  Linux XFree-to-Xinside mini-HOWTO
  by Marco Melgazzi, marco@techie.com
  v1.3, September 1997

  How to convert an XFree86 modeline into an XInside/XiGraphics one
  ______________________________________________________________________

  Table of Contents


  1. Introduction

  2. Why should I need it ?

  3. Let's go

  4. Fixing up things

  5. The end...

  6. Automating the process

  7. Thanks to

  8. Copyright/legalese

  ______________________________________________________________________

  1.  Introduction

  During the spring of 1996 I've seen a lot of posts in comp.os.linux.x
  asking how to convert video modes between XFree86 and one of its
  commercial alternatives: XInside ( now named XiGraphics, note anyway
  that in this document I'll use the old product name, since I will
  mainly refer to that version )

  I had evaluated before the product and had this evaluation version
  still floating on my hard disk: since I like problem solving, I've
  decided to give it a try and, after a couple of hours of fiddling and
  calculating, I came up with a supposedly informative article that was
  promptly posted.

  The discussions about how to convert suddendly vanished and I received
  1 (one) mail thanking me for the article so, since maybe somebody else
  could need this information in the future, I decided to transform that
  post in the mini-HOWTO you are reading.

  Let me state something first: I do NOT work for XInside and I only had
  access to the evaluation 1.2 version for Linux. I know that nowadays (
  May 97 ) AccelX has reached revision 3.1, but I do think that the
  information included in this document, if not verbatim, is still
  applicable.

  Due to the fact that this HOWTO has been written with the help of a
  pretty old Xinside version, it may well happen that some of the
  information contained here is not completely accurate: as you will
  read later, thanks to the birth of XFree 3.2, I haven't bought this
  commercial server, so if you have, and if you notice any incorrect
  information here please take the time to email me.

  Notice anyway that fiddling with monitor timings can be hazardous and,
  for this reason, I absolutely make no guarantees. If it works for you
  , fine, if you blow up your computer I shall not be held responsible
  for it.
  As you may have noticed from may name, I'm not a native speaker of
  English so you will probably find some errors here and there, I
  apologize for them and I ask you to please avoid flooding my mailbox
  with language-related flames. Thanks !

  2.  Why should I need it ?


  I think that the Xinside policy of not giving you an utility to tweak
  your video modes ( like xvidtune ) and/or to import your existing
  XFree ones in the evaluation ( and AFAIK commercial ) version is
  incomprehensible.  I've spent about three hours putting this together
  ( hint: I've compared the VESA 1024x768@70Hz entry in the two formats
  ( and I'm nearly an electronic engineer ;-)) while an Xinside
  programmer could have written a comparable article in a fraction of
  this time...

  I haven't downloaded any evaluation version from 1.3 onwards and I
  really hope they have fixed this. Well, if they have, this mini-HOWTO
  could be considered useless but, alas, if you read it you will learn
  something more about how everything works...


  3.  Let's go

  Let's suppose that you have your oh-so-tweaked XFree86 mode and you
  want to evaluate Xinside in the same conditions: follow the steps
  described below and you should be able to do it; we will use my
  default video mode as a real-life example and I will explain what you
  will have to do to convert it.

  An Xfree86 entry looks like this:

       Modeline "blahblah" DOTCLK  A B C D  a b c d

  Every one of the A-D and a-d numbers has a meaning: if you want you
  can search for it in the 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to X386/XFree86 Video
  Timing' ( /usr/lib/X11/doc/VideoModes.doc ) but you don't need to know
  the theory behind all this to perform a succesful conversion...

  My modeline in /usr/lib/X11/XF86Config is:

       Modeline "1168x876" 105  1168 1256 1544 1640  876 877 891 900
                            |     |    |    |    |    |   |   |   |
                         DOT_CLK  A    B    C    D    a   b   c   d

  In Xinside, you have to add an entry in the Xtimings file, which
  should be located in etc/ ( from now on we suppose you are in the top
  Xaccel directory that should be something like
  /usr/X11/lib/X11/AcceleratedX )

  !    Somewhere in the file, put here the name you want

  [PREADJUSTED_TIMING]
      PreadjustedTimingName = "1168x876 @ 72Hz";

  !
  !    These four are obvious
  !
      HorPixel          = 1168;         // pixels
      VerPixel          = 876;          // lines
      PixelWidthRatio   = 4;
      PixelHeightRatio  = 3;

  !
  !   hsync: DOT_CLK / D * 1000 [KHz]
  !
  !   hsync = 105 / 1640 * 1000 = 64.024 KHz
  !
  !   vsync: ( 1 / (( D / DOT_CLK ) * d) ) * 1,000,000 [Hz]
  !
  !   vsync: ( 1 / (( 1640 / 105 ) * 900) ) * 1,000,000
  !           ( 1 / 14057.1428571 ) * 1,000,000 = 71.138 Hz
  !

      HorFrequency      = 64.180;        // kHz
      VerFrequency      = 71.138;        // Hz

  !   Obvious

      ScanType          = NONINTERLACED;

  !
  !   Put here the +/-hsync +/-vsync XFree86 options
  !
      HorSyncPolarity   = POSITIVE;
      VerSyncPolarity   = POSITIVE;

  !   Shouldn't change

      CharacterWidth    = 8;             // pixels

  !   DOT_CLK here

      PixelClock        = 105.000;       // MHz
  !
  !
  !   horizontal timings section: [usec]
  !
      HorTotalTime  = D / DOT_CLK                  = 15.619;
      HorAddrTime   = A / DOT_CLK                  = 11.124;
      HorBlankStart = A / DOT_CLK                  = 11.124;
      HorBlankTime  = HorTotalTime - HorBlankStart =  4.495;
      HorSyncStart  = B / DOT_CLK                  = 11.962;
      HorSyncTime   = C / DOT_CLK - HorSyncStart   =  2.743;

   !
   !  vertical timings section:    [msec]
   !

      VerTotalTime  = ( HorTotalTime * d ) / 1000  = 14.057;
      VerAddrTime   = ( HorTotalTime * a ) / 1000  = 13.682;
      VerBlankStart = ( HorTotalTime * a ) / 1000  = 13.682;
      VerBlankTime  = VerTotalTime - VerBlankStart =  0.375;
      VerSyncStart  = ( HorTotalTime * b ) / 1000  = 13.698;
      VerSyncTime   = ( HorTotalTime * ( c - b ) ) / 1000
                                                   = 0.219
   ! Finished !

  Now you have to put this newly created mode in the files shown below
  in the appropriate place.


  4.  Fixing up things

  In the excerpts shown below the -> sign tells you what was modified:
  do NOT include it in your files!

  Monitor entry ( mine is monitors/mfreq/mfreq64.vda)

           [ESTABLISHED_TIMINGS]
               "640x480 @ 60Hz",
               "640x480 @ 72Hz",
               "640x480 @ 75Hz",
               "800x600 @ 56Hz",
               "800x600 @ 60Hz",
               "800x600 @ 72Hz",
               "800x600 @ 75Hz",
               "1024x768 Interlaced",
               "1024x768 @ 60Hz",
               "1024x768 @ 70Hz",
               "1024x768 @ 75Hz",
           "1152x900 Interlaced",
               "1152x900 @ 60Hz",
               "1152x900 @ 67Hz",
       ->      "1168x876 @ 72Hz",
               "1280x1024 Interlaced",
               "1280x1024 @ 60Hz",
           "1600x1200 Interlaced";

  Board info file ( mine is boards/s3/764-2.xqa , I wonder why they have
  nearly all the Hercules boards but not MINE: Terminator 64/Dram )

  [VISUAL]
      BitsPerPixel   = 8;
      MemoryModel    = Packed;
      ColorModel     = Indexed;
      BitsRGB        = 6;
      NumberOfColors = 256;

      [RESOLUTIONS]
      640x480,
      800x600,
      1024x768,
  ->  1168x876,
      1152x900,
      1280x1024

      [DESKTOPS]
      640x480,
      800x600,
      1024x768,
      1152x900,
  ->  1168x876,
      1280x1024,
      1600x1200

  If the dot clock is low enough ( NOT in this case for my board ) you
  can put the entry even in the 16bpp and 32bpp sec- tions.

  The /etc/Xaccel.ini will look something like this

       --------------------------------------------------------------
           Board   = "s3/764-2.xqa";
           Monitor = "mfreq/mfreq64.vda";
           Depth   = 8;
       ->  Desktop = 1168x876;

           [RESOLUTIONS]
       ->      1168x876,
               1024x768;

  The actual Xinside mode entry in etc/Xtimings

  --------------------------------------------------------------
  [PREADJUSTED_TIMING]
      PreadjustedTimingName = "1168x876 @ 72Hz";

      HorPixel          = 1168;          // pixels
      VerPixel          = 876;           // lines
      PixelWidthRatio   = 4;
      PixelHeightRatio  = 3;
      HorFrequency      = 64.024;        // kHz
      VerFrequency      = 71.138;        // Hz
      ScanType          = NONINTERLACED;
      HorSyncPolarity   = POSITIVE;
      VerSyncPolarity   = POSITIVE;
      CharacterWidth    = 8;             // pixels
      PixelClock        = 105.000;       // MHz
      HorTotalTime      = 15.619;        // (usec) =  205 chars
      HorAddrTime       = 11.124;        // (usec) =  146 chars
      HorBlankStart     = 11.124;        // (usec) =  146 chars
      HorBlankTime      =  4.495;        // (usec) =   59 chars
      HorSyncStart      = 11.962;        // (usec) =  157 chars
      HorSyncTime       =  2.743;        // (usec) =   36 chars
      VerTotalTime      = 14.057;        // (msec) =  900 lines
      VerAddrTime       = 13.682;        // (msec) =  876 lines
      VerBlankStart     = 13.682;        // (msec) =  876 lines
      VerBlankTime      =  0.375;        // (msec) =   24 lines
      VerSyncStart      = 13.698;        // (msec) =  877 lines
      VerSyncTime       =  0.219;        // (msec) =   14 lines

  You can check your conversion by running the vgaset program with no
  parameters while running the Xinside server: it will output an XFree-
  like line and, if everything went OK, this line will be equal to the
  line you started from ( except if b and c are equal, I haven't been
  able to reproduce this situation in Xinside: the best case was c=b+1
  ).


  5.  The end...

  That's all folks ! I hope this will be useful to you. I don't think
  I'll buy the XiGraphics server in the near future for one simple
  reason: the release of XFree86 3.2 solved all of the text speed
  problems I was having on my humble Trio 64 video board ;)

  It seems anyway that the XiGraphics server supports a much wider array
  of chipsets and video boards than XFree, so it may well happen that
  the commercial 'alternative' is the only viable one for you. If this
  is the case, and you bought the XiGraphics server, I would really like
  to hear from you to know if the information presented here has been
  useful to you, or if you found it too complex or whatever.


  6.  Automating the process

  This small script automates most of the work. Be very careful with the
  ScanType and with the two Polarity lines: the script do not set them
  and, if you are too lazy to correct them, the risks of blowing up your
  monitor increase quite a lot.

  Notice that I don't know if the 'Doublescan' flag has meaning in
  XInside: if you try to convert a low-res doublescan mode BE CAREFUL,
  you can easily kill your monitor since the refresh rate that you get
  is doubled ( in fact my 400x300@72Hz became a 400x300@144Hz !).

       #!/bin/sh
       ##########################################################################
       # XF2XInside
       #
       # This script converts modelines from XF86Config format to XInside
       # format as needed for the etc/Xtiming file.
       #
       # This is a quick hack, so don't expect much error checking (not to
       # speak of anything like user friendlyness).
       #
       # If you call it without arguments it should tell you what to do.
       #
       #                               ( July 1996, hcz@tazlwurm.bb.bawue.de)
       #
       # Btw: New modes created as described in the HOWTO work, but don't
       # show up in Xsetup's menu. Anybody who knows why?
       #
       ##########################################################################
       #----------------------------------------------- Here we go:
       # Change this if your modeline file lives somewhere else:
       XF=/usr/X11/lib/X11/XF86Config
       if [ $# -ne 1 ] ; then
         echo "usage: ${0##*/} <mode>"
         echo " example: ${0##*/} 1024x764"
         echo -e " function: converts $XF modeline entry into\n Xinside Format (stdout)"
         exit 1
       fi
       egrep -i "^[\t ]*modeline.+\"$1\""  /usr/X11/lib/X11/XF86Config |
       gawk '
       NF < 11  { print "! invalid Modeline:\n! " $0 "\n!"; next }
       {
         print "//", $0  ":"
         name = $2
         DOT_CLK = $3;
         A = $4;
         B = $5;
         C = $6;
         D = $7;
         a = $8;
         b = $9;
         c = $10;
         d = $11;
         VerFrequency =  1000000 / ((D / DOT_CLK) * d)
         print "[PREADJUSTED_TIMING]"
         printf "  PreadjustedTimingName = \"%dx%d @ %.0dHz\";\n", A, a, VerFrequency
         print "  HorPixel\t\t= " A ";"
         print "  VerPixel\t\t= " a ";"
         print "  PixelWidthRatio\t= 4;\n  PixelHeightRatio\t= 3;"
         print "  HorFrequency\t\t= " DOT_CLK / D * 1000 ";\t// kHz"
         print "  VerFrequency\t\t= " VerFrequency  ";\t// Hz"
         print "  ScanType\t\t= NONINTERLACED;\t\t// *CHECK*"
         print "  HorSyncPolarity\t= NEGATIVE;\t\t\t// *CHECK*"
         print "  VerSyncPolarity\t= NEGATIVE;\t\t\t// *CHECK*"
         print "  CharacterWidth\t= 8;"
         print "  PixelClock\t\t= " DOT_CLK ";"
         HorTotalTime = D / DOT_CLK
         print "  HorTotalTime\t\t= " HorTotalTime ";"
         print "  HorAddrTime \t\t= " A / DOT_CLK ";"
         print "  HorBlankStart\t\t= " A / DOT_CLK ";"
         print "  HorBlankTime\t\t= " D / DOT_CLK - A / DOT_CLK ";"
         print "  HorSyncStart\t\t= " B / DOT_CLK ";"
         print "  HorSyncTime\t\t= " C / DOT_CLK - B / DOT_CLK ";"
         VerTotalTime  = ( HorTotalTime * d ) / 1000
         print "  VerTotalTime\t\t= " VerTotalTime ";"
         print "  VerAddrTime\t\t= " ( HorTotalTime * a ) / 1000 ";"
         VerBlankStart = ( HorTotalTime * a ) / 1000
    print "  VerBlankStart\t\t= " VerBlankStart ";"
    print "  VerBlankTime\t\t= " VerTotalTime - VerBlankStart ";"
    print "  VerSyncStart\t\t= " ( HorTotalTime * b ) / 1000 ";"
    print "  VerSyncTime\t\t= " ( HorTotalTime * ( c - b ) ) / 1000
    print ""
  }'

  7.  Thanks to


    Heike Claudia Zimmerer hcz@tazlwurm.bb.bawue.de for pointing out a
     small inconsistency and for sending me a script that automates most
     of the work.

    Bartosz Maruszewski B.Maruszewski@zsmeie.torun.pl for translating
     this mini HOWTO in Polish and for pointing out a small typo.


  8.  Copyright/legalese

  (c)opyright 1996-7 by Marco Melgazzi (marco@techie.com) - the GPL (Gnu
  Public License) applies. To obtain a copy of the GPL write to the Free
  Software Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.

  Trademarks are owned by their owners. There is no warranty on the
  accuracy and/or the usefulness of the information given in this
  document.

