XFree86(1) manual page
Table of Contents
XFree86 - X11R6 for UNIX on x86 platforms
XFree86 is a collection
of X servers for UNIX-like OSs on Intel x86 platforms. This work is derived
from X386 1.2 which was contributed to X11R5 by Snitily Graphics Consulting
Service.
XFree86 operates under the following operating systems:
-- SVR3.2: SCO 3.2.2, 3.2.4, ISC 3.x, 4.x
-- SVR4.0: ESIX, Microport, Dell, UHC, Consensys, MST, ISC, AT&T, NCR
-- SVR4.2: Consensys, Univel (UnixWare)
-- Solaris (x86) 2.1, 2.4
-- FreeBSD 1.1.5, 2.0, 2.0.5, NetBSD 1.0 (i386 port only)
-- BSD/386 version 1.1 and BSD/OS 2.0
-- Mach (from CMU)
-- Linux
-- Amoeba version 5.1
-- Minix-386vm version 1.6.25.1
-- LynxOS AT versions 2.2.1, 2.3.0 and 2.4.0, LynxOS microSPARC 2.4.0
XFree86
supports connections made using the following reliable byte-streams:
- Local
- XFree86 supports local connections via Streams pipe via various mechanisms,
using the following paths (n represents the display number):
/dev/X/server.n (SVR3 and SVR4)
/dev/X/Nserver.n (SVR4)
/dev/XnS and /dev/XnR (SCO SVR3)
On SVR4.0.4, if the Advanced Compatibility Package is installed, and in
SVR4.2, XFree86 supports local connections from clients for SCO XSight/ODT,
and (with modifications to the binary) clients for ISC SVR3.
- Unix Domain
- XFree86 uses /tmp/.X11-unix/Xn as the filename for the socket, where n is
the display number.
- TCP/IP
- XFree86 listens on port htons(6000+n), where
n is the display number.
- Amoeba RPC
- This is the default communication medium
used under native Amoeba. Note that under Amoeba, the server should be started
with a ‘‘hostname:displaynumber’’ argument.
For operating
systems that support local connections other than Unix Domain sockets (SVR3
and SVR4), there is a compiled-in list specifying the order in which local
connections should be attempted. This list can be overridden by the XLOCAL
environment variable described below. If the display name indicates a
best-choice connection should be made (e.g. :0.0), each connection mechanism
is tried until a connection succeeds or no more mechanisms are available.
Note: for these OSs, the Unix Domain socket connection is treated differently
from the other local connection types. To use it the connection must be
made to unix:0.0.
The XLOCAL environment variable should contain a list of
one more more of the following:
NAMED
PTS
SCO
ISC
which represent SVR4 Named Streams pipe, Old-style USL Streams pipe, SCO
XSight Streams pipe, and ISC Streams pipe, respectively. You can select
a single mechanism (e.g. XLOCAL=NAMED), or an ordered list (e.g. XLOCAL="NAMED:PTS:SCO").
This variable overrides the compiled-in defaults. For SVR4 it is recommended
that NAMED be the first preference connection. The default setting is PTS:NAMED:ISC:SCO.
To globally override the compiled-in defaults, you should define (and export
if using sh or ksh) XLOCAL globally. If you use startx/xinit, the definition
should be at the top of your .xinitrc file. If you use xdm, the definitions
should be early on in the <XRoot>/lib/X11/xdm/Xsession script.
In addition
to the normal server options described in the Xserver(1)
manual page, XFree86
accepts the following command line switches:
- vtXX
- XX specifies the Virtual
Terminal device number which XFree86 will use. Without this option, XFree86
will pick the first available Virtual Terminal that it can locate. This
option applies only to SVR3, SVR4, Linux, and BSD OSs with the ‘syscons’
or ‘pcvt’ driver.
- -crt /dev/ttyXX
- SCO only. This is the same as the vt option,
and is provided for compatibility with the native SCO X server.
- -probeonly
- Causes the server to exit after the device probing stage. The XF86Config
file is still used when this option is given, so information that can be
auto-detected should be commented out.
- -quiet
- Suppress most informational
messages at startup.
- -bpp n
- Set number of bits per pixel. The default is
8. Legal values are 8, 15, 16, 24, 32. Not all servers support all values.
- -weight nnn
- Set RGB weighting at 16 bpp. The default is 565. This applies
only to those servers which support 16 bpp.
- -flipPixels
- Swap the default
values for the black and white pixels.
- -disableVidMode
- Disable the the parts
of the VidMode extension used by the xvidtune client that can be used to
change the video modes.
- -allowNonLocalXvidtune
- Allow the xvidtune client
to connect from another host. By default non-local connections are not allowed.
- -gamma value
- Set the gamma correction. value must be between 0.1 and 10.
The default is 1.0 This value is applied equally to the R, G and B values.
Not all servers support this.
- -rgamma value
- Set the red gamma correction.
value must be between 0.1 and 10. The default is 1.0 Not all servers support
this.
- -ggamma value
- Set the green gamma correction. value must be between
0.1 and 10. The default is 1.0 Not all servers support this.
- -bgamma value
- Set the blue gamma correction. value must be between 0.1 and 10. The default
is 1.0 Not all servers support this.
- -showconfig
- Print out the server version,
patchlevel, and a list of screen drivers configured in the server.
- -verbose
- Multiple occurrences of this flag increase the amount of information printed
on stderr (more than the default).
- -version
- Same as -showconfig.
- -xf86config
file
- Read the server configuration from file. This option is only available
when the server is run as root (i.e, with real-uid 0).
- -keeptty
- Prevent the
server from detaching its initial controlling terminal. This option is
only useful when debugging the server.
Multiple key presses recognized
directly by XFree86 are:
- Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
- Immediately kills the server
-- no questions asked. (Can be disabled by specifying "DontZap" in the ServerFlags
section of the XF86Config file.)
- Ctrl+Alt+Keypad-Plus
- Change video mode to
next one specified in the configuration file, (increasing video resolution
order).
- Ctrl+Alt+Keypad-Minus
- Change video mode to previous one specified
in the configuration file, (decreasing video resolution order).
- Ctrl+Alt+F1...F12
- For BSD systems using the syscons driver and Linux, these keystroke combinations
are used to switch to Virtual Console 1 through 12.
XFree86 uses a
configuration file called XF86Config for its initial setup. Refer to the
XF86Config(4/5) manual page for more information.
- <XRoot>/bin/XF86_SVGA
- The color SVGA X server
- <XRoot>/bin/XF86_Mono
- The monochrome X server for
VGA and other mono cards
- <XRoot>/bin/XF86_S3
- The accelerated S3 X server
- <XRoot>/bin/XF86_Mach8
- The accelerated Mach8 X server
- <XRoot>/bin/XF86_Mach32
- The accelerated Mach32 X server
- <XRoot>/bin/XF86_Mach64
- The accelerated Mach64
X server
- <XRoot>/bin/XF86_P9000
- The accelerated P9000 X server
- <XRoot>/bin/XF86_AGX
- The accelerated AGX X server
- <XRoot>/bin/XF86_W32
- The accelerated ET4000/W32
and ET6000 X server
- <XRoot>/bin/XF86_8514
- The accelerated 8514/A X server
- /etc/XF86Config
- Server configuration file
- <XRoot>/lib/X11/XF86Config.hostname
- Server configuration file
- <XRoot>/lib/X11/XF86Config
- Server configuration
file
- <XRoot>/bin/*
- Client binaries
- <XRoot>/include/*
- Header files
- <XRoot>/lib/*
- Libraries
- <XRoot>/lib/X11/fonts/*
- Fonts
- <XRoot>/lib/X11/rgb.txt
- Color names
to RGB mapping
- <XRoot>/lib/X11/XErrorDB
- Client error message database
- <XRoot>/lib/X11/app-defaults/*
- Client resource specifications
- <XRoot>/man/man?/*
- Manual pages
- /etc/Xn.hosts
- Initial access control list for display n
Note: <XRoot> refers to the root
of the X11 install tree.
X(1)
, Xserver(1)
, xdm(1)
, xinit(1)
, XF86Config(4/5),
xf86config(1)
, XF86_SVGA(1)
, XF86_VGA16(1)
, XF86_Mono(1)
, XF86_Accel(1)
,
xvidtune(1)
For X11R5, XF86 1.2 was provided by:
- Thomas Roell,
roell@informatik.tu-muenchen.de
- TU-Muenchen: Server and SVR4 stuff
- Mark
W. Snitily, mark@sgcs.com
- SGCS: SVR3 support, X Consortium Sponsor
... and
many more people out there on the net who helped with ideas and
bug-fixes.
XFree86 was integrated into X11R6 by the following team:
Stuart Anderson anderson@metrolink.com
Doug Anson danson@lgc.com
Gertjan Akkerman akkerman@dutiba.twi.tudelft.nl
Mike Bernson mike@mbsun.mlb.org
Robin Cutshaw robin@XFree86.org
David Dawes dawes@XFree86.org
Marc Evans marc@XFree86.org
Pascal Haible haible@izfm.uni-stuttgart.de
Matthieu Herrb Matthieu.Herrb@laas.fr
Dirk Hohndel hohndel@XFree86.org
David Holland davidh@use.com
Alan Hourihane alanh@fairlite.demon.co.uk
Jeffrey Hsu hsu@soda.berkeley.edu
Glenn Lai glenn@cs.utexas.edu
Ted Lemon mellon@ncd.com
Rich Murphey rich@XFree86.org
Hans Nasten nasten@everyware.se
Mark Snitily mark@sgcs.com
Randy Terbush randyt@cse.unl.edu
Jon Tombs tombs@XFree86.org
Kees Verstoep versto@cs.vu.nl
Paul Vixie paul@vix.com
Mark Weaver Mark_Weaver@brown.edu
David Wexelblat dwex@XFree86.org
Philip Wheatley Philip.Wheatley@ColumbiaSC.NCR.COM
Thomas Wolfram wolf@prz.tu-berlin.de
Orest Zborowski orestz@eskimo.com
The XFree86 enhancement package was provided by:
- David Dawes, dawes@XFree86.org
- Release coordination, administration of FTP repository and mailing lists.
Source tree management and integration, accelerated server integration,
fixing, and coding.
- Glenn Lai, glenn@cs.utexas.edu
- The SpeedUp code
for ET4000 based SVGA cards, and ET4000/W32 accelerated server.
- Jim Tsillas,
jtsilla@ccs.neu.edu
- Many server speedups from the fX386 series of enhancements.
- David Wexelblat, dwex@XFree86.org
- Integration of the fX386 code into the
default server, many driver fixes, and driver documentation, assembly
of the VGA card/monitor database, development of the generic video mode
listing. Accelerated server integration, fixing, and coding.
- Dirk Hohndel,
hohndel@XFree86.org
- Linux shared libraries and release coordination.
Accelerated server integration and fixing. Generic administrivia and documentation.
- Amancio Hasty Jr., hasty@netcom.com
- Porting to 386BSD version 0.1 and XS3
development.
- Rich Murphey, rich@XFree86.org
- Ported to 386BSD version
0.1 based on the original port by Pace Willison. Support for 386BSD, FreeBSD,
and NetBSD.
- Robert Baron, Robert.Baron@ernst.mach.cs.cmu.edu
- Ported to Mach.
- Orest Zborowski, orestz@eskimo.com
- Ported to Linux.
- Doug Anson,
danson@lgc.com
- Ported to Solaris x86.
- David Holland, davidh@use.com
- Ported
to Solaris x86.
- David McCullough, davidm@stallion.oz.au
- Ported to SCO SVR3.
- Michael Rohleder, michael.rohleder@stadt-frankfurt.de
- Ported to ISC SVR3.
- Kees Verstoep, versto@cs.vu.nl
- Ported to Amoeba based on Leendert van
Doorn’s original Amoeba port of X11R5.
- Marc Evans, Marc@XFree86.org
- Ported to OSF/1.
- Philip Homburg, philip@cs.vu.nl
- Ported to Minix-386vm.
- Thomas
Mueller, tm@systrix.de
- Ported to LynxOS.
- Jon Tombs, tombs@XFree86.org
- S3 server and accelerated server coordination.
- Harald Koenig, koenig@tat.physik.uni-tuebingen.de
- S3 server development.
- Bernhard Bender, br@elsa.mhs.compuserve.com
- S3 server
development.
- Kevin Martin, martin@cs.unc.edu
- Overall work on the base
accelerated servers (ATI and 8514/A), and Mach64 server.
- Rik Faith,
faith@cs.unc.edu
- Overall work on the base accelerated servers (ATI and
8514/A).
- Tiago Gons, tiago@comosjn.hobby.nl
- Mach8 and 8514/A server
development
- Hans Nasten, nasten@everyware.se
- Mach8, 8514/A, and S3
server development and BSD/386 support
- Mike Bernson, mike@mbsun.mlb.org
- Mach32 server development.
- Mark Weaver, Mark_Weaver@brown.edu
- Mach32
server development.
- Craig Groeschel, craig@metrolink.com
- Mach32 server
development.
- Henry Worth, Henry.Worth@amail.amdahl.com
- AGX server.
- Erik
Nygren, nygren@mit.edu
- P9000 server.
- Harry Langenbacher harry@brain.jpl.nasa.gov
- P9000 server.
- Chris Mason, mason@mail.csh.rit.edu
- P9000 server.
- Henrik
Harmsen harmsen@eritel.se
- P9000 server.
- Simon Cooper, scooper@vizlab.rutgers.edu
- Cirrus accelerated code (based on work by Bill Reynolds).
- Harm Hanemaayer,
hhanemaa@cs.ruu.nl
- Cirrus accelerated code, and ARK driver.
- Thomas Zerucha,
zerucha@shell.portal.com
- Support for Cirrus CL-GD7543.
- Leon Bottou,
bottou@laforia.ibp.fr
- ARK driver.
- Mike Tierney, floyd@eng.umd.edu
- WD
accelerated code.
- Bill Conn, conn@bnr.ca
- WD accelerated code.
- Brad
Bosch, brad@lachman.com
- WD 90C24A support.
- Alan Hourihane, alanh@fairlite.demon.co.uk
- Trident SVGA driver, SiS SVGA driver and DEC 21030 server.
- Marc La France,
Marc.La-France@ualberta.ca
- ATI vgawonder SVGA driver
- Steve Goldman,
sgoldman@encore.com
- Oak 067/077 SVGA driver.
- Jorge Delgado, ernar@dit.upm.es
- Oak SVGA driver, and 087 accelerated code.
- Bill Conn, conn@bnr.ca
- WD accelerated code.
- Paolo Severini, lendl@dist.dist.unige.it
- AL2101 SVGA
driver
- Ching-Tai Chiu, cchiu@netcom.com
- Avance Logic ALI SVGA driver
- Manfred
Brands, mb@oceonics.nl
- Cirrus 64xx SVGA driver
- Randy Hendry, randy@sgi.com
- Cirrus 6440 support in the cl64xx SVGA driver
- Frank Dikker, dikker@cs.utwente.nl
- MX SVGA driver
- Regis Cridlig, cridlig@dmi.ens.fr
- Chips & Technologies
driver
- Jon Block, block@frc.com
- Chips & Technologies driver
- Mike
Hollick, hollick@graphics.cis.upenn.edu
- Chips & Technologies driver
- Nozomi
Ytow
- Chips & Technologies driver
- Egbert Eich, Egbert.Eich@Physik.TH-Darmstadt.DE
- Chips & Technologies driver
- David Bateman, dbateman@ee.uts.edu.au
- Chips
& Technologies driver
- Xavier Ducoin, xavier@rd.lectra.fr
- Chips & Technologies
driver
- Peter Trattler, peter@sbox.tu-graz.ac.at
- RealTek SVGA driver
- Craig
Struble, cstruble@acm.vt.edu
- Video7 SVGA driver
- Gertjan Akkerman, akkerman@dutiba.twi.tudelft.nl
- 16 colour VGA server, and XF86Config parser.
- Davor Matic, dmatic@Athena.MIT.EDU
- Hercules driver.
- Pascal Haible, haible@izfm.uni-stuttgart.de
- Banked monochrome
VGA support, Hercules support, and mono frame buffer support for dumb monochrome
devices
... and many more people out there on the net who helped with beta-testing
this enhancement.
XFree86 source is available from the FTP server ftp.XFree86.org,
among others. Send email to XFree86@XFree86.org for details.
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