recovering from the 6.3 xorg mess

[sam sirlin]

On Mon, 17 Mar 2008 21:23:09 -0800 (AKDT)
peter stern <pstern at 65north.com> wrote:
> On Mon, 17 Mar 2008, Kevin Oberman wrote:
> >> Date: Mon, 17 Mar 2008 07:36:23 +0100
> >> From: Kurt Jaeger <lists at c0mplx.org>
> >> Sender: owner-freebsd-stable at freebsd.org
> >> Hi!
> >>> I'd appreciate suggestions on how to get a working xorg from the mess 6.3
> >>> shipped with. I've been using FreeBSD since 2.2 and have never had much
> >>> trouble with it until the 6 branch was released. My hardware is pretty
> >>> generic Intel brand D865 motherboard, matrox g550 video. I don't customize
> >>> the kernel. I do clean installs not upgrades.
> >>
> >> Basically, the problem is with the matrox board.
...
> >
> > I have run the Matrox G550 under both 6 and 7. I had some problems, but
> > not too many. I do need to use xrandr to set up the proper resolution,
> > though.
> >
> > #!/bin/sh
> > # Set 1280x1024 mode on second display
> > xrandr --addmode VGA2 1280x1024
> > # Set 1024x768 mode on second port (Why? Why not.)
> > xrandr --addmode VGA2 1024x768
> > # Set the second port to use 1280x1024
> > xrandr --output VGA2 --mode 1280x1024
...

Not unique to matrox. Some time before 6.3 there was an X update that
broke various things.  I also noticed I couldn't set resolution in
xorg.conf or via keystrokes. xrandr seems the only way for most wm
(kde can do it). I thought perhaps it was a 64bit problem since I'm
using amd64, and some other keystrokes don't work (normally don't
notice but was trying to find some way to set resolution). I've also
noticed after xscreensaver can put X in a sleep mode where it just
ignores anything (not a crash, but need to remote in to shut down X at
least).

Is resolution setting only through xrandr perhaps a deliberate (but
undocumented) design change in xorg (feature)? Or just a temporary
bug? 

I don't have a matrox:
drm0: <ATI Radeon RV280 9250> port 0xa000-0xa0ff mem
0xe0000000-0xe7ffffff,0xfd800000-0xfd80ffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on
pci1 info: [drm] AGP at 0xf0000000 128MB info: [drm] Initialized radeon
1.25.0 20060524


-- 
sam sirlin <samuel.w.sirlin at jpl.nasa.gov>