Use PC-BSD xorg.conf IN FreeBSD

ligregni

ligregni

Hi everyone!, here is the deal.

I am a PC-BSD user / FreeBSD not_too_dedicated user, and I have PC-BSD installed on my notebook, it works ok and ...

BUT!, I have other PC, an old one, really old can I say, it has 256 MB RAM and an Intel Celeron 1.8 2.0 Ghz, I can use FreeBSD there, I have installed, all ok, I am now in a Command Line Interface, I am ok with this, but I need to know how graphics work (because maybe I try FreeBSD on my notebook to chage KDE, I wanna try something else), the problem I have is this:

I make my own xorg.conf file using the xorgconfig tool, I have NO IDEA about my monitor sets, about the Horizontal Refreshing Rate and that stuff, so I choose default or what I think values in the Configuration Process. And I have this results (by the way, I checked my BIOS, there are 32 MB of shared video memory):

- If I choose 1 or 4 bit colour depth, I have the Xterm and those windows (I mean, 3 windows, one is a terminal, the other, a shorter termina, and a little clock, BUT when I wanna start the XFce4 WM, it crashes (I think the WM needs more depth).

- If I choose 8 bit colour depth, I have the Xterm, but, I can only see the lower half of the screen... And I just by casuality started the XFce4 (with startxfce4, not too hard :P)... and I HAVE the XFce4 WM WORKING!!!, I see a menu with options and that... but, as you can see, I have only half screen, so, there are no too many posibilities to work... :(.

- If I choose 16 bit or higher colour depth, I can't start X server because there is an error:

The driver does not support XX bit colour depth.

THE ANSWER here might be: com'on!!!, knwo your monitor!!!, disassembly it and read some sticks!, find on Internet the specs! (this would be probably the same answer I will give if I were in your shoes).

BUT!!!, I installes PC-BSD in the same system, and without ANY troble, I got the X11 Server and even KDE Worknig..., I have copied the PC-BSD~/etc/X11/xorg.conf to FreeBSD~/etc/X11/ and I have nothing (The error when starting X is : The driver does not support 16bit depth), I also checked both files at the same time (my FreeBSD's xorg.conf made by xorgconfig against my PC-BSD's xorg.conf made by the own OS, and the only difference is the colour depth (but I change that)).

HOW TO USE PC-BSD TO CLON THE SETTINGS TO A FREEBSD MACHINE (without knowing the monitor specs)???

Thanks for reading, any help will be appreciated.

Sergio Ligregni
 
Set it to use 24 bit depth (has nothing to do with your monitor btw).
 
What graphics card does the machine have? Since it's a shared card I would guess an Intel 740 but it can be another type. For this one you need to install the package xf86-video-i740 and add: driver "i740" to the section "device"of your xorg.conf
Recommended Monitor refresh rates are also useful but not neccesary.
 
You can use default
Code: 
Xorg -configure
Xorg -config xorg.conf.new
exit from testing config by Ctrl+Alt+Backspace

if you have LCD monitor (maybe with CRT it works too, i don't know), you may comment horizontal and vertical refresh rates - they would be read directly from monitor during xorg init

you'd probably need only "Device" section from PC-BSD-xorg.conf added to new generated-FreeBSD-xorg.conf.new
Code: 
Section "Device"
        ...
        Identifier  " "
        [b]Driver   " "[/b]
        BusID       " "
        ...
EndSection

you may toggle supported vieo modes by perssing Ctrl+Alt+"+" and Ctrl+Alt+"-"

also look at
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html
and
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html
use "links" or "lynx" browser to look at handbook in console, you may add these packages using "sysinstall"
 
you'll probably need only "Device" (maybe only "Driver" string) section from pc-bsd xorg.conf
add it to standart-generated xorg.conf
Code: 
Xorg -configure
Xorg -config xorg.conf.new

exit by Ctrl+Alt+Backspace

i've got LCD monitor, so i commented horizontal and vertical frequencies (to use DPMS), so they are read by driver directly from monitor

toggle supported video modes by "Ctrl"+"Alt"+"+" and "Ctrl"+"Alt"+"-"

also look at
http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html
and
/usr/share/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html
without running X you can use console browsers such as "links" or "Lynx", you may add them using "sysinstall"

after that keep playing with "Screen" section to select default monitor mode
 
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