From: cummings@hammer.Prime.COM (Kevin Cummings) Subject: Re: X386 (Was Re: 0.96 out next week) Date: Tue, 5 May 1992 18:06:04 GMT
In article <1992May5.063513.11484@klaava.Helsinki.FI>, torvalds@klaava.Helsinki.FI (Linus Benedict Torvalds) writes:
> In article <1992May5.00552.26728@ms.uky.edu> randy@ms.uky.edu (Randy Appleton) writes:
> >> [ X window system ]
> >
> >Here's a question. What CGA cards does it support, and at what
> >resolutions. Also, what's the realistic RAM requirements?
Inherently, there is no reason why X can't support a CGA card. In reality,
why would you want to? There are only two usable graphics modes on a CGA
card, 320x200x4 colors, and 640x200x2 colors (read the latter as B&W).
Not very much real estate for very much at all, and you may have problems
with only 4/16 colors being available.
> X definitely won't work with CGA - it won't even work with normal VGA
> cards: you need SVGA (and even not just any SVGA card will do). The
Uh, oh. Lets be careful here. X will to work. I've had an X server
run on a 286 w/EGA in 16 colors. It wasn't very much, but the virtual 800x600
mode was better. Still, 16 colors is VERY limiting.
> supported cards are et[3|4]000 and some others (pvga? tvga?).
> Resolutions range from 640x480 to 1192x900 (or something like that), all
> at 256 colours, depending on what kind of card/monitor combination you
> have.
On the other hand, my Sun 1192x900x2 (B&W) driver works just fine for me.
And ESIX shipped both a B&W and a Color VGA driver with it. X386 may have
some limitiations in what video cards and video modes it supports, but X
doesn't.
> As to memory: I'm using it in 8MB ram, and no swapping (with a couple of
> xterms, xclock and xcalc - nothing major). If I want to recompile the
> kernel in an xterm, I'll have to start up swapping (well, actually I've
> done it without swapping, but it's tight). I assume it's still useable
> in 4MB and a big swap-file, but I'm happy I haven't tested it.
As the software gets bigger, swapping will become more and more the norm.
Maybe we are still afraid of Linux's swap code? Other than that, the only
wrong with swapping is that it slows things down. C'est la vie.
> Speed probably depends heavily on the SVGA card: on my 386/33 with a
> no-name et4000 card I get totally acceptable performance: scrolling big
> windows is slow with other things going on, but not irritatingly so.
> You don't want to make opaque moves, but I can live without that.
OK, so X was a little slow on my 286 running X-sight. I expect the X
running on my S3 card to be MUCH faster! (It's also running on a 25Mhz 386DX)
> Harddisk space is totally up to you: minimum about 10MB for just the
> minimal clients, maximum probably the sky is the limit.
>
> Linus
=================================================================
Kevin J. Cummings Prime Computer Inc.
20 Briarwood Road 500 Old Connecticut Path
Framingham, Mass. Framingham, Mass.
Work: cummings@primerd.Prime.COM
Home: cummings@kjc386.framingham.ma.us
Std. Disclaimer: "Mr. McKittrick, after careful consideration,
I've come to the conclusion that your new
defense system SUCKS..." -- War Games
=================================================================