*BSD News Article 3725


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!mips!mips!sdd.hp.com!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ukma!nntp.msstate.edu!sun1.mcsr.olemiss.edu!cctony
From: cctony@sun1.mcsr.olemiss.edu (Tony Reynolds)
Subject: X386 for 386BSD Dies upon invocation
Message-ID: <1992Aug16.214004.2446@ra.msstate.edu>
Summary: Just that....
Keywords: X386 ET4000 386BSD crashnburn
Sender: news@ra.msstate.edu
Nntp-Posting-Host: sun1.mcsr.olemiss.edu
Organization: Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 1992 21:40:04 GMT
Lines: 37


Having swapped my 1MB Trident VGA card for a 1MB ET4000-based card, I
finally have a supported hardware configuratiuon for X386. I ran the
clock.exe program under DOS and retrieved the values of the clocks
the VGA card supports, and crammed that info into my Xconfig.  I have
a Microsoft Serial Mouse, too, so I put that in my Xconfig.  I set the
screen mode in my Xconfig to be 640x480, cause it can use the first clock
available, just in case clock.exe missed a 0-value oscillator.

Whenever I run "startx," or "xinit," the following things happen to me
in this sequence.

It seems to start...
The screen switches video modes and the left-over data is displayed in
  graphics mode.
The screen completely goes black.
Then, I get text mode back, except my cursor is in the lower-left
  portion of the screen, and never moves from there, despite the fact
  that typed characters still appear in the correct place on the screen
  (i.e. vi still works, but without a usable cursor.
If I run X from sh(1), I get an error about not being able to set
  the process group id.  If I run from csh(1), job control is turned
  off (maybe for the same reason).
I then have to shut down to get the machine to behave normally.

All this happens with EITHER: The distribution on nova.cc.purdue.edu,
or the whole X11R5 recompiled from the patches and diffs provided
by Mr. Hasty and Mr. Murphy.  I don't have enough of a clue to fix this one:
Many people gave me clues about my swap space problem and the various
kernel bugs, and I hope someone here can do the same.

I will provide my XConfig by email to anyone who requests it.

Thanks a pile,
-- 
Tony Reynolds            Have you hugged      cctony@sun1.mcsr.olemiss.edu
Cray Network Intern    your Washburn today?                  (601)232-7206