Linux XFree-to-Xinside mini-HOWTO
How to convert an XFree86 modeline into an XInside/!XiGraphics? one
During the spring of 1996 I've seen a lot of posts in comp.os.linux.x asking how to convert video modes between XFree86 and one of its commercial alternatives: XInside ( now named !XiGraphics?, note anyway that in this document I'll use the old product name, since I will mainly refer to that version )
I had evaluated before the product and had this evaluation version still floating on my hard disk: since I like problem solving, I've decided to give it a try and, after a couple of hours of fiddling and calculating, I came up with a supposedly informative article that was promptly posted.
The discussions about how to convert suddendly vanished and I received 1 (one) mail thanking me for the article so, since maybe somebody else could need this information in the future, I decided to transform that post in the mini-HOWTO you are reading.
Let me state something first: I do NOT work for XInside and I only had access to the evaluation 1.2 version for Linux. I know that nowadays ( May 97 ) AccelX has reached revision 3.1, but I do think that the information included in this document, if not verbatim, is still applicable.
Due to the fact that this HOWTO has been written with the help of a pretty old Xinside version, it may well happen that some of the information contained here is not completely accurate: as you will read later, thanks to the birth of XFree 3.2, I haven't bought this commercial server, so if you have, and if you notice any incorrect information here please take the time to email me.
Notice anyway that fiddling with monitor timings can be hazardous and, for this reason, I absolutely make no guarantees. If it works for you , fine, if you blow up your computer I shall not be held responsible for it.
As you may have noticed from may name, I'm not a native speaker of English so you will probably find some errors here and there, I apologize for them and I ask you to please avoid flooding my mailbox with language-related flames. Thanks !
I think that the Xinside policy of not giving you an utility to tweak your video modes ( like xvidtune ) and/or to import your existing XFree ones in the evaluation ( and AFAIK commercial ) version is incomprehensible. I've spent about three hours putting this together ( hint: I've compared the VESA 1024x768@70Hz entry in the two formats ( and I'm nearly an electronic engineer ;-)) while an Xinside programmer could have written a comparable article in a fraction of this time...
I haven't downloaded any evaluation version from 1.3 onwards and I really hope they have fixed this. Well, if they have, this mini-HOWTO could be considered useless but, alas, if you read it you will learn something more about how everything works...
Let's suppose that you have your oh-so-tweaked XFree86 mode and you want to evaluate Xinside in the same conditions: follow the steps described below and you should be able to do it; we will use my default video mode as a real-life example and I will explain what you will have to do to convert it.
An Xfree86 entry looks like this:
Modeline "blahblah" DOTCLK A B C D a b c d
Every one of the A-D and a-d numbers has a meaning: if you want you can search for it in the 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to X386/XFree86 Video Timing' ( /usr/lib/X11/doc/!VideoModes?.doc ) but you don't need to know the theory behind all this to perform a succesful conversion...
My modeline in /usr/lib/X11/XF86Config is:
Modeline "1168x876" 105 1168 1256 1544 1640 876 877 891 900 | | | | | | | | | DOT_CLK A B C D a b c d
In Xinside, you have to add an entry in the Xtimings file, which should be located in etc/ ( from now on we suppose you are in the top Xaccel directory that should be something like /usr/X11/lib/X11/AcceleratedX )
[PREADJUSTED_TIMING?
= 0.219
Now you have to put this newly created mode in the files shown below in the appropriate place.
In the excerpts shown below the -> sign tells you what was modified: do NOT include it in your files!
Monitor entry ( mine is monitors/mfreq/mfreq64.vda)
[ESTABLISHED_TIMINGS? "640x480 @ 60Hz", "640x480 @ 72Hz", "640x480 @ 75Hz", "800x600 @ 56Hz", "800x600 @ 60Hz", "800x600 @ 72Hz", "800x600 @ 75Hz", "1024x768 Interlaced", "1024x768 @ 60Hz", "1024x768 @ 70Hz", "1024x768 @ 75Hz", "1152x900 Interlaced", "1152x900 @ 60Hz", "1152x900 @ 67Hz",
"1168x876 @ 72Hz",
"1280x1024 Interlaced", "1280x1024 @ 60Hz", "1600x1200 Interlaced";
Board info file ( mine is boards/s3/764-2.xqa , I wonder why they have nearly all the Hercules boards but not MINE: Terminator 64/Dram )
[VISUAL?
BitsRGB = 6;
[RESOLUTIONS? 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768,
1168x876,
1152x900, 1280x1024 [DESKTOPS? 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x900,
1168x876,
1280x1024, 1600x1200
If the dot clock is low enough ( NOT in this case for my board ) you can put the entry even in the 16bpp and 32bpp sec- tions.
The /etc/Xaccel.ini will look something like this
Board = "s3/764-2.xqa"; Monitor = "mfreq/mfreq64.vda"; Depth = 8;
Desktop = 1168x876;
[RESOLUTIONS?
1168x876,
1024x768;
The actual Xinside mode entry in etc/Xtimings
[PREADJUSTED_TIMING?
You can check your conversion by running the vgaset program with no parameters while running the Xinside server: it will output an XFree-like line and, if everything went OK, this line will be equal to the line you started from ( except if b and c are equal, I haven't been able to reproduce this situation in Xinside: the best case was c=b+1 ).
That's all folks ! I hope this will be useful to you. I don't think I'll buy the !XiGraphics? server in the near future for one simple reason: the release of XFree86 3.2 solved all of the text speed problems I was having on my humble Trio 64 video board ;)
It seems anyway that the !XiGraphics? server supports a much wider array of chipsets and video boards than XFree, so it may well happen that the commercial 'alternative' is the only viable one for you. If this is the case, and you bought the !XiGraphics? server, I would really like to hear from you to know if the information presented here has been useful to you, or if you found it too complex or whatever.
This small script automates most of the work. Be very careful with the
and, if you are too lazy to correct them, the risks of blowing up your monitor increase quite a lot.
Notice that I don't know if the 'Doublescan' flag has meaning in XInside: if you try to convert a low-res doublescan mode BE CAREFUL, you can easily kill your monitor since the refresh rate that you get is doubled ( in fact my 400x300@72Hz became a 400x300@144Hz !).
#
#
#
#
#
#
XF=/usr/X11/lib/X11/XF86Config if [ $# -ne 1? ; then echo "usage: ${0##*/} <mode>" echo " example: ${0##*/} 1024x764" echo -e " function: converts $XF modeline entry into\n Xinside Format (stdout)" exit 1 fi egrep -i "^[\t?*modeline.+\"$1\"" /usr/X11/lib/X11/XF86Config | gawk ' NF < 11 { print "! invalid Modeline:\n! " $0 "\n!"; next } { print "//", $0 ":" name = $2 DOT_CLK = $3; A = $4; B = $5; C = $6; D = $7; a = $8; b = $9; c = $10; d = $11;
print "[PREADJUSTED_TIMING?" printf " !PreadjustedTimingName? = \"%dx%d @ %.0dHz\";\n", A, a, !VerFrequency? print " !HorPixel?\t\t= " A ";" print " !VerPixel?\t\t= " a ";" print " !PixelWidthRatio?\t= 4;\n !PixelHeightRatio?\t= 3;" print " !HorFrequency?\t\t= " DOT_CLK / D * 1000 ";\t// kHz" print " !VerFrequency?\t\t= " !VerFrequency? ";\t// Hz" print " !ScanType?\t\t= NONINTERLACED;\t\t// CHECK" print " !HorSyncPolarity?\t= NEGATIVE;\t\t\t// CHECK" print " !VerSyncPolarity?\t= NEGATIVE;\t\t\t// CHECK" print " !CharacterWidth?\t= 8;" print " !PixelClock?\t\t= " DOT_CLK ";"
print " !HorTotalTime?\t\t= " !HorTotalTime? ";" print " !HorAddrTime? \t\t= " A / DOT_CLK ";" print " !HorBlankStart?\t\t= " A / DOT_CLK ";" print " !HorBlankTime?\t\t= " D / DOT_CLK - A / DOT_CLK ";" print " !HorSyncStart?\t\t= " B / DOT_CLK ";" print " !HorSyncTime?\t\t= " C / DOT_CLK - B / DOT_CLK ";"
print " !VerTotalTime?\t\t= " !VerTotalTime? ";" print " !VerAddrTime?\t\t= " ( !HorTotalTime? * a ) / 1000 ";"
print " !VerBlankStart?\t\t= " !VerBlankStart? ";" print " !VerBlankTime?\t\t= " !VerTotalTime? - !VerBlankStart? ";" print " !VerSyncStart?\t\t= " ( !HorTotalTime? * b ) / 1000 ";" print " !VerSyncTime?\t\t= " ( !HorTotalTime? * ( c - b ) ) / 1000 print "" }'
hcz@tazlwurm.bb.bawue.de for pointing out a small inconsistency and for sending me a script that automates most of the work. *
B.Maruszewski@zsmeie.torun.pl for translating this mini HOWTO in Polish and for pointing out a small typo. *
(c)opyright 1996-7 by Marco Melgazzi (marco@techie.com) - the GPL (Gnu Public License) applies. To obtain a copy of the GPL write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Trademarks are owned by their owners. There is no warranty on the accuracy and/or the usefulness of the information given in this document.
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