Replacing Xvesa with Xfree

Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: Replacing Xvesa with Xfree
started by: curaga

Posted by curaga on Feb. 10 2007,10:47

I recently put DSL to a p1 desktop (124mhz, 16mb ram, 1g hd) and it's graphic card is a S3 trio 64 8mb pci.

If I got Knoppix 3.4 from somewhere, and compiled Xfree 3.3.6 with only the S3 driver, would it be worth it?

Xvesa takes about 6mb of ram.. But Xfree has acceleration.. So, would the speed gain from the accelerated modes be useless through more ram usage?

Posted by mikshaw on Feb. 10 2007,17:24

Have you tried the XFree86 mydsl extensions? The unc version would be good if you have limited ram.
I'd say if the extension works with your card it's definitely worth it. Not only would you get better performance, but you have the added ability to tweak your x settings more than what is available through Xvesa. A common example, you can change the refresh rate.

Posted by curaga on Feb. 11 2007,09:58

I was going to compile my own version with only 1 driver to decrease Xfrees ram usage. Will the unc extension use more ram than Xvesa?

Oh and do I need to add a unionfs boot code to use the unc extension?

Posted by Juanito on Feb. 11 2007,11:37

unionfs is the default with DSL 3.2 (you have the use the boot code "legacy" if you do not want to use unionfs) so you can use XFree86.unc without doing anything special.

You could download XFree86.dsl, remove the uneeded drivers and then use dsl2unc.sh to make your own XFree86.unc but I am not sure you would gain anything in terms of memory usage.

Note that setting up the XF86Config-4 file can be a pain - there are lots of examples available via Google though.

Posted by curaga on Feb. 15 2007,11:53

I think I'll try it. Is x86config tool included in the unc?

And the bigger problem: how to get the ext to the comp?

It has no usb, no means of networking (well a 56k winmodem with no linux solution), cd drive does read cd-r but I wouldn't waste one for 11 mb..
I could put a 5e lan card to it, but then what? I don't know how to use telnet or ssh.. Should I start some server on DSL and then connect with a crossover cable from my LinuxFromScratch laptop? And the lfs laptop isn't ready, meaning no X or browser, that would mean NFS since that is supported by the kernel. So how do I start a NFS server on DSL, and how do I connect to it from the laptop?

Posted by Juanito on Feb. 15 2007,12:09

I don't think the XF86 config tool is included in the unc - I tried it once from the XF86 deb package and found it to be no use at all. There are however, several example XF86Config-4 files in the unc package.

You could try burning a number of dsl/unc extensions (sounds like samba would be useful) to CD and then blow that $1