3. Running XFree86

This section describes the changes to the LynxOS environment which may be necessary to successfully run XFree86.

Read Quick-Start Guide to XFree86 Setup to learn more about how to configure XFree86 for your hardware.

3.1. System requirements

A minimum of 16MB of memory is required to run X. If you want to run real-world applications you should think of upgrading to 32MB (or more).

3.2. System tuning

3.2.1. Tunable parameters

To reasonably run XFree86 you may have to adjust a few system parameters.

On LynxOS 2.5.x and 3.0.x include a line

  #define X_WINDOWS

in /sys/lynx.os/uparam.h.

For earlier versions you'll have to edit /usr/include/param.h:

  Tunable                                           Old     New
  USR_NFDS      number of open files per process     20      64
  NPROC         number of tasks                      50     150
  NFILES        number of open files in system      100     250
  NINODES       number of incore inodes             (same value as NFILES)
  QUANTUM       clock ticks until preemption         64      20
  CACHEBLKS     number of cache memory blocks       202      >= 4096

The new values are those suggested by the LynxOS documentation for their X Window package.

3.2.2. Adjustment for Riva 128 and Riva TNT driver>If you're using the nVidia driver (Riva 128, TNT, TNT2) of the SVGA server, you will have to increase the value of the SMEMS parameter in /sys/lynx.os/uparam.h from 10 to 20.

3.2.3. Increase number of ptys

You should also increase the number of ptys to be able run a couple more xterms. You may replace /sys/lynx.os/pty.cfg with /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc/pty.cfg.

3.2.4. Kernel build

If you plan to use PS/2 or Bus mice refer to the following section before rebuilding the kernel, if not, you should rebuild the kernel now:

     # cd /sys/lynx.os
     # make install
     # reboot -N
  

3.3. Mouse support in XFree86

XFree86 includes support for PnP mice (see also Mouse Support in XFree86). The current LynxOS TTY device driver doesn't allow the necessary manipulation of the RTS line and therefore the support for PnP mice has been disabled for LynxOS.

Starting with LynxOS x86 2.4.0 LynxOS includes a PS/2 mouse driver. This driver does protocol conversion and requires to specify the mouse type as Microsoft regardless of real mouse type. In some cases you won't have all mouse buttons supported.

The PS/2 mouse driver included in LynxOS x86 3.0.1 patch #XXX does not perform protocol conversion and requires to set the mouse type to PS/2. This driver will also support the extended PS/2 mouse types.

3.4. Bus mouse drivers

/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc/BM-Lynx.shar contains a LynxOS port of the Linux bus mouse drivers. To install the drivers unpack the shar archive

    # cd /
    # bash /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc/BM-Lynx.shar
  

and follow the notes in /BMOUSE.Readme for further installation and configuration notes.

The XFree86 PS/2 mouse driver works also with MetroLink X 2.3.3.1 as shipped with LynxOS x86 2.4.0 unless you have the LynxOS patch 000055-00 installed.

3.5. ATC console driver and VT switching

The XFree86 servers will only run with the default LynxOS console driver, sorry for those of you who use the alternative vdt console driver. Currently there is no support for virtual terminal switching once the server has started.

You will need a free console which the X server will use for keyboard input. You must disable login on at least one of the four virtual terminals in /etc/ttys, e.g. /dev/atc3:

change

       /dev/atc3:1:default:vt100at:/bin/login
  

to

       /dev/atc3:0:default:vt100at:/bin/login
                 ^
  

3.6. X Server debug diagnostics output and other VT peculiarities

The XFree86 X servers will produce a lot of diagnostics output on stderr during startup. This output will be lost after the server reached a certain point in its console initialization process. You should redirect stdout and stderr if you want to analyze the diagnostics produced by the server.

When the X server is running output made to other consoles will be lost. After server shutdown the screen contents of other consoles may be inconsistent with what one would expect (i.e. random).