[lug] XFree86 vs. XF86_SVGA?

[Scott A. Herod]

Thanks for the response, Ed.

This is pretty much what I had decided myself.  Apparently, the default 
configuration for the trident chip in one of the boxes still defaults to 
use XF86_SVGA despite the fact that Alan Hourihane's trident driver 
works pretty well with 4.2.0.  Actually, I've got a driver from Trident 
built with XF86 4.0.2 that kind of works ( but which does toggle the TV 
Out feature of the chipset ).  The only problem is that Xv support is 
basically non-existant so Xine doesn't work.

Scott

Ed Hill wrote:
> On Mon, 2002-06-03 at 14:10, Scott A. Herod wrote:
> 
>>   I have a bunch of questions about the difference between the XFree86 
>>server and XF86_SVGA server.  But, I'll start with just one: Does the 
>>XF86_SVGA server use the drivers in /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/ ?
>>
>>   On one of my boxes, with a ATI Rage 128, it does not even appear that 
>>RH 7.3 and XF86 4.2.0 even provided an XF86_SVGA server instead using 
>>XFree86.  Another box, with a Trident Cyberblade i1, wants to use the 
>>XF86_SVGA driver by default.  On this trident box, am I even using the 
>>trident driver?  Can I change the server that I use simply by changing 
>>the softlink /etc/X11/X to point to either the XF86_SVGA or XFree86 server?
> 
> 
> 
> Hi Scott,
> 
> I'm not sure that I understand your questions, but I'll try to give some
> sort of response...
> 
> The X server used in most Linux distros is the one from the XFree86
> project
> 
>   http://www.xfree86.org/
> 
> and its a huge suite of programs.
> 
> With older (pre-4.x) versions of XFree86, there were different drivers
> ("servers") that worked with different graphics chipsets.  They had
> names like "XF86_SVGA", "XF86_3DLabs", "XF86_8514", and "XF86_VGA16". 
> You had to select (usually, using a soft link) which driver to run. 
> Installer programs would typically help you with this selection process,
> which was mostly based on the particular chipset used in your video
> hardware.
> 
> With the newer XFree86 v4.x series, I believe that they have a more
> modular design that allows the different drivers to be selected and
> loaded at run-time.  This is probably what you are seeing on your RH 7.3
> box (though its complicated by the fact that RH 7.3 will install 
> XFree86 v3.3.6 and/or v4.2.0 depending upon which offers better support
> for your particular hardware).  For v4.x, you specify which driver in
> your XFree86 config file rather than as a soft link.
> 
> I hope that description helps.  You can get a lot more info from the
> docs at:  http://www.xfree86.org/
> 
> Ed
> 
>