Solaris on Tecra 550CDT: Video

So basically you have two choices: free XFree86 server from The XFree86 Project, Inc. or commecrial X-Accelerated Server for Laptops from Xi Graphics, Inc. I went with the latter, and I don't regret.

Xi Graphics' product is a solid X server, specifically designed for the chipset and vendor of the Tecra's video system. It's not cheap - was $249 as of June 1998 - but it does all I want: never crashes, is fast enough, consumes slightly less memory than Xsun and drives my laptop's display at 1024x768x16M (TrueColor).

You'll need version 4.1.2 of X-Accelerated Server for Laptops for UNIX. There's also a number of patches and upgrades available from Xi Graphics' Web site, of which you'll have to install at least L4102.001 and L4102.007.

The installation of X-Accelerated Server is very simple and the configuration is pretty straightforward. There may be one tricky moment, though: if you're installing the original version 4.1.2 (not incorporating later patches), then the Graphics Board parameter in Xsetup main menu should be set to Toshiba Tecra 750 CDT, 4Mb, not to S3 Virge/MX, 4Mb - the latter is too generic and doesn't take into consideration the board manufacturer, it will not work on Tecra 550CDT! With patch L4102.007 installed, the selection Toshiba Tecra 550CDT, 4Mb is available without any workarounds. Just in case, here's how the Xsetup settings look like for my configuration:

 Graphics Board: Toshiba TECRA 550CDT, 4MB
        Monitor: LCD XGA (1024x768)
         Colors: 16M, Packed
    Resolutions: 1024x768
        Desktop: Disabled
EnergyStar/DPMS: On
Keyboard Layout: US American
     Mouse Type: PS/2 Mouse
   Mouse Device: /dev/kdmouse
Emulate3Buttons: Emulate 3 Buttons
       Settings: RGB File:       ...
                 Font Path:      ...
                 Backing Store:  On
                 Save Unders:    On
                 Server NumLock: On

And here's the output of correctly running X-Accelerated Server written to /etc/dt/Xerrors:

Xaccel 4.1.2 (build 4102/WOMBAT-BETA,LX)
Accelerated-X (tm) Display Server 
Copyright (c) 1993-98 by Xi Graphics, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
Unpublished -- Rights reserved under the
Copyright Laws of the United States

1a
User:          Youri Podchosov
Organisation:  Private
Serial Number: XXXXXX-NNNNNNNNNN-NN

Configuration file: /etc/Xaccel.ini
Solaris using /dev/vt01

PCI (#1/0, 80000004)
S3,34: 86C260 (4096k @f8000000)

Well, that's basically it! But there're two more issues worth duscussing.

First, there's one thing you're gonna be missing if you go with X-Accelerated server (or, for that matter, with any other X server except the one that comes with Solaris): it doesn't include Adobe Display Postscript (DPS) extension, which some (but very few) Solaris tools take advantage of.

For Solaris versions before 2.6, the biggest inconvenience used to be not working Answerbook: it relied heavily on a DPS capable X server and wouldn't run without it. But with 2.6 comes totally different implementation - Answerbook2 - which uses any HTML browser as a front end and therefore doesn't require DPS extension at all.

Another thing that doesn't work because of lack of DPS extension is rendering Postscript documents by sdtimage (other formats, e.g. TIFF, are OK). But I personally don't care 'cause I use gv+gs for PS and PDF files anyway, so in fact the absence of DPS in my X server is totally transparent to me.

Second, people that never worked with laptops/notebooks often think that display sizes found on portable systems are way too small as compared to the ones of modern desktops. I've been in their shoes myself: I've been always wondering how one can comfortably use 13" screen (much less 12" that I have on my laptop now) when even 19" desktop system monitor sometimes seems to be far from fun to work with. Then, after spending quite a few hours in J&R's laptop section, I came to understand that the quality of image on a good active matrix (a.k.a. TFT) display - colors, sharpness, ergonomics - is better than for any CRT monitor. Also, because one normally has the laptop positioned much closer to his eyes than a desktop monitor, the entire LCD screen is seen under much bigger angle, so visually a 12" screen delivers the same perception as 17" monitor, and 14" is closer to 20" on the desktop.

Now that I've been using my laptop for about 4 months, I can see myself that its 12" screen is felt exactly as 17" screen on a desktop system, only much brighter and crispier. The only thing I'd like to change is to have a slightly higher resolution (I'm used to 1152x900 on 17" screens), but there's nothing that can be done about it until laptops with 1280x1024 displays start appearing on the market.