Xorg FYI

T <[email protected]> Sat, 26 Oct 2019 15:17:05 -0600
Newsgroups gmane.os.netbsd.ports.prep
Message-ID <[email protected]>
Hi all,
just an FYI about running Xorg, you'll need to use a custom kernel 
config because the standard ones lack the following line, which is 
required to run X:

options         INSECURE        # needed for X to work

This option sets kern.securelevel=-1, which would normally be 0 by 
default. During the boot process, 0 will automatically be reassigned to 
1, which prevents X from certain memory reads. This will prevent X from 
starting with errors like:

(EE) s3(0): Cannot read V_BIOS (5) Function not implemented

I was able to get the integrated IBM E15 display adapter working in 
8-bit mode, 16-bit and 24-bit modes did start, but had weird color 
issues and small resolutions. Those modes are functionally unusable. The 
datasheet for the S3 Vision864 chip claims to support better color and 
resolutions, but the E15 implementation does not look to work with them 
and the IBM documentation only states support for the 8-bit resolutions. 
1024x768 8-bit seems to work okay, which is the max resolution mentioned 
in the IBM documentation.

-Tim