At 9:20 PM +0100 11/12/03, Markus W Kilbinger wrote:
>  >>>>> "peter" == peter  <peter@larkowski.net> writes:
>
>     peter> What's the status of XFree86 on alpha right now? Is either
>     peter> the 4.3.0 or the 4.2.1 stuff on caseydoodle.com the latest
>     peter> and greatest or has all of that been merged into xsrc? Do I
>     peter> need current or is a recent 1-6-release good enough to
>     peter> build?
>
>Last week I successfully compiled and ran (and still run) -current
>xsrc (== xfree86 4.3.0) on an alpha (alphastation 500) under
>netbsd-1-6 kernel and userland. The Xserver (XdecNetBSD) even supports
>its powerstorm 4d20 graphic card.

XDecNetBSD is not based on XFree86, version 4.3.0 or otherwise (it's 
MIT-based).

Xsrc does contain XFree86 sources, but it also contains sources for 
XDecNetBSD, XMacBSD, etc which are not XFree86. When you compile 
xsrc, there's an if defined(USE_XF86_4) directive. If that isn't set, 
then it'll compile the native XServer instead of XFree if it's an 
architecture which has a separate native Xserver.

The noticeable difference between XDecNetBSD and XFree86 is that you 
cannot use the wscons virtual consoles with XDecNetBSD, while you can 
when you run XFree86. Also, XFree86 cannot control the TGA or PMAX 
cards because they're graphics-only (no VGA-compatibility mode). This 
is also why MacPPC and Mac68k have their own similar XServers. On the 
plus side (if you don't require virtual consoles), there is 
absolutely no configuration necessary to get the XDecNetBSD server to 
work, it gets the resolution/depth info automatically.

Hope this helps,
Mike
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