Minix 3.1.2 and X
Anthony Howe
use for testing with. I decided to give Minix 3 a try after all the hype
I read about this week.
I go through the install a couple of times, run the tests, do the
rebuild (yes, its quick even on this machine), etc. as outlined in the
setup(8). I finally decide to try X windows. Type "xdm" and it fails:
xdm error (pid 228): daemon fork failed, Not enough core
top(1) reports 34216 KB RAM free, 27848 contiguous free, yet xdm (and
startx) refuse to start.
What I find odd, is that the previous OS installed on this machine, was
OpenBSD 3.8 with X Windows and XFCE4 installed and it ran happily
without ever complaining about memory limitations.
Is there some configuration option that I've overlooked to make X work
or is there a bug in the port of X Windows for Minix 3?
--
Anthony C Howe Skype: SirWumpus SnertSoft
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AKAImBatman
The problem you're experiencing is caused by the fact that Minix
currently doesn't have a Virtual Memory system. As a result, X-Windows
must rely on REAL memory to operate. Normally, you'd just be able to
'chmem +100000000 /usr/X11R6/bin/Xorg' to fix the problem, but you
don't have 100 megs to use for the data segment. And since the system
can't swap to disk, you run out of memory.
You can mess with the chmem command to see if you can set the X binary
to a reasonable memory size, but otherwise you're probably going to
have to wait until Minix3 grows up just a little.
Thanks!
AKAImBatman
awoo...@hampshire.edu
> Hi Anthony!
> The problem you're experiencing is caused by the fact that Minix
> currently doesn't have a Virtual Memory system. As a result, X-Windows
> must rely on REAL memory to operate. ...
> You can mess with the chmem command to see if you can set the X binary
> to a reasonable memory size, ...
In fact, the amount of memory X needs depends upon the amount of
memory on your video card. So another possible route to success with X
is to downgrade your video card -- replace it with one with less
on-board memory -- and then X will need less memory. Of course, you'll
lose higher resolution video modes.
Disclaimer, I haven't tried this myself. I got X on Minix going on one
desktop machine by increasing system RAM to 394 MB. Another machine I
wanted to run Minix 3.1.2 X on is a laptop. RAM was maxed out at 128
MB, and as a laptop there is no way to replace the video card.
--
+----------------------------------+
| Albert S. Woodhull |
| awoo...@hampshire.edu |
| http://minix1.woodhull.com/asw/ |
+----------------------------------+
The idea is to die young as late as possible.
AKAImBatman
> In fact, the amount of memory X needs depends upon the amount of
> memory on your video card. So another possible route to success with X
> is to downgrade your video card -- replace it with one with less
> on-board memory -- and then X will need less memory. Of course, you'll
> lose higher resolution video modes.
Mr. Woodhull has an interesting idea here. While it's a bit extreme, it
may point to a solution that you can use with a bit of software
rejiggering. The xorg.conf file has an option under the Device section
called VideoRAM. This is the amount of RAM you wish the X Server to map
to the video card's memory. Now many cards get auto-probed, and this
setting is ignored. However, if you set your video card to VESA instead
of your specific model, the X Server *may* pay attention to the
setting.
I can't guarantee it will work, but it's something to try. I recommend
setting your only available modes to 640x480x[24 | 16 | 8] until you've
verified that this works. At that resolution, you can happily tell X
Windows that you only have "1024" kilobytes of memory. To be on the
safe side, though, you might want to set it to "4096" kilobytes. Don't
forget to 'chmem' the xorg binary to a much smaller value like 20 megs!
Good luck!
AKAImBatman
Anthony Howe
> awoo...@hampshire.edu wrote:
>> In fact, the amount of memory X needs depends upon the amount of
>> memory on your video card. So another possible route to success with X
>> is to downgrade your video card -- replace it with one with less
>> on-board memory -- and then X will need less memory. Of course, you'll
>> lose higher resolution video modes.
> I can't guarantee it will work, but it's something to try. I recommend
> setting your only available modes to 640x480x[24 | 16 | 8] until you've
> verified that this works. At that resolution, you can happily tell X
> Windows that you only have "1024" kilobytes of memory. To be on the
> safe side, though, you might want to set it to "4096" kilobytes. Don't
> forget to 'chmem' the xorg binary to a much smaller value like 20 megs!
Well I've been playing a little bit with assorted chmem settings between
xdm, xinit, and Xorg. I have an ATI RAGE II card in that machine and
from what I saw in the log for the auto-probe, it appears to have a 2048
KB video ram.
I've knocked Xorg to about 12 MB memory size and it starts to a point
(no out of memory anyways); now I have video resolution setting / sync
errors I think. I have to use 1024x768, because its an older flat panel
screen and anything less is too fuzzy to look at.
I'll keep juggling and see what I can figure out. So far though, using
xdm, startx, or xinit doesn't work yet, but starting Xorg on its own with:
Xorg -verbose 3 -logverbose 3
at least tells me more that I knew before. If I can get X (Xorg) to
start, then the rest should fall into place I hope.