Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 13:03:59 +1030 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: Jim Foster <JFOSTER@CSKAUTO.COM> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Desperately trying to get X to work... Message-ID: <19981104130359.F784@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <BF4A830F5207D2119420006008A1DB14DDC3C4@v128041.vandenberg.af.mil>; from Foster, Jim on Tue, Nov 03, 1998 at 08:29:01AM -0700 References: <BF4A830F5207D2119420006008A1DB14DDC3C4@v128041.vandenberg.af.mil>
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[Format autorecovered at freebie.lemis.com] On Tuesday, 3 November 1998 at 8:29:01 -0700, Foster, Jim wrote: >> On Monday, November 02, 1998 4:15 PM, Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> wrote: >> >> On Monday, 2 November 1998 at 9:34:33 -0700, Foster, Jim wrote: >>> Hi all, >>> >>> I am trying to get X to work on my computer, but I am not having >>> much luck. I have read the book (The Complete FreeBSD), I have >>> read the errata, I have downloaded and used the new chapter 8 of >>> the book, I have looked at past list archives....All with no luck. >>> >>> Basically what happens is when I configure and run X, I hear my monitor >>> click and then go black. I stays that way until I kill X, and cycle my >>> monitor off and on. >> >> This is an indication that X is trying to drive the monitor out of >> spec. It's turning off to avoid burning out. >> >>> I have an IBM ValuePoint computer (i486/66 DX2) with built-in S3 video. >>> SuperProbe reports: >>> First video: Super-VGA >>> Chipset: S3 86C805, C-step (Port Probed) >>> Memory: 1024 Kbytes >>> RAMDAC: AT&T 20C490 15/16/24-bit DAC >>> (with 6-bit wide lookup tables (or in 6-bit mode)) >>> (programmable for 6/8-bit wide lookup tables) >>> >>> For what it is worth, Win 95 reports that I have S3 video and that >>> the chipset is 801/805 Rev E. (Sidebar: In windows I can >>> regularly use 800x600 and 16-bit color with no problems). >>> >>> I have verified on the monitor manufacturer's web site what the >>> horizontal and vertical refresh rates are, so that part should be >>> OK (it's not in the monitors database). >> >> What are they? >> >>> When I configured X, it only presents me with three chipset >>> options for S3. Those are mmio_928, newmmio, and s3_generic. No >>> 86C805! Because of all of the "deadly warnings" about frying >>> monitors AND chipsets, I have only selected s3_generic so far. >> >> You're unlikely to fry that monitor. The "click and go black" is a >> good sign. And s3_generic should do it. >> >>> I have configured the memory for 1MB, and the RAMDAC (whatever that >>> is...) to att20c490, but I am not sure about the rest of the stuff >>> that SuperProbe spit out, like ...15/16/24-bit DAC... and the stuff >>> about lookup tables. I assume it has to do with color depth. >>> Finally, I also did not choose any clock chip support since >>> SuperProbe did not tell me any thing about clock chips. >> >> That should all be OK. >> >>> I had the config script run X -probeonly to put the clock lines into the >>> configuration. >> >> You should be able to leave out the clock lines. If X -probeonly >> finds them, it'll find them at startup too. >> >>> When I run startx, my monitor clicks, and goes black. >>> >>> As an experiment, I reconfigured X to use the SVGA server instead of S3 >>> and >>> I can get that to work in 8-bit color mode only (looks _real_ ugly). As >>> soon as I try and use the SVGA configuration with something more than >>> 8-bit >>> color...you guessed it, click-and-black. >>> >>> Am I suppose to use mmio_928 or newmmio? How do I know which one? Will >>> it >>> hurt my computer if I try and it is wrong? What else do I need to look >>> at? >> >> The first thing you need to look at is the information that X prints >> out when it starts. Since you have The Book, look at page 229, which >> shows you how to start X and capture this information. In particular, >> check the information that it outputs about horizontal frequencies. > > OK, I redirected the startx output to a file, what do I look for? It should be obvious. If it isn't, just post the output. It's not that much. But please either fix your mailer or use one which doesn't mutilate text the way your current one does. Otherwise it'll be illegible. It took me about 3 minutes to reinstate the message above. You might like to check http://www.lemis.com/email.html for information about mailers which mutilate text. > [Greg: by the way, the example on page 229 did not save the output > to a file, it went to the screen. I needed to use `startx > 1>startx.out 2>&1`.] Looks as if you're using csh. As indicated in the preface, the prompt indicates that this example is with sh. I suppose I should add an example for csh... > What I ended up saving was output from my SVGA server in 8-bit mode, my SVGA > server that I *attempted* to run in 16-bit mode, and I *tried* to > reconfigure it back to S3, but that was locking up my system. I am guessing > that I messed up the keyboard somewhere along the way (C-A-backspace and > C-A-del did not work). I have a keyboard that looks like a Microsoft > Natural keyboard, but it does not seem to be mapped like on. Anyway, I ran > out of time last night so the only output that I could get from the S3 one > was from a `startx -- -probeonly 1>...`. OK, let's see them. > So, what do I need to look for and what kind of things will I need to > change? Look for the horizontal (and, I suppose, vertical) frequencies. You might also check that you have a standard 640x480 display, just to make sure that you can display anything. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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