On Tue, Nov 14, 2006 at 03:08:57PM -0500, Greg A. Woods wrote:
> For the record you'll find the detailed xdpyinfo output below from my
> first use of XFree86-4.5.0 on NetBSD/sparc (1.6.2_STABLE).

I'm running XF86 4.5.0 on NetBSD/sparc 4.0_BETA built from late October,
on a Tadpole Sparcbook 3gx, using the pnozz driver.

> I was pleasantly surprised when it at least ran and displayed a login
> window without me touching my /etc/X11/xdm/* files.  However things
> rapidly went downhill from there.
> 
> I must say I feel like I've stepped back in time, WAY back!  Some of
> these are the kinds of problems I remember with X11R3 or earlier.
> 
> I can no longer change the key repeat rate:
> 
> 	$ xset r rate 200 10
> 	Xlib:  extension "XFree86-Misc" missing on display "very.weird.com:0.0".

This works fine on my setup.  I bumped the repeat rate up and down a few times.

<snip>

> The screen blanker blanks my screen even while I'm typing or moving
> the mouse (though of course it instantly lights up again if I keep
> typing or moving the mouse).  That's VERY VERY VERY disconcerting!

I didn't notice that behavior, but I've since turned off the default
screenblanker (xset s off) and use xscreensaver now.

> Similarly there's some much more prominent and disconcerting window
> flashing (windows appear to redraw twice) when I switch between
> workspaces when using ctwm.  It's disconcerting because it looks
> exactly like an overlaying window has closed upon the switch and an
> underlying window is redrawing itself.  This was much smoother and
> less jarring before, on the same hardware.

Again, I don't see this problem.  I'd bet this is more of a driver
problem than XF86 in general.

> The caps-lock key for a short while turned on the num-lock light, but
> now it doesn't toggle any lights after I tried fiddling with the new
> (but undocumented) xled toy.  (Note that actually the "old" xsrc/xc
> server had the lights all screwed up too, but I don't remember ever
> disabling them accidentally.)  (See xdm log entries below too)
>
> The scroll-lock key doesn't do anything.  XKeyCaps suggests it should
> produce a Scroll_Lock keysym when pressed, but Emacs see it only as
> <S-key-20> and I'm not sure who's wrong, and I don't remember what
> happened with the older Xserver.
>
> I can't change the pitch or duration of the display bell, neither with
> xbell nor with the traditional "xset b":
>
>       $ xbell 100 100 300 900 Setting: bell_percent = 100 bell_pitch =
>       300 bell_duration = 900 Have: key_click_percent = 0 bell_percent
>       = 100 bell_pitch = 300 bell_duration = 900 led_mask = 0x0
>       global_auto_repeat = 1
>
> It always just makes this really wimpy little squeak, and I'm
> reasonably certain it was a lot more robust sounding with xsrc/xc, and
> that it could be adjusted properly.

I just hate the bell in general and turn it off (xset b off), but
it does make the same beep I remember it making when it was running
Solaris, when I have it enabled.

> "xclock -digital" now dies unless you give it the "-norender" option
> (though it sometimes did that before, but without any decent error
> message, and that old problem may have been related).
> 
> 	$ xclock -digital
> 	Fontconfig error: Cannot load default config file
> 	Xlib:  extension "RENDER" missing on display "very.weird.com:0.0".
> 	Warning: Cannot convert string "" to type XftFont
> 	Memory access violation (core dumped) 

Again, no problem.

<rest snipped>

Have you tried XF86 on a newer, more current release of NetBSD?  1.6.2
is pretty old these days.  Michael Lorenz has done a lot of work on
video drivers and XF86 on sparc in the past year.  I'm not seeing any of
the problems you've mentioned running newer stuff.

-- 
Michael Parson
mparson@bl.org