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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. Note setting up graphics in dCore is similar to getting graphics running from most any other base Linux system. As so much different hardware is available and packages vary between dCore flavours (ie. older/newer Debian vs Ubuntu packages), internet searching for missing packages or configuration may sometimes be required. Post on the forum if unable to get dCore graphics running properly.
- 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}.
- The Xprogs extension is now a dependency of any xorg-* extension.
- Extensions to identify hardware, such as pciutils, can be removed when no longer required.
- Review this dCore graphics FAQ entry if unable to get graphics running.
- Review /var/log/Xorg.0.log for hints after a failed startx attempt.
- 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. For example, an old Intel i810 graphic system required the dCore xorg.conf example file below, including the “DRI” “FALSE” entry, to obtain any graphics in dCore-xenial.
- Various software to test and benchmark graphic performance can be imported from the respective Debian/Ubuntu repository, such as GtkPerf, mesa-utils (provides glxgears) and nvidia-detect (requires loading Bash). This may help to identify problems and deficiencies. For example, a failed attempt to run
glxgears
on the Intel i810 system mentioned above required loading libgl1-mesa-swx11 in addition to xorg-intel and graphics-3.16.6-tinycore.
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 entry to /opt/.filetool.lst: etc/X11/xorg.conf
- Run
backup
command to backup system. - Run
sudo reboot
command to reboot.
Example xorg.conf file for an old Intel i810 graphics system in dCore-xenial:
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" "true" # [<bool>] #Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>] #Option "ColorKey" # <i> #Option "CacheLines" # <i> #Option "Dac6Bit" # [<bool>] Option "DRI" "false" # [<bool>] #Option "NoDDC" # [<bool>] #Option "ShowCache" # [<bool>] #Option "XvMCSurfaces" # <i> #Option "PageFlip" # [<bool>] Identifier "Card0" Driver "intel" BusID "PCI:0:1:0" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Card0" Monitor "Monitor0" DefaultDepth 16 SubSection "Display" Depth 16 #Modes "1024x768" Modes "1280x800" EndSubSection EndSection