                     README for XFree86 4.3.0 on NetBSD

Rich  Murphey, David Dawes, Marc  Wandschneider, Mark  Weaver, Matthieu Herrb

                      Last modified on: 9 November 2002

1.  What and Where is XFree86?

XFree86 is an Open Source version of the X Window System that supports sev-
eral UNIX(R) and UNIX-like operating systems (such as Linux, the BSDs and
Solaris x86) on Intel and other platforms.  This version is compatible with
X11R6.6.

See the Copyright Notice.

The sources for XFree86 are available by anonymous ftp from:

ftp://ftp.XFree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.3.0

Binaries for NetBSD 1.5 and later are available from:
ftp://ftp.XFree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.3.0/binaries/NetBSD

A list of mirror sites is provided by http://www.xfree86.org/MIRRORS.shtml

XFree86 also builds on other NetBSD architectures. See section Building on
other architectures (section 8.4, page 1) for details.

XFree86 also supports NetBSD on PC98 machines.

2.  Bug Reports for This Document

Send email to <herrb@XFree86.Org> (Matthieu Herrb) or <XFree86@XFree86.org>
if you have comments or suggestions about this file and we'll revise it.

3.  New OS dependent features

See the Release Notes for non-OS dependent new features in XFree86 4.3.0.

3.1  New OS dependent features in 4.2.0

   o Support of client side on NetBSD/sparc64

   o Support for in-kernel MTRR and AGP support in NetBSD 1.5Y

3.2  New OS dependent features in 4.1.0

   o Enable wide characters support in NetBSD 1.5P and later.

3.3  New OS dependent features in 4.0.2

   o A fix for libXmu OS detection which was broken since unix isn't defined
     anymore by the C preprocessor.

   o (limited) native wscons support. This is not activated by default.

   o Updates to the aperture driver

   o Support for multithread libraries with GNU pth

   o Add /usr/pkg/bin to the default user path.

3.4  New OS dependent features in 4.0.1

   o Support for NetBSD 1.5_ALPHA

   o The Xsun server can be built on NetBSD/sparc

3.5  New OS dependent features in 4.0

   o Preliminary APM support.

3.6  New OS dependent features in 3.9.18

   o Soft-booting secondary cards through the int10 BIOS interface is now
     possible using the x86emu real mode emulator.

3.7  New OS dependent features in 3.9.17

   o Support for silken mouse with the wsmouse protocol has been added.

   o A new version of the XFree86 Aperture driver which provides MTRR support
     is included.

4.  Installing the Binaries

Refer to the Installation Document for detailed installation instructions.

5.  Configuring X for Your Hardware

The /etc/X11/XF86Config file tells the X server what kind of monitor, video
card and mouse you have.  You must create it to tell the server what specific
hardware you have.

You'll need info on your hardware:

   o Your mouse type, baud rate and its /dev entry.

   o The video card's chipset (e.g. ET4000, S3, etc).

   o Your monitor's sync frequencies.

The recommended way to generate an XF86Config file is to use the xf86cfg
utility.  The xf86config text utility is still there for the (few) cases
where xf86cfg can't be used. Also, there is a sample file installed as
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.eg, which can be used as a starting point.

For details about the XF86Config file format, refer to the XF86Config(5) man-
ual page.

Once you've set up a XF86Config file, you can fine tune the video modes with
the xvidtune utility.

5.1  About mouse configuration

XFree86 4.3.0 has support for the mouse driver included in the wscons console
driver introduced by NetBSD 1.4. Specify ``wsmouse'' as the protocol and
``/dev/wsmouse0'' as the device in /etc/X11/XF86Config if you're using NetBSD
1.4 or later with a PS/2 mouse.

For older releases, the NetBSD pms mouse driver handles PS/2 style mice as
Busmouse. Specify the protocol as ``busmouse'' in the mouse section of your
XF86Config file if you're using a PS/2 mouse with NetBSD 1.3 or former
releases.

Only standard PS/2 mice are supported by this driver. Newest PS/2 mice that
send more than three bytes at a time (especially Intellimouse, or MouseMan+
with a wheel) are not supported by NetBSD 1.3 and former releases.

See README.mouse  for general instruction on mouse configuration in XFree86.

6.  Running X

The easiest way for new users to start X windows is to type:

     startx >& startx.log

Error messages are lost unless you redirect them because the server takes
over the screen.

To get out of X windows, type: ``exit'' in the console xterm.  You can cus-
tomize your X by creating .xinitrc, .xserverrc, and .twmrc files in your home
directory as described in the xinit and startx man pages.

6.1  Starting Xdm, the display manager

To start the display manager, log in as root on the console and type: ``xdm
-nodaemon''.

You can start xdm automatically on bootup by changing the line

     xdm=NO              xdm_flags=""            # x11 display manager

to:

     xdm=YES             xdm_flags=""            # x11 display manager

in /etc/rc.conf.

Under NetBSD 1.4 and later with the wscons console driver, you must enable a
virtual console for the X server first. To do this follow these steps:

   o Make sure the device file exists. If not, ``cd /dev ; ./MAKEDEV
     wscons''.

   o Next, make sure your kernel wants to do wscons. (see below (section 7.1,
     page 1)).

   o Next, make sure ``wscons=YES'' in /etc/rc.conf.

   o Next, make sure /etc/wscons.conf exists. The relevant bits:

          #screen   0    -    vt100
          screen    1    -    vt100
          screen    2    -    vt100
          screen    3    -    vt100
          screen    4    -    -
          screen    5    -    vt100

(Thanks to Mason Loring Bliss <mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us> for this
explanation)

Note that the binary distributions of XFree86 for NetBSD don't include sup-
port for the XDM-AUTHORIZATION-1 protocol.

7.  Kernel Support for X

To make sure X support is enabled under NetBSD, the following line must be in
your config file in /sys/arch/i386/conf:

     options XSERVER, UCONSOLE

7.1  Console drivers

The server supports the standard NetBSD/i386 console drivers: pccons, pcvt
and wscons (in pcvt compatibility mode). They are detected at runtime and no
configuration of the server itself is required.

The pccons driver is the most widely tested and is the console driver con-
tained in the NetBSD binary distribution's kernels.

The pcvt console driver was bundled with NetBSD until 1.4. The pcvt X mode is
compatible with the pccons driver X mode. It offers several virtual consoles
and international keyboard support. In order to use this driver, change the
line:

     device          pc0     at isa? port "IO_KBD" irq 1

to

     device         vt0     at isa? port "IO_KBD" irq 1

in your kernel config file, and rebuild and install your kernel.

Wscons is the current console driver, included in NetBSD 1.4 and later. For
now, XFree86 supports wscons using the pcvt compatibility mode, so be sure to
have the lines:

     options         WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_PCVT           # emulate some ioctls
     options         WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_SYSCONS        # emulate some ioctls
     options         WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_USL         # VT handling
     options         WSDISPLAY_COMPAT_RAWKBD         # can get raw scancodes

in your kernel configuration file if you're using wscons. Refer to the
wscons(4) and wsmouse(4) manual pages for informations on how to configure
wscons into the kernel.

7.2  Aperture Driver

By default NetBSD include the BSD 4.4 kernel security feature that disable
access to the /dev/mem device when in multi-users mode. But XFree86 servers
can take advantage (or require) linear access to the display memory.

Most XFree86 4.3.0 card drivers require linear memory access.  There are two
ways to allow XFree86 to access linear memory:

The first way is to disable the kernel security feature by adding ``option
INSECURE'' in the kernel configuration file and build a new kernel.

The second way is to install the aperture driver, included in source form in
xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/etc/apNetBSD.shar in the XFree86 4.3.0 source
distribution. Unpack it in a new directory of your choice by running:

       sh apNetBSD.shar

By default the aperture driver will be installed in /usr/local/aperture. You
can change this default directory by editing Makefile.inc before building it.

Then run ``make build'' as root to install it. To enable it, add the follow-
ing line to  /etc/lkm.conf:

     /usr/local/aperture/lkm/xf86.o  -  - /usr/local/aperture/lkm/xf86_mod_install - -

and set ``lkm=YES'' in /etc/rc.conf

Reboot your system. XFree86 will auto-detect the aperture driver if avail-
able.

Warning 1: if you boot another kernel than /netbsd, loadable kernel modules
can crash your system. Always boot in single user mode when you want to run
another kernel.

Warning 2: the  aperture driver only allows one access at a time (so that the
system is in the same security state once X is launched). This means that if
you run multiple servers on multiples VT, only the first one will have linear
memory access.  Use ``option INSECURE'' if you need more that one X server at
a time.

Starting with XFree86 3.9.17, the XFree86 aperture driver also supports MTRR
write combining on Pentiums II and AMD K6 class processors.

7.3  MIT-SHM

NetBSD 1.0 and later supports System V shared memory. If XFree86 detects this
support in your kernel, it will support the MIT-SHM extension.

To add support for system V shared memory to your kernel add the lines:

      # System V-like IPC
      options         SYSVMSG
      options         SYSVSEM
      options         SYSVSHM

to your kernel config file.

8.  Rebuilding the XFree86 Distribution

You should configure the distribution by editing xc/config/cf/host.def
before compiling.  To compile the sources, invoke ``make World'' in the xc
directory.

8.1  Perl support

Starting with XFree86 4.0.2, perl is needed to build the fonts in XFree86.
Since perl is not included with standard NetBSD installation, fonts that need
perl are not built by default.

If you have installed perl (from the NetBSD packages, for instance), add the
line

     #define HasPerl YES

in xc/config/cf/host.def before rebuilding XFree86.

8.2  Aperture driver

To build the XFree86 server with the Aperture driver enabled, you should
unpack apNetBSD.shar and install it first.

Then edit xc/config/cf/host.def and add the line

     #define HasNetBSDApertureDriver    YES

to it before rebuilding XFree86.

8.3  Console drivers

XFree86 has a configuration option to select the console drivers to use in
host.def:

   o  if you're using pccons put:

           #define XFree86ConsoleDefines -DPCCONS_SUPPORT

   o if you're using pcvt put:

           #define XFree86ConsoleDefines -DPCVT_SUPPORT

If you don't define XFree86ConsoleDefines in host.def the pccons and pcvt
drivers will be supported by default.

Experimental native support for the wscons console driver can be built by
adding:

      #define XFree86ConsoleDefines -DWSCONS_SUPPORT

to xc/config/host.def before rebuilding the server.  This has not been thor-
oughly tested, except on the macppc.

For the i386, you should include both pcvt and wscons support in order to use
the pcvt compatibility mode of wscons:

      #define XFree86ConsoleDefines -DPCVT_SUPPORT -DWSCONS_SUPPORT

8.4  Building on other architectures

Note that the NetBSD project has now its own source tree, based on the
XFree86 source tree, with some local modifications. You may want to start
with this tree to rebuild from sources.  The NetBSD xsrc source tree is
available at: ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/NetBSD/NetBSD-current/xsrc/

9.  Building New X Clients

The easiest way to build a new client (X application) is to use xmkmf if an
Imakefile is included in the sources.  Type ``xmkmf -a'' to create the Make-
files, check the configuration if necessary and type ``make''.  Whenever you
install additional man pages you should update whatis.db by running ``make-
whatis /usr/X11R6/man''.

When porting clients to *BSD systems, make use of the symbol BSD for code
which is truly BSD-specific.  The value of the symbol can be used to distin-
guish different BSD releases.  For example, code specific to the Net-2 and
later releases can use:

     #if (BSD >= 199103)

To ensure that this symbol is correctly defined, include <sys/param.h> in the
source that requires it.  Note that the symbol CSRG_BASED is defined for *BSD
systems in XFree86 3.1.1 and later.  This should be used to protect the
inclusion of <sys/param.h>.

For code that really is specific to a particular i386 BSD port, use
__FreeBSD__ for FreeBSD, __NetBSD__ for NetBSD, __OpenBSD__ for OpenBSD, and
__bsdi__ for BSD/386.

10.  Thanks

Many thanks to all people who contributed to make XFree86 work on *BSD, in
particular: David Dawes, Todd Fries, Rod Grimes, Charles Hannum, Amancio
Hasty, Christoph Robitschko, Matthias Scheler, Michael Smith, Ignatios Sou-
vatzis, Jack Velte, Nate Williams and Pace Willison.

     Generated from XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/sgml/NetBSD.sgml,v 3.68 dawes Exp $


$XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/README.NetBSD,v 3.88 2003/07/15 02:28:29 dawes Exp $
