaleb S. KEITHLEY" <kaleb@x.org>
cc: hackers@freefall.FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: syscons driver 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 28 Dec 1995 16:18:03 EDT."
             <199512282118.VAA21806@exalt.x.org> 
Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 17:20:57 -0800
Message-ID: <7270.820200057@time.cdrom.com>
From: "Jordan K. Hubbard" <jkh@time.cdrom.com>
Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
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> Lessee. 
> 
>   Install: %gunzip -c <some XFree86>.tar.gz | tar xf -
> 
> Dunno what's so hard about that.

I have to wonder whether or not you're really being serious! :-)

OK, let me qualify my earlier remarks for the benefit of Amancio and
everyone, and please do at least bear in mind that I get a LOT of
support questions which certainly indicates that something is not as
clear as it should be or I wouldn't get so many, right?

First off, getting X to work with a stock VGA card isn't too difficult
if you're willing to stick to 640x480 res and the SVGA server.  I'm
assuming that's not what's wanted, however, so we move to step two.

Step two is getting some sort of accellerated server working, and
that's when things quickly get fiddly.  What clock chip do I set for
the early #9 cards?  Failure to do so will get you a list of
auto-probed clocks that have you back at 640x480 again (28, 32 and so
on).  What about an ATI card?  Yearg!  It locks my machine up!  What
do you mean "shared IRQ?!"  What about my Matrox?  It doesn't work?!
I could go on, but will spare your ears.

Then you've got mice.  Hoo boy, don't ask me what to enter for your
PS/2 and bus mouse again!

None of these things take a rocket scientist to deal with, but added
up they can spell a lot of frustration for people.  X may be a
wonderful thing for what it does, and no one can say that I haven't
paid my dues with it (I sat through the ICCCM ratification process and
no one should have to do that in a civilized country! :-), but I know
its limitations, too, and currently the XFree86 setup is simply
miserable.  Sorry, I know I keep using words like "miserable" and
"bogus" when it comes to xf86config, but if I do it's only because I'm
trying to keep the stronger ones in check.. :-)

					Jordan