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XF86Config

During the installation you'll be helped to write a proper XF86Config by the utility Xconfigurator. I've noticed this utility does not provide a good configuration - this is of course valid only on this machine, not in general. The utility xf86config should be used instead. A few questions will be posed to you. In order to provide the right answers, do not forget that your mouse protocol - touchpad in your case - is PS/2 and that you need to emulate the third button.

The most tricky part is the monitor section: choose

                HorizSync   31.5 - 48.5
The vertical refresh should be customised, type 40-60, so that you'll get in your XF86Config: 
                VertRefresh 40 - 60
After having let xf86config write the new XF86Config file in /etc/X11/, edit XF86Config using any editor, like vi, pico or emacs. Decomment the line 
   #    VideoRam    4096
by removing the hash mark. Somehow this is necessary, theoretically it should not. If you want to remove all modelines that should be automatically ignored, go on editing the same file, removing all modelines whose clock is greater tha 60Hz. You'll be left with these modelines only: 
   # 640x480 @ 60 Hz, 31.5 kHz hsync
        Modeline "640x480"     25.175 640  664  760  800   480  491  493  525
        # 800x600 @ 56 Hz, 35.15 kHz hsync
        ModeLine "800x600"     36     800  824  896 1024   600  601  603  625
        # 800x600 @ 60 Hz, 37.8 kHz hsync
        Modeline "800x600"     40     800  840  968 1056   600  601  605  628 
        +hsync +vsync
        # 1024x768 @ 60 Hz, 48.4 kHz hsync
        Modeline "1024x768"    65    1024 1032 1176 1344   768  771  777  806 
        -hsync -vsync
You'll be able to switch between the different modes pressing the combination .

The default screen depth is 8 bpp, if you want to get a default of 16 or 24 bpp edit the file /etc/X11/xdm/Xservers and add -bpp 16 to the line

   :0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X
in order to have 
   :0 local /usr/X11R6/bin/X -bpp 16

24 bpp seems to work fine, but it will not always: Netscape Navigator will show a black&white tool bar, xanim will not display the animation correctly. these are just a couple of examples, more programs could be malfunctioning. The cause is unknown to me, it could be a bug in the X server.


Alessandro Usseglio Viretta
Wed Feb 4 11:32:27 MET 1998