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Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.questions:13424 comp.windows.x.i386unix:12156 alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000:6052 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!swrinde!howland.reston.ans.net!vixen.cso.uiuc.edu!news.eecs.uic.edu!not-for-mail From: jscholvi@ernie.eecs.uic.edu (John Scholvin) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.windows.x.i386unix,alt.sys.pc-clone.gateway2000 Subject: Need some help configuring XFree86 2.1.1 under FreeBSD 1.1.5.1 Followup-To: comp.os.386bsd.questions Date: 27 Sep 1994 16:30:28 -0500 Organization: University of Illinois at Chicago Lines: 56 Message-ID: <36a2tk$71r@ernie.eecs.uic.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: ernie.eecs.uic.edu Sorry for the unusual crosspost, but I'm not sure whom to speak to. Hopefully someone out there can help. So far, I've got FreeBSD 1.1.5.1 running nicely on my Gateway 2000 VESA local bus 486dx2. My extremely limited documentation says my video card is a "Gateway Rocket" card, which I've determined to be based on a Western Digital WD90C33 chip. It has 1024k of VRAM. My monitor is a CrystalScan 1572FS. I pulled XFree86 version 2.1.1 from XFree86.cdrom.com and installed according to the instructions provided. No problems. The trouble: simply, I can't get X working. I tried the ConfigXF86 utility, but the "Gateway Rocket" is not a supported video card, and the MakeCard utility provided is buggy. [MakeCard hackers: for some reason the probe fails, and none of the values in the template are filled in, leaving me to essentially configure the whole damned thing manually anyhow.] I figured out the Clocks line using -probeonly, I'm using the vga256 driver, and the modeDB entries are from the ConfigXF86 entry for my monitor. When I run X, I get usually a black screen, sometimes I get vertical white lines. The system is hung, and I gave to cold boot. Oddly, sometimes when I reboot, the keyboard doesn't work. Some specific questions: 1. Should I be using the wd90c30 or wd90c31 Chipset in Xconfig? Or neither? Is the wd90c33 totally unsupported? Do I need a new card? 1a. If I can't use either of the supported Chipset options, is there a way I can make my chipset emulate a supported one? 2. Can someone explain briefly the relation between xinit, xdm, X, and startx? Am I just launching this stuff the wrong way? 3. Does anyone out there (gw2k in particular) have a *detailed* technical reference for this video card? The documentation I have has few specs, and concentrates on things like AutoCAD driver installation. Gateway's BBS is utterly disorganized. The best I could find there was an ASCII drawing of the card itself! 4. Is there a better place to go for information about this stuff? A different newsgroup or a book I can get? Any help would be deeply, deeply appreciated. I'm really falling behind this semester trying to get this stabilized, and I'll soon have to abandon FreeBSD altogether if I can't get X working here. Ideally, someone with this card could send me their Xconfig file. I'd love to have a better understanding of how all this works, but right now I *really* have to just get it working. Thanks! -- John Scholvin | "Help--I've fallen into a depression in jscholvi@eecs.uic.edu | the space-time continuum and I can't get | up!" -- K. Gleason