der Mouse wrote:

> > I think I've secured a spare AlphaPC164 to look into this a bit more
> > seriously.  If I recall (without checking up in the archives), the
> > problems with XFree86 have been "we (NetBSD) don't just want to make
> > the VGA card look like a PC to XFree like some other Un*x clones do,
> > we want a nice MI interface"?
> 
> I've never understood why NetBSD persists in trying to use XFree86 on
> non-x86 machines.  It seems to me that this is exactly the problem
> here: you're using an X server designed for x86 machines on a non-x86
> machine, and having trouble because the hardware and the software don't
> get along.  This makes about as much sense to me as trying to use the
> Mac version of SoftPC on a Sun and getting upset when it doesn't work.

The issue would seem to be much more "which X distribution supports N
vga cards?" than "which X distribution supports the alpha?".  Most other
NetBSD architectures use .../Xserver/hw/netbsd and don't delve into
.../Xserver/hw/xfree86 at all.

Simon.