Linux XFree-to-XInside mini-HOWTO by Marco Melgazzi, s64912@athena.polito.it version 1.0 / 1996 May How to convert an XFree86 modeline into an XInside one 1. Introduction During the past few months 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. 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 an 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. 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 ! 2. Why should I need it ? 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, besides, I'm nearly an electronic engineer ;-) while an Xinside programmer could have written it in a fraction of this time... I haven't downloaded the 1.3 evaluation version 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... 3. Let's go Let's say that you have your oh-so-tweaked XFree86 mode and you want to evaluate Xinside in the same conditions: we wil use my 'normal' video mode as an 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-B and 1-4 numbers has a meaning: RTFM ! Anyway you don't need to know the theory behind all this to do a succesful conversion... My modeline in /usr/lib/X11/XF86Config for example 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 wich should be located in etc/ ( from now on we suppose you are in the top Xaccel directory, or /usr/X11/lib/X11/AcceleratedX ) ! Somewhere in the file, put here the name you want [PREADJUSTED_TIMING] PreadjustedTimingName = "1168x876 @ 72Hz"; ! ! These four are obvious ! HorPixel = 1168; // pixels VerPixel = 876; // lines PixelWidthRatio = 4; PixelHeightRatio = 3; ! ! hsync: DOT_CLK / D * 1000 [KHz] ! ! hsync = 105 / 1640 * 1000 = 64.024 KHz ! ! vsync: ( 1 / (( D / DOT_CLK ) * d) ) * 1,000,000 [Hz] ! ! vsync: ( 1 / (( 1640 / 105 ) * 900) ) * 1,000,000 ! ( 1 / 14057.1428571 ) * 1,000,000 = 71.138 Hz ! HorFrequency = 64.180; // kHz VerFrequency = 71.138; // Hz ! Obvious ScanType = NONINTERLACED; ! ! Put here the +/-hsync +/-vsync XFree86 options ! HorSyncPolarity = POSITIVE; VerSyncPolarity = POSITIVE; ! Shouldn't change CharacterWidth = 8; // pixels ! DOT_CLK here PixelClock = 105.000; // MHz ! ! ! horizontal timings section: [usec] ! HorTotalTime = D / DOT_CLK = 15.619; HorAddrTime = A / DOT_CLK = 11.124; HorBlankStart = A / DOT_CLK = 11.124; HorBlankTime = HorTotalTime - HorBlankStart = 4.495; HorSyncStart = B / DOT_CLK = 11.962; HorSyncTime = C / DOT_CLK - HorSyncStart = 2.743; ! ! vertical timings section: [msec] ! VerTotalTime = ( HorTotalTime * d ) / 1000 = 14.057; VerAddrTime = ( HorTotalTime * a ) / 1000 = 13.682; VerBlankStart = ( HorTotalTime * a ) / 1000 = 13.682; VerBlankTime = VerTotalTime - VerBlankStart = 0.375; VerSyncStart = ( HorTotalTime * b ) / 1000 = 13.698; VerSyncTime = ( HorTotalTime * ( c - b ) ) / 1000 = 0.219 ! Finished ! Now you have to put this newly created mode in the files shown below in the appropriate place. 4. Fixing up things 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] BitsPerPixel = 8; MemoryModel = Packed; ColorModel = Indexed; BitsRGB = 6; NumberOfColors = 256; [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] PreadjustedTimingName = "1168x876 @ 72Hz"; HorPixel = 1168; // pixels VerPixel = 876; // lines PixelWidthRatio = 4; PixelHeightRatio = 3; HorFrequency = 64.180; // kHz VerFrequency = 71.138; // Hz ScanType = NONINTERLACED; HorSyncPolarity = POSITIVE; VerSyncPolarity = POSITIVE; CharacterWidth = 8; // pixels PixelClock = 105.000; // MHz HorTotalTime = 15.619; // (usec) = 205 chars HorAddrTime = 11.124; // (usec) = 146 chars HorBlankStart = 11.124; // (usec) = 146 chars HorBlankTime = 4.495; // (usec) = 59 chars HorSyncStart = 11.962; // (usec) = 157 chars HorSyncTime = 2.743; // (usec) = 36 chars VerTotalTime = 14.057; // (msec) = 900 lines VerAddrTime = 13.682; // (msec) = 876 lines VerBlankStart = 13.682; // (msec) = 876 lines VerBlankTime = 0.375; // (msec) = 24 lines VerSyncStart = 13.698; // (msec) = 877 lines VerSyncTime = 0.219; // (msec) = 14 lines You can check your conversion by running the vgaset program with no parameters while running the Xinside serrver: 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 ). 5. The end... That's all folks ! I hope this will be useful to you. I don't know if I'll buy Xinside: it's quite good and the text speed is really unbelievable compared to XFree ( try to move xteddy over an xterm window to understand what I mean ) but I'm only a student and I don't have a lot of money to spend... Of course, if somebody at XInside thinks that this mini-HOWTO is worth some support, I wouldn't really mind an 1.3 complete server to 'test'. 6. copyright/legalese (c)opyright 1996 by Marco Melgazzi (s64912@athena.polito.it) - 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.