Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 08:57:10 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman <m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk> To: Thomas Connolly <tconnolly@electrosoftsolutions.com> Cc: "FreeBSD_Questions (E-mail 2)" <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: XFree86 4.2.0 question Message-ID: <20020723075710.GC83374@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophi> In-Reply-To: <71ED4DBF1EA19A45A3765CA9548BE30A212F@server1.electrosoftsolutions.com> References: <71ED4DBF1EA19A45A3765CA9548BE30A212F@server1.electrosoftsolutions.com>
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On Mon, Jul 22, 2002 at 09:36:10PM -0600, Thomas Connolly wrote:
> I'm a Unix and FreeBSD newbie. I just installed 4.2.0 and got it running
> but my resolution is way off. I'm sure this must be a configuration issue.
> Upon installation, I chose an S3 Savage 4 video card and it told me it was
> basically unsupported but the FreeBSD documentation says that it is
> supported using the Savage server. So my question is, is there some way to
> change the server to the Savage server? If so, could someone explain it to
> me like I was 2 years old please?
You can generate an XF86Config file by running:
XFree86 -config
which should pick up the identity of all the devices necessary to run
X. Unfortunately, that's only the theory. Practice may be different.
Whatever, try that command and see what happens --- shut down X before
you try that. It should also be possible for you to use the
xf86cfg(1) to do that step and then customize the resulting
configuration.
Check the XF86Config file you do have and anything you've managed to
generate automatically. There should be a device section:
Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
[...]
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "savage"
[...]
EndSection
If the driver is shown as "vga" then you're running with the lowest
common denominator setting which will work with practically anything
but at low resolution.
Next check the screens section:
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1600x1200" "1920x1440" "1280x1024" "1152x864"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1600x1200" "1920x1440" "1280x1024" "1152x864"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubSection
[...]
EndSection
Note the "modes" lines: those list the different resolutions you might
want to use in order of preference. You can switch between those
different settings using <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<+> or <Ctrl>-<Alt>-<->
Don't just blindly copy the settings I have as the screen resolutions
you will be able to use depend on the amount of video memory available
in your card and the capability of your monitor.
Most cards nowadays have at least 8Mb, which will do TrueColour (24
bit colour) at 1024x768.
Consult your monitor documentation to find out what resolutions and
refresh rates it will support. Two key figures are the Vertical
Refresh rate range (typically something like 50-180Hz) and the
Horizontal Sync rate (typically 30.0-100.0kHz). If you enter those
numbers into the Monitor section of the XF86Config file, X should be
able to work out what modes are supported for itself.
Section "Monitor"
[...]
HorizSync 30.0-96.0
VertRefresh 50-180
[..]
EndSection
You can trace through a lot of what the X server does as it starts up
by looking through the /var/log/XFree86.0.log file
Cheers,
Matthew
--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks
Savill Way
Tel: +44 1628 476614 Marlow
Fax: +44 0870 0522645 Bucks., SL7 1TH UK
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