Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 22:12:26 +0100 From: Nils Holland <nils@tisys.org> To: Erik Rothwell <erothwell@callgtn.com> Cc: ports@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: XFree86 4.2.0 problems... Message-ID: <20020120221226.A1456@tisys.org> In-Reply-To: <20020120101217.B1794-100000@endymion>; from erothwell@callgtn.com on Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 10:23:33AM -0500 References: <20020120101217.B1794-100000@endymion>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Sun, Jan 20, 2002 at 10:23:33AM -0500, Erik Rothwell stood up and spoke:
> Hi folks,
>
> I just cvsupped ports and built the new XFree86 4.2. I'm experiencing some
> strange behaviour after the install, however. I can't find any reference
> to anybody else having this problem, so I thought I'd throw it out there.
>
> The new version of X starts up fine, it seems, but I get this incredibly
> pronounced flickering. That is: the video image is there for a split
> second, only to cut out completely a moment later. The monitor makes that
> familiar "click" sound as when it looses sync. The duration of the on/off
> periods is small, but seemingly random.
I had a similar issue, basically it was like this (using a mach64 / ATi
Rage card):
1) When using the ati driver (my XF86Config as of 4.1), X would start, but
the screen would remain blank. However, X was indeed running, as I could
start applications "blindly" (it's nice to walk through my fvwm2 menu
without seeing a thing!)
2) When using the generic vga driver, the picture would be there for a few
seconds, then disappear for some time, then come back, and so on...
Solution: The monitor I used does not support DDC and composite sync. X
4.1.0 seems to query the monitor via DDC and if the DDC query fails, it
does not seem to use composite sync by default. However, XFre86 4.2.0 seems
to use composite sync by default when the DDC query fails.
So, what did I do? I set "composite_sync" to false in my XF86Config as can
be seen below, and that solved the problem!
Section "Device"
Identifier "ATI Xpert@Work"
VendorName "ATI"
BoardName "ATI Xpert@Work"
Driver "ati"
Option "composite_sync" "False"
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection
I don't know if this is specific to the ati driver, but if you are using
something else, you may still want to try it. Furthermore, it seems that if
a DDC-enabled monitor is in use, this line is not neccessary, as X queries
the monitor and finds out itself if it should use composite_sync or not.
What seems to have changed is only the default value of composite_sync
(true/false) in case the monitor is not DDC enabled and thus cannot tell X
what should be used...
Hope that helps.
Nils
--
Nils Holland
Ti Systems - FreeBSD in Tiddische, Germany
http://www.tisys.org * nils@tisys.org
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-ports" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20020120221226.A1456>