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Table of Contents
dCore Graphic Servers and Drivers
The following sections discuss dCore graphic servers and drivers. Refer to the dcore X Window System page and the Essential dCore README links to get a graphic system up and running.
dCore Xvesa Installation
The Xvesa graphic server, also known as the tiny X server, and it's associated VESA driver is included in some dCorePlus-*.iso downloads but will slowly be phased out. To install Xvesa run sce-import -b Xvesa
(capital x). Xvesa should not be confused with X.org's 'xorg-vesa' driver. The Xvesa server is a lighter, older alternative to X.org. As the Xvesa link indicates, it should only be used in trusted environments.
Similar to running Xvesa in Tiny Core, specific boot codes may be used to set desired screen resolution. For reference, review boot codes explained and Tiny Core boot codes, especially vga=*. Reboot and test system graphics.
Noted 1024×768 appears to be the maximum resolution available and some Window Managers or Desktop Environments no longer work with Xvesa. For example, FLWM worked fine but LXDE did not work at all. Ensure Xvesa, Xprogs and the preferred Window Manager is listed in sceboot.lst, but not any of the xorg-* extensions.
Upon first run if graphic resolution is poor, press Ctrl-Alt-Delete to exit to TTY, run xsetup.sh
, choose desired screen resolution and mouse, enter startx
to restart Xvesa session. If the scroll mouse does not work, try appending ',5' (comma five) in the first ~/.xsession line, as below. If Xvesa resolution is still not adequate or it does not work with the desired Window Manager, remove Xvesa and install either xorg-all or a more specific xorg-* extension.
/usr/local/bin/Xvesa -br -screen 1024x768x24 -shadow -mouse /dev/psaux,5 -nolisten tcp -I >/dev/null 2>&1 &
dCore Xorg-all Driver Installation
All xorg-* drivers are based on X.org. The xorg-all extension is convenient for initial system setup if uncertain regarding graphic hardware. The driver must be installed to load onboot and a system reboot after installation is required for proper testing.
- Install the xorg-all graphic driver by running the
sce-import -b xorg-all
command. - Reboot and test system.
dCore Xorg-<specific> Driver Installation
As most systems require only a single graphic driver (eg. Intel, NVidia), installation of the specific driver vs xorg-all is preferred if familiar with the graphic hardware. The driver must be installed to load onboot and a system reboot after installation is required for proper testing. Basic steps to identify hardware and install the correct video driver:
- Run the appropriate command to identify graphic hardware. If the xorg-all extension is already loaded the
lspci
command will also specify the driver being used. For example, install and load the pciutils package, run the commandlspci -v
or evenlspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A3
to check which driver is in use (eg. Intel i915). - Install the appropriate graphic driver. For example, for xorg-intel run the command
sce-import -b xorg-intel
to import the xorg-intel driver onboot. If uncertain regarding the extension name, the -c (contains) option may also be used with thesce-import
command. For example, runsce-import -b -c xorg
, then select the appropriate xorg-* driver for installation. - If xorg-all was previously installed, ensure it is no longer listed in /etc/sysconfig/tcedir/sceboot.lst.
- Reboot and test system.
- Upon successful testing, optionally run
sce-remove
to remove SCEs no longer required (eg. pciutils, xorg-all).
Although not fully resolved, there is a dCore forum thread on proprietary NVidia drivers.
dCore Graphic Notes
Additional notes that may help set up a graphic system:
- The extension being installed may contain video drivers plus additional data. For example, xserver-xorg-video-intel also contains the packages xserver-xorg-video-vesa and xserver-xorg-input-{all,wacom,mouse,vmmouse,synaptics}.
- Extensions to identify hardware, such as pciutils, can be removed when no longer required.
- The Xprogs extension is now a dependency of any xorg-* extension.
- Although not typically required an xorg.conf file may be needed to get graphics, achieve desired resolution and colour depth or enable graphic driver options. See the dCore xorg.conf example below.
- Review this dCore graphics FAQ entry for more information.
dCore xorg.conf Example
If an xorg.conf file is required to obtain proper graphic resolution:
- Create an /etc/X11/xorg.conf file
- Add this full pathway to /opt/.filetool.lst for persistence: etc/X11/xorg.conf
Example xorg.conf file for an old Intel i810 system:
Section "Monitor" Identifier "Monitor0" HorizSync 28.0 - 96.0 VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Device" ### Available Driver options are:- ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False", ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz" ### [arg]: arg optional #Option "NoAccel" # [<bool>] #Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>] #Option "ColorKey" # <i> #Option "CacheLines" # <i> #Option "Dac6Bit" # [<bool>] #Option "DRI" # [<bool>] #Option "NoDDC" # [<bool>] #Option "ShowCache" # [<bool>] #Option "XvMCSurfaces" # <i> #Option "PageFlip" # [<bool>] Identifier "Card0" Driver "intel" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Card0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 16 SubSection "Display" Depth 16 Modes "1152x864" EndSubSection EndSection