Date: Tue, 08 Nov 2011 02:13:09 +0100 From: Samuel Magnusson <samuel.magnusson5@bredband.net> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: X server and xinit works excellent....almost. Message-ID: <4EB88225.9020702@bredband.net>
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Hi everyone! I'm quite new to BSD and installed it on my old Pentium to try to learn the unixverse from bottom up. My first aim is not just getting the system running for surfing the web or something, not even to be productive, but to understand why and how it runs. (Or else, why it runs not?:) And that, of course, brings me here to write my first query. This (foolish?) wish to understand may also explain why I bother to be curious about something that may be of little, if any, practical concern since my X server display runs well with twm and awesome so far... except for some minor anomalies. My antique system is: Pentium 4, Geforce 2 MM/MX, with (not so antique) FreeBSD-8,2-Release, Xorg - fresh update from ports a couple of days ago (latest version of todays but don't remember the version nr) (...Eh..yes that means that my Pentium is sleeping for the moment and I'm writing this from my laptop with, ehm.. Window...something.) Now the 4 different reasons for my unhappiness: 1. I canīt zap the server with Ctrl-Alt-Backspace. Nothing at all happens. I have checked that it isn't disabled in xorg.conf, and even tried to put in the reverse boolean value there. Not that I couldn't live without zapping, but...when I know about it that it should be there and it is taken fom me I feel an URGE to get the zap! 2. Not surprisingly I was also unable to use the Ctrl-Alt-Keypad+/- for zooming between the different resolution modes. But then I remembered that I had changed configuration from vesa driver to nouveau (with some patch that I downloaded according to instructions in ports). When I switched back to vesa it worked! Still no zapping though, and no higher resolution than 1024x768. I therefore would like to get it to work with the nouveau also. (And to Zap them both! ;) Or are there other ways, using alternative drivers perhaps? (beside upgrading graphics card...) 3. When I started the X server manually, and just giving the vtXX option (without starting any client) the system went black and didn't respond. I couldn't zap it (as you know), but I couldn't even resort to the console with Ctrl-Alt-F1 (or any Fn) which otherwise works normally. I had to resort to hardware reset and boot from single user mode. This problem is not present if I just start the server with X :0 and let it choose the tty by itself. Then it works fine to go Ctrl-Alt-F1 and start xterm -display:0 with full functionality. Experimenting with this I discovered that if I started the first way, with option vtXX and the system went black, I actually still could reach the server from my laptop and ssh-login, and start xterm from there. Well in xterm I could just type exit and the X server went down smoothely. 4. Also xinit behaves strangely on my system. It works perfectly with my .xinitrc-script, so that is not the problem. But when I wanted to just start an xterm without a window manager, like "xinit xterm [options]" it should, according to the book, ignore .xinitrc and go for the options given to it. But it doesn't!! Instead it ignores my wish for a naked xterm (I'm pervert, I know..) and starts up twm in all it's glory as if reading .xinitrc was a craving it couldn't resist (like mine for zap). I had to change the name of .xinitrc so it couldn't find the beauty for it to obey. Then it gave me my xterm. But still no good, because it also tries to start it's own default xterm in the upper left corner. And that one xterm behaves sickly, the cursor is just flimmering and if I type in something it immediately disappears, as if someone was leaning on the backspace. The other xterm (the one that I asked for) has no prompt and while I can write things in there and press return, xterm behaves like it was a text editor simply moving the cursor to next line as if it didn't just receive a command. There is one command though that it responds to, and that is: exit. It wants to go home. This is a funny problem. I guess it is not important, because when used for what it is mostly supposed to do - reading .xinitrc - the program works excellently. But still... I guess 1-2 could be a problem with drivers, 3-4 with X and xinit, but what do I know? Help is very much appreciated! (Well, I guess I don't NEED your help as in *URGENT* and needing food, or even as in needing a screwdriver, because when I get the zap and zoom and naked xinitiated xterm and the tty of my choice, I plan to never or very seldom use them. But I sure WANT your help. And maybe there is some hidden functionality here that is lacking and will show itself a problem later on when trying heavier wms and desktops) I wish you a nice day! /Samuel
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