Xorg failed to run on old PC.

[Nikola Lecic]

On Thu, 28 Jun 2007 08:21:20 +0200
David Marec <dmares.spam at free.fr> wrote:

> hi

Hello David,
 
> I am trying to configure an old "cirix166-48Mo RAM" workstation.
> 
> But, FreeBSD 6.2 installed, Xorg crashes on 
> « Caught signal 11»
> 
> I tried three drivers, mga, vesa and vga.
> The driver "mga" failed to load DRI module, which was not requested.
> 
> The log file, created with no "xorg.conf", can be uploaded here:
> http://david.marec.free.fr/public/Xorg.0.log

Your X crashed simply because it tried to use 1152x864 at 75Hz, and
hardware is capable of not more than 1024x768 at 75Hz. This unwise
automatic choice of default resolution and frequencies is not uncommon
with older hardware.

> It seems that i had the same problem when i tried to launch XUbuntu
> on it. The only linux distribution that works is Damn Small Linux.

Yes, I'm sure that can happen with Ubuntu.
 
> Any idea ?
> Using the latest xorg 7 release ? 
> Getting back to FreeBSD 4.x to try Xfree instead of xorg ?

No, don't go back, there is nothing that older versions can do and
newer ones can't. Upgrading to 7.2 is certainly a good idea, but this
can surely work even with 6.9 you tried. I'd do something like this:

* You must create a config file; you can start with 'Xorg -configure',
  it will create an initial /root/xorg.conf.new; then you can test it
  with 'X -config /root/xorg.conf.new'. I think you need something like:

  in Section "Monitor"
    HorizSync   31.5 - 48.5  # try also: 31.5 - 57.0
    VertRefresh 50 - 70      # try also: 50 - 75

  in Section "Screen"
    DefaultColorDepth 16     # start with the lower value
    SubSection "Display"
        Depth 16
        Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
    # delete here all subsections with higher colour depth and modes.

  I think this will start X; then, if you can't get an optimal image,
  post here new xorg.conf and Xorg log; somebody will help you to tune
  Modeline and/or something else.

* (If you need a really good assistance in creating xorg.conf, use
  Knoppix; Greg Lehey once recommended it on freebsd-questions@; this
  one is really different.)

Nikola Lečić