$XFree86: mit/server/ddx/x386/XF86_Mono.man,v 2.9 1993/10/18 12:16:10 dawes Exp $
$XConsortium: X386.man,v 1.3 91/08/26 15:31:19 gildea Exp $
XF86_Mono - 1 bit non-accelerated X Window System servers for UNIX on x86 platforms XF86_Mono [:displaynumber] [ option ] ... XFree86 is a package of bug-fixes, enhancements, and ports of X11R5 to new OSs, for Intel Unix-like OSs. See the XFree86(1) manpage for details. XF86_Mono is a 1-bit StaticGrey server for VGA, Super-VGA, and Hercules, and some other monochrome cards.

The XFree86 servers support all MIT-supplied extensions except the X Input Extension. PEX is not supported on 1-bit hardware.

The XF86_Mono server supports the following popular SuperVGA chipsets in monochrome mode.

Additionally it supports generic VGA cards, Hercules monochrome graphics cards, and the Hyundai HGC1280 card.

On supported SVGA chipsets, XF86_Mono will use up to 256Kb of display memory (the memory available to the mono server is one quarter of the total for SVGA chipsets), which yields a maximum virtual resolution of (approximately) 1600x1200. On unsupported SVGA chipsets, and generic VGA cards, this server uses only 64Kb of display memory, which yields a maximum virtual resolution of (approximately) 800x650. For a Hercules card, the standard resolution of 720x348 is supported. On systems with both a VGA and Hercules card installed, the monochrome server can drive both in a double-headed configuration. XF86_Mono does not support the accelerated functions of the supported chipsets.

In addition to the normal server options described in the Xserver(1) manual page, XF86_Mono accepts some more command line switches, as described in the XFree86(1) manpage. XFree86 provides several capabilities for easing the use of international keyboards, and generating non-ASCII Latin-1 keysyms. Refer to the XFree86kbd(1) manual page for more information. XFree86 uses a configuration file called Xconfig for its initial setup. See the Xconfig(4/5) manpage for general details. Here only the XF86_Mono specific parts are explained.

The GRAPHICS DRIVER SETUP section for the monochrome server starts with the keyword vga2, and the section for the mono hga driver starts with the keyword hga2. The section for the "banked dumb mono" driver starts with the keyword bdm2. For servers with multiple screens supported, only those with entries will be enabled. After this keyword a variety of options may be specified (most are not relevant to the hga2 driver because it only supports a single resolution):

8 chipset "name" specifies a chipset so the correct driver can be used. Possible chipsets are: VGA2:

8 clocks clock ... specifies the dotclocks that are on your graphics board. The clocks are in MHz, and may be specified as a floating point number. The value is stored internally to the nearest kHz. The ordering of the clocks is important. It must match the order in which they are selected on the graphics board. Multiple clocks lines may be specified.

8 black red green blue sets the ``black'' colour to the rgb values specified. These values must be given as integers in the range 0-63. The default is 0 0 0. This option is only valid for the vga2 screen type.

8 white red green blue sets the ``white'' colour to the rgb values specified. These values must be given as integers in the range 0-63. The default is 63 63 63. This option is only valid for the vga2 screen type.

8 option "optionstring" allows the user to select certain options provided by the drivers. Currently the following strings are recognized: legend - for Sigma Legend ET4000-based boards. This option enables a special clock-selection algorithm used on Legend boards, and MUST be specified for these boards to function correctly. swap_hibit - for Western Digital/PVGA1 chipsets. Some Western Digital based boards require the high-order clock-select lead to be inverted. It is not possible for the server to determine this information at run-time. If the 9th clock in the list of clocks detected by the server is less than 30Mhz, this option likely needs to be set. hibit_low, hibit_high - for Tseng ET4000 chipsets. With some ET4000 cards, the server has difficulty getting the state of the high-order clocks select bit right when started from a high-resolution text mode. These options allow the correct initial state of that bit to be specified. To find out what the correct initial state is, start the server from an 80x25 text mode. This option is only needed if the clocks reported by the server when started from a high-resolution text mode differ from those reported when it is started from an 80x25 text mode. 8clocks - for the PVGA1 chipset the default is 4 clocks. Some cards with this chipset may support 8 clocks. Specifying this option will allow the driver to detect and use the extra clocks. 16clocks - for Trident TVGA8900B and 8900C chipsets. Some newer boards using 8900B and 8900C chipsets actually support 16 clocks rather than the standard 8 clocks. Such boards will have a "TCK9002" or "TCK9004" chip on them. Specifying this option will allow the driver to detect and use the extra 8 clocks. intern_disp (use internal display for laptops -- WD90C2x) extern_disp (use external display for laptops -- WD90C2x) ..

Note that XFree86 has some internal capabilities to determine what hardware it is running on. Thus normally the keywords chipset, clocks, and videoram don't have to be specified. But there may be occasions when this autodetection mechanism fails, (for example, too high of load on the machine when you start the server). For cases like this, one should first run XF86_Mono on an unloaded machine, look at the results of the autodetection (that are printed out during server startup) and then explicitly specify these parameters in the configuration file. It is recommended that all parameters, especially Clock values, be specified in the Xconfig file.

The last section is the TABLE OF VIDEO MODES which starts with the keyword modedb. This is covered in the Xconfig(4/5) manpage. For details on how to build your own video modes please refer to the tutorial written by Eric Raymond.

30 /usr/X386/bin/XF86_Mono The monochrome X server

30 /usr/X386/lib/X11/Xconfig Server configuration file

X(1), Xserver(1), XFree86kbd(1), XFree86(1), Xconfig(4/5), xdm(1), xinit(1)

There are no known bugs at this time, although we welcome reports emailed to the address listed below.

XFree86 source is available from the FTP servers ftp.physics.su.oz.au and ftp.x.org. Send email to XFree86@physics.su.oz.au for details.

Refer to the XFree86(1) manual page.