wmo@rebma.rebma.mn.org (Bill O'Hanlon) (05/30/90)
I'm having a little getting the X11.4 server going on my machine. I got past the minor problems with getting it compiled and installed. I have the dbm libraries, I removed the files ending in ~ in lib/X, etc. Here's the problem: when I run it, the machine panics. There's quite a bit of disk access, and xinit gives a few messages. These talk about starting up the X server, using the RT keyboard, and waiting for the server to respond. I'm a little curious if the bit about the RT keyboard is correct... The machine panics with a "parity error on add-on card"... My VGA card is a Paradise. I'm running on a 33 MHZ 386; the motherboard is made by Mylex. I know the VGA card is fine, because I can run Interactive's X11.3 just fine, and DOS things that use the card work fine, too. Anyone seen anything like this? The things I'm suspicious of, so far, are 1) the bit about the RT keyboard--the code in that place mentions the regular PC keyboard as being the other possibility. I can't figure out why I'm getting RT there, unless I'm s'posed to. 2) Maybe I've got something set up funny because I have the regular X11.3 package installed? I did try taking the support for it out of the kernel, but that didn't help. (In case it's not obvious, I moved all the X11.3 stuff out of the way.) Anyone have any suggestions? I'm not hurting, because I do have the regular X product, but r4 would be nice to have. -- Bill O'Hanlon wmo@rebma.mn.org "Everything in excess! To enjoy the flavor of life, take big bites. Moderation is for monks." -- Lazarus Long
erik@westworld.esd.sgi.com (Erik Fortune) (06/05/90)
In article <201@rebma.rebma.mn.org>, wmo@rebma.rebma.mn.org (Bill O'Hanlon) writes: > I'm a little curious if the bit about the RT keyboard is correct... > 1) the bit about the RT keyboard--the code in that place > mentions the regular PC keyboard as being the other > possibility. I can't figure out why I'm getting RT there, > unless I'm s'posed to. I haven't looked at the code that was recently posted, but I suspect that much of it was borrowed from the original IBM code. First some history on that server, then a long answer (short answer -- the message isn't a problem). The IBM VGA server ran (originally) on an RT coprocessor card that fit into a PS/2; the coprocessor ran BSD un*x. This combo (PS/2+coprocessor) was known as a 6152 and was a *nice* little machine. The server on this machine was *the same binary* as the server on the RT. It noticed where it was running and used the correct screens. The RT was the first machine to use the new "converged" keyboard layout, which had the caps lock featured real prominent-like, an the control key strategically hidden way down in the corner. We didn't like this, so we swapped (in software) the Caps Lock and Control keys. PCs of this era had accesible control keys, so we called the option to put the control key somewhere useful "-pckeys" and the option to use the keys as labelled "-rtkeys." Eventually, PC keyboards converged and more and more of our users wanted the control key way down there. We added an informational message to tell people which keyboard configuration they were getting so there'd be no surprises. Your message ("using RT keyboard") really means "not swapping control and caps lock." The code to deal with the keyboard was fairly OS-specific, so I have no idea if the key to actually swap the keys is still in the server; this message might be totally vestigal. The message almost certainly doesn't have anything to do with parity errors. If this option isn't implemented and you'd like to implement it, look at the original IBM code. All this option does is lie about key caps; it physically swaps the control and caps lock entries in the modifier and key caps tables. It's probably 10 or 15 lines of code. Good luck! Erik (erik@sgi.com) Disclaimer: Needless to say, I didn't work for SGI when all of this was going on. I bear full responsibility for the contents of this article.