








                          Information for SVR4 Users

                           The XFree86 Project, Inc

                                  27 Feb 1998



                                   Abstract

     NOTE: If you intend to use any of the accelerated servers, read sec-
     tion 10 and follow the instructions.  Otherwise the X server will
     crash when exiting, restarting, or switching VTs.



1.  SVR4 versions on which XFree86 has been tested

XFree86 has been tested on the following versions of SVR4.0:

   o Microport: 2.2, 3.1, 4.1, 4.2

   o Esix: 4.0.3A, 4.0.4, 4.0.4.1

   o Dell: 2.1, 2.2, 2.2.1

   o UHC: 2.0, 3.6

   o Consensys: 1.2

   o MST: 4.0.3

   o AT&T: 2.1, 4.0

   o ISC: 4.0.3

   o NCR: MP-RAS

   o PANIX: 5.0

and the following versions of SVR4.2:

   o Consensys

   o Novell/SCO UnixWare 1.x and 2.0

Basically, we believe that XFree86 binaries will run unmodified on any ISA,
EISA, or MCA platform version version of SVR4.0 (Solaris 2.x is an exception),
or SVR4.2.  If you run XFree86 on another version of SVR4 that's not in this
list, please let us know about it.




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2.  How to cope with VT-switching hotkeys

Some versions of SVR4 (Esix and Microport) have mechanisms for enabling two-key
sequences for VT switching (Alt-Fn).  The standard SVR4 mechanism is Alt-Sys-
Req-Fn, which all versions we know use.  Running under X, the Alt-Fn sequences
are stolen by the driver before the server can see them, so you can't use them
for X applications.  So you want to switch back to the standard 3-key sequences
while you are running X.  Here's how to do it:

      Microport
            Microport makes this very simple.  The 2-key mode is called "Micro-
            port Mode", and the 3-key mode is called "Compatible Mode".  You
            enter Microport Mode by pressing Alt-SysReq-m.  You enter Compati-
            ble Mode by pressing Alt-SysReq-c.  So all you need to do is press
            Alt-SysReq-c after starting the X server to allow X clients access
            to the Alt-Fn sequences.

      Esix
            Esix has no keyboard-driven way to switch modes.  There are two
            levels at which this can be handled:

              1.  There is a kernel tunable that determines which mode is the
                  default.  The tunable is the initialisation of kd_2keysw in
                  /etc/conf/pack.d/kd/space.c.  When set to 1 (the default),
                  2-key mode is enabled.  When set to 0 it is disabled.

              2.  The mode can be changed for individual VTs programatically by
                  an ioctl().  To make life easier for XFree86 users, a program
                  called `2key' is provided (in xc/pro-
                  grams/Xserver/hw/xfree86/etc/ in the source tree, and in
                  /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc/ in the binary kit).  You can compile
                  and install this program.  Then to make use of it, add the
                  line `VTInit "2key off"' to the Keyboard section of your
                  XF86Config file to cause the program to be run automatically
                  when the server starts up.  Doing this means that 2-key
                  switching will be turned off while in the server's VT, but
                  will still be on for the other VTs.

            For further details, refer to the keyboard(7) man page included
            with the release notes (the on-line man page doesn't have this
            information).


3.  Running SVR3 binaries on SVR4.0.4 and SVR4.2

SVR4.0.4 added the `Advanced Compatibility Package', which provides iBCS-2 com-
pliance for running SVR3 binaries.  These facilities are also present in
SVR4.2.  XFree86 makes use of this to accept local connections from SVR3
clients.  The XFree86 binary distribution is built to use these capabilities.
You need to install the `Advanced Compatibility Package', if you have not done
so already.

We have found that SVR4.0.4 is not able to run all SCO, and perhaps not many
ISC SVR3 binaries.  This is not a failing of XFree86, but of SVR4 itself.  One








Information for SVR4 Users                                                    3



particular example is that many SVR3 programs are ignorant of the UFS filesys-
tem, and attempt to read directories as files, rather than using the system
call that is defined for the purpose.  This will fail for obvious reasons.  The
SVR4.0.4 release notes from USL (which you should have gotten from your vendor)
have lots of suggestions for how to improve compatibility.

That said, we have had luck with several SCO binaries right out of the box.  No
changes are needed - just go to an xterm window and run the program.

ISC users will need a binary editor before they can attempt to run their bina-
ries.  ISC, for whatever reason, put the pipe for local connections in
/tmp/.X11-unix/Xn.  This unfortunately is the same place as the X Consortium X
server puts the Unix-domain socket normally used for local connections.  The
XFree86 server was modified to use /dev/X/ISCCONN/Xn for local connections to
ISC clients.  So what you must do is use a binary editor to edit your client
program.  Search for /tmp/.X11-unix, and change it to /dev/X/ISCCONN.  Now you
just have to worry about base-OS compatibility.


4.  Notes for building XFree86 on SVR4

  1.  If you are using gcc with SVR4, we highly recommend that you use
      gcc-2.4.5 (or a later stable release).  Version 2.6.0 has some problems
      on i386 platforms and is not recommended.

  2.  It is recommended that you increase the UFSNINODE (for a UFS filesystem)
      and/or the S5NINODE (for an S5 filesystem) kernel parameter to about 650
      before attempting to build the distribution.  See the "Notes for running
      XFree86 on SVR4" section for some other parameters you may want to
      change.

  3.  The BOOTSTRAPCFLAGS required are:

           For Unixware:     "-DUSL"

           For NCR:          "-DNCR"

           For other SVR4:   "-DSVR4 -Di386"


5.  Notes for running XFree86 on SVR4

NOTE: If you intend to use any of the accelerated servers, read section 10 and
follow the instructions.  Otherwise the X server will crash when exiting,
restarting, or switching VTs.

  1.  For SVR4, you may also need to add /usr/X11R6/lib to your
      LD_LIBRARY_PATH, but this is not required for running properly built
      clients.

  2.  You may want to increase some kernel parameters (either by running
      idtune, or editing /etc/conf/cf.d/stune, and rebuilding the kernel with
      idbuild):









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           [HS]FNOLIM         hard/soft limit for number of open files

           MAXUP              max number of processes per user

           ARG_MAX            max length of an arg list

           SHMMAX             max size of shared memory segment(in bytes)

  3.  Choose which mouse driver you will use.  For SVR4 the best choice depends
      on which version you are using.  If you have a bus mouse then Xqueue is
      probably the only option.  For a serial mouse the options are as follows:

            Esix 4.0.3
                  Xqueue works.  It is also possible to use the standard asy
                  driver directly, but the mouse operation is "jerky".

            Microport SVR4 [34].1
                  Xqueue works fine, and the asy driver can also be used
                  directly giving smooth mouse operation.

      To use Xqueue, set the Protocol to Xqueue in both the Keyboard and
      Pointer sections of your XF86Config file, and You must have the mouse
      driver package installed, and must run mouseadmin to set it up for your
      mouse.  If mouseadmin won't work try doing `touch /dev/gmse' before run-
      ning it.  (Note that mouseadmin will need to be rerun after rebuilding a
      kernel unless you add an appropriate entry to /etc/conf/node.d/gmse.)

      NOTE: Many of the accelerated server/drivers have problems when using a
      HW cursor and Xqueue together.  If you have a serial mouse, you can work
      around this by not using Xqueue.  Otherwise the only workaround is to
      disable the HW cursor.  This is done by adding the line:

              Option "sw_cursor"


      to the Device section of your XF86Config file.  The S3 server is the only
      one known to not have this problem.

      If you have problems with both Xqueue and your standard asy driver with
      SVR4, then you should install SAS.  When using SAS, set up XF86Config as
      you would for the standard driver.

      SAS is available from ftp.physics.su.oz.au.  When using SAS for a serial
      mouse, you will get smoother operation if you change EVENT_TIME from 80
      to 30 in sas.h.  A couple of details which aren't spelled out in the SAS
      README are:

      - An example of the line you should add to /etc/ap/chan.ap is:

                 MAJOR    0       255     ldterm ttcompat


      where MAJOR is replaced by the major number used for SAS devices.  To
      determine what that is, check /etc/conf/cf.d/mdevice after rebuilding the








Information for SVR4 Users                                                    5



      kernel.  The major number is the sixth field in the line starting with
      `sas'.  This file must be updated before rebooting with the new kernel.

      - The installation instructions omit the following:

           3a) Disable the asy driver by either running `kconfig' or edit-
           ing /etc/conf/sdevice.d/asy.

           3b) Rebuild the kernel by running /etc/conf/bin/idbuild

  4.  If you want to use xdm with SVR4, extract the files from the shar file in
      /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc/XdmConf.svr4 into a temporary directory.  The
      README file tells where the individual files should be installed.  Be
      sure to read through each file and make any site-specific changes that
      you need.

      NOTE: Some SVR4 versions (one example is Esix 4.0.3) have a default init-
      tab which runs `vtgetty' on the console. This does not work well when
      starting xdm at boot time.  The problem is that when you logout from a
      vtgetty session it wants to close all the VTs -- including the one xdm is
      using for the server.  It is recommended that you use `getty'.  If you
      change /etc/inittab, remember to also change /etc/conf/cf.d/init.base or
      you will lose the changes when you next rebuild the kernel.

  5.  If you want to change the number of VTs available on SVR4, just edit the
      file /etc/default/workstations and change the number there.  The device
      nodes will be created/deleted next time you reboot.

  6.  The default local connection types have changed in X11R6.  Unix domain
      sockets are no longer treated as a "local" connection type.  This means
      that a client connecting to :0 will use not use a Unix socket for the
      connection.  To use the Unix socket connection, the client must connect
      to unix:0.

      The local connection types available are "NAMED" (named streams pipe),
      "PTS" (old-stype USL streams pipe), "SCO" (SCO Xsight streams pipe), and
      "ISC" (ISC streams pipe).  The XLOCAL environment variable can be used to
      set which types of local connection should be used in order of prefer-
      ence.  The default setting is PTS:NAMED:ISC:SCO.  It is recommended that
      NAMED be used in most cases because it is faster than the default PTS,
      and because using PTS can cause you to run out of /dev/pts/ devices (each
      client using PTS requires a /dev/pts device).  To set up the default
      local connection type, make sure that XLOCAL is set and exported in your
      .xinitrc file (when using xinit or startx) or your
      /usr/X11R6/lib/xdm/Xsession script (when using xdm).


6.  Building non-core clients with SVR4

  1.  A lot of clients (even some which have explicit SVR4 support) require
      -DSYSV when building under SVR4.  This will not be set when using the
      default configuration.  A quick fix is to add something like the follow-
      ing to the client's Imakefile:









Information for SVR4 Users                                                    6



                 #if SystemV4
                      DEFINES = -DSYSV OTHER_CLIENT_DEPENDENT_DEFINES
                 #endif


      The best solution is to modify the code so it compiles correctly without
      -DSYSV.


7.  Using DOS/Merge 2.2 with XFree86

It is possible to use the Locus DOS/Merge 2.2 X clients with XFree86.  You need
to do a couple of things for this to work, though.  One change is a generic
problem with the X client and X11R5/6; the others are to work with some things
that are specific to the XFree86 servers.  Here are the things you need to do:

  1.  Set and export $XMERGE in your .xinitrc and/or .xsession files.  In gen-
      eral, you should set XMERGE=vga.

  2.  You MUST use the "xqueue" driver instead of the server's native keyboard
      and mouse driver, if you intend to use the "zoom" feature of the `dos'
      client.  Otherwise the mouse will cease to function after the first time
      you "zoom" (because the `dos' client uses the native driver, and the
      server will not be able to access the mouse after the zoom ends).  The
      only other alternative is to use separate mice on separate devices.

  3.  You need to install the `dos' client fonts in the XFree86 font directo-
      ries.  Locate the BDF files (search for files with names matching the
      pattern `*pc???.bdf').  These will likely be /usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc.  Go
      to the directory where these files are located, and execute the following
      (using `sh' or `ksh'):

                for i in *pc???.bdf
                do
                    /usr/X11R6/bin/bdftopcf $i > \
                          /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/`basename $i .bdf`.pcf
                done
                cd /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc
                /usr/X11R6/bin/mkfontdir
                # Do this only if the server is already running.
                /usr/X11R6/bin/xset fp rehash

  4.  The `dos' client program uses a translation table to map from an internal
      key representation to the X keymap.  It is likely that the table supplied
      with Merge 2.2 use the mapping for SCO's server.  A correct mapping table
      is available in /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc/xcode.xfree86.  This file should
      be installed in /usr/lib/merge/xc.  In addition, you must add the follow-
      ing resource to the `dos' client's application-defaults file (usually in
      /usr/lib/X11/app-defaults/DOS):

                dos*xcodetable: /usr/lib/merge/xc/xcode.xfree86


      It will be obvious if this new code table is needed, as the arrow keys on








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      the keypad will fail to function in the `dos' client if the wrong table
      is installed.

  5.  For the "zoom" feature to work correctly, you must run `dos' with $DIS-
      PLAY set to "unix:N" or "host_name:N".  If you use just ":0", the client
      will not function properly.  `dos' does not accept a `-display' parame-
      ter.  Hence it is probably a good idea to replace the `dos' program with
      something like this:

                #!/usr/bin/ksh
                if [ "X${DISPLAY}" != "X" ]
                then
                     case ${DISPLAY} in
                     :*)
                          DISPLAY=unix${DISPLAY}
                          ;;
                     esac
                fi
                /usr/bin/dos.real "$@"


8.  Keyboard mapping problems with some Esix systems

One of the console driver patches for Esix 4.0.3A causes the XFree86 server's
default keymap to be corrupted.  If you are being affected by this problem it
will be obvious because few (if any) of the keys will be mapped correctly.
There are two solutions to this.  One is to remove the console driver patch
which introduced the problem.  The second is to use xmodmap(1) to reset the
default mapping after server startup.  The default mapping is provided in the
file /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc/xmodmap.std, and can be installed automatically by
adding the line:

       xmodmap /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc/xmodmap.std


to your .xinitrc file (or your Xsetup file if using xdm).


9.  106 Japanese keyboard problem on PANIX

PANIX for PC-AT uses Japanese keycodes standardized by DICOP(Desktop UNIX for
Intel Cooperative Promotion Group) in Japan.  Therefore keycode confliction
occurs with 106 Japanese keyboard in XFree86.  To avoid it, specify the keyword
"panix106" in XF86Config like this:

       Section "Keyboard"
         Protocol    "Standard"
         Autorepeat  500 5
         XkbModel    "jp106"
         XkbLayout   "jp"
         panix106
       EndSection










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10.  A kernel patch that is required for accelerated servers

SVR4.0 has a bug handling programs that access extended I/O registers (above
0x3FF).  Boards like S3 and 8514/A use these extended I/O registers.  XFree86
supports boards that tickle this bug.  In preparation for using these servers,
we have produced a kernel patch that works around the problem, and provided
scripts for you that will both install and back out the patch.  You must
install this if you intend to use the S3, 8514, Mach8, Mach32, P9000, AGX or
W32 servers.

Dell 2.2 is known to not need the patch, because Thomas Roell found and fixed
the bug while he was working for Dell.  Microport has fixed this in their 4.0
v4.2 release.  Also, SVR4.2 does not need this patch, as the problem has been
fixed by USL.

The patch scripts are located in xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/etc in the
source tree, and /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/etc in the binary distribution.  The files
are `svr4_patch' to install the patch, and `svr4_patch_rem' to back it out.
The file that is being patched is /etc/conf/pack.d/kernel/os.o.  The patch
script verifies the presence of the bug before patching, and will tell you
whether or not it succeeded in patching.  You need to run the `svr4_patch'
script as root, obviously.  The original os.o file, as well as the patching
program, and a copy of the removal script are stored in the directory
/etc/conf/pack.d/kernel/.xfree86

Thanks to John M. Sully of Microport for helping us find a simple workaround
for this problem, and giving us permission to release the information.


11.  Other problems

Some accelerated drivers may cause the machine to lockup when starting up the
server on some versions of SVR4.0.  The problem seems to be related to the ker-
nel checking for the presence of physical memory when mmaping /dev/pmem.  This
can cause problems when mapping memory mapped registers.  This was known to be
a problem with the MGA driver in the SVGA server.  Some other drivers may be
affected too.  The problem with the MGA driver is now fixed.

     Generated from XFree86: xc/programs/Xserver/hw/xfree86/doc/sgml/SVR4.sgml,v 3.13.2.3 1998/02/28 08:54:11 dawes Exp $





     $XConsortium: SVR4.sgml /main/8 1996/10/27 11:06:06 kaleb $

















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                                   CONTENTS



1.  SVR4 versions on which XFree86 has been tested .......................... 1

2.  How to cope with VT-switching hotkeys ................................... 2

3.  Running SVR3 binaries on SVR4.0.4 and SVR4.2 ............................ 2

4.  Notes for building XFree86 on SVR4 ...................................... 3

5.  Notes for running XFree86 on SVR4 ....................................... 3

6.  Building non-core clients with SVR4 ..................................... 5

7.  Using DOS/Merge 2.2 with XFree86 ........................................ 6

8.  Keyboard mapping problems with some Esix systems ........................ 7

9.  106 Japanese keyboard problem on PANIX .................................. 7

10. A kernel patch that is required for accelerated servers ................. 8

11. Other problems .......................................................... 8































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