XF86_Mono(1)

NAME
XF86_Mono - 1 bit non-accelerated X Window System servers for UNIX on x86 platforms

SYNOPSIS
XF86_Mono [:displaynumber] [ option ] ...

DESCRIPTION
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.

CONFIGURATIONS

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

    Tseng:
        ET3000, ET4000, ET4000/W32

    Western Digital:
        PVGA1, WD90C00, WD90C10, WD90C11, WD90C30, WD90C31

    Genoa:
        GVGA

    Trident:
        TVGA8800CS, TVGA8900B, TVGA8900C, TVGA8900CL, TVGA9000

    NCR:
        77C22, 77C22E

    Compaq:
        AVGA

    Oak:
        OTI067, OTI077

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

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.

OPTIONS
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.

KEYBOARD
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.

SETUP
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):

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

    VGA2:

    Tseng:
        et3000, et4000

    Western Digital:
        pvga1, wd90c00, wd90c10, wd90c30

    Genoa:
        gvga

    Trident:
        tvga8800cs, tvga8900b, tvga8900c, tvga8900cl, tvga9000

    NCR:
        ncr77c22, ncr77c22e

    Compaq:
        cpq_avga

    OAK:
        oti067, oti077

    Generic VGA:
        generic

    HGA2:

    Hercules:
        hga6845

    BDM2:

    Hyundai:
        hgc1280

    Sigma:
        sigmalview

    Visa:
        visa6845

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.

membase memaddress
    specifies the base address of the video memory. This option is only used for the Sigma LaserView cards. Valid addresses for these cards are 0xA0000, 0xB0000, 0xC0000, 0xD0000, 0xE0000. The default is 0xE0000.

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.

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.

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.

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.

FILES

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

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

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

BUGS

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

CONTACT INFO
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.

AUTHORS

Refer to the XFree86(1) manual page.