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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQS);faqs.349



QUESTION: How can I write codes suitable for building shared library ?

ANSWER: (H.J. Lu, [e-mail], 09/01/92)
There are some guidelines for writing codes suitable for building the
shared library with jump table.

1. Never, ever allow library users to access global data directly.
   Always, always make them go through access functions.  That way,
   you are free to change the internal implementation, but can
   easily provide backward compatibility by simply replacing the
   access functions.

2. If you do have to define some global data for library users to
   access, put them into a separate file. Never mix them with other
   library code. Also make sure the relative locations of the global
   data will not change very often. One solution is leave some spaces
   for them to grow.

X. SCSI SPECIAL
===============
*** This section is written by Drew Eckhardt, mail him for any
*** information, questions related to this section.
*** Last update November 1992.


QUESTION: What SCSI hosts are supported?

ANSWER: The Adaptec 154x, Adaptec 174x Future Domain 16x0,  Seagate ST0x,
Ultrastor 14F, and Western Digital 7000FASST  are supported.  Various Adaptec
clones from Bustek and Future Domain are known to work, in both ISA and EISA
flavors.

The TMC 950, and the discrete 8xx implementations will be supported
in the new Seagate driver when debugging is finished.  If you want to
use an older kernel, add 0x200 to the status and data register addresses.

Not very many BIOS signatures are included for the Future domain boards, so
they may not auto-detect correctly.

QUESTION: Which disks ?

ANSWER: Anything that works with your host adapter electronically, and
is new enough to support a December 1985 draft of SCSI-I.

Sysquest, and other removeable hard disks are supported.

Extended partitions also work, with 11 Extended partitions per disk
allowed in combination with the four real partitions and whole disk
sub device.

Disks up to two terabytes in size will work, since the sd drier
switches to 10 byte reads when necessary.

QUESTION: What about SCSI tapes ?

ANSWER: Tapes are supported in the alpha SCSI drivers.

QUESTION: What about CD ROMS?

ANSWER: Stable support is in the kernel for SCSI CD-ROM drives, and the
ISO-9660 file system is in beta test.  Rockridge extensions are supported.

QUESTION: How do I get SCSI information?

ANSWER: Subscribe to the SCSI channel of the linux-activists mailing list.
mail [e-mail]
And put in the header.
       X-MN-Admin: join SCSI

QUESTION :  I can't make a filesystem on /dev/hd*

ANSWER : /dev/hd* aren't your SCSI disks.  /dev/sd* are.
See below for approproate major / minor numbers if they
do not exist on your root diskette.

QUESTION: How do I partition the disk?

ANSWER: Use pfdisk or the DOS parititioning program of your choice

QUESTION: My partitioning program can't figure out the disk geoemetry

The problem with partitioning SCSI disks and Linux is that Linux talks
directly to the SCSI interface.  Each disk is viewed as the SCSI host
sees it : N blocks, numbered from 0 to N-1, all error free.  There is
no portable way to get disk geometry.

However, DOS doesn't like things like this, it demmands that BIOS
present it with a normal Cylinder / Head / Sector coordinates.  So,
BIOS does, and it comes up with some fabrication that fits what DOS
wants to see.  You don't want to disagree with what BIOS thinks when
you write the partition table.

The newest SCSI code will return the mapped geometry for some host
adapter / disk combinations. Get the latest SCSI code from
tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/ALPHA/scsi

QUESTION: The stock {f,pf}disk programs don't work.

ANSWER: At least some older versions of these partitioning programs have
/dev/hd* hardcoded into them, and they don't see /dev/sd*.

If you want, YOU can change the /dev/hd* devices to be links to or
other entries for the SCSI devices.

Also, pfdisk should be callable with a device name.

Hopefully, some one will change the partitioning programs to respect
the SCSI devices.

QUESTION: Where is the latest version maintained?

ANSWER: tsx-11.mit.edu:/pub/linux/ALPHA/scsi

Join the list before you grab anything.

[e-mail] (Eric Youngdale) added scatter/gather support
to the SCSI drivers, and changed around the internal structures to get
something that works as "version 2"

QUESTION: What are the major / minor numbers for SCSI drives?

ANSWER: Because of the large number of devices that can be hung off of
a SCSI bus (as many as 56 if you use SCSI fanouts or bridge boards),
and the possibility of 16 partitions on a SCSI disk, we'd run out of
minor numbers if they were statically allocated - so a dynamic
numbering scheme is used.

Block device major 8 is used for SCSI drives, 9 for SCSI tapes, and
11 for CD-ROMs.

Minors are assigned in increments of 16 to SCSI disks as they are
found, scaning from host 0, ID 0 to host n, ID 7, excluding the host
ID.  Most hosts use ID 7 for themselves.

A minor where minor mod 16 = 0 is the whole drive, where minor mod 16
is between 1 and 4, that partition, extended partitions dynamically
assigned from 5 to 15 inclusive.  Note that the gendisk.c module
prints partition tables on initialization - you should be able to see
them there.

Example : I have four SCSI disks, set up as follows
        Seagate ST02, ID=0
        Seagate ST02, ID = 5
        Ultrastor 14, ID = 0
        Adaptec 1542, ID = 0

The first disk on the seagate at ID 0 will become minors 0-15
inclusive, the second at ID5 16-31 inclusive, the disk on the
Ultrastor 32-47, on the Adaptec 48-63.

QUESTION: How do I reduce kernel bloat and eliminate the drivers I
don't want?

ANSWER: Simply #undef CONFIG_DISTRIBUTION in include/linux/config.h,
and define the macros for the SCSI hosts you want enabled.

QUESTION: I get SCSI timeouts.

ANSWER: Make sure your board has interrupts enabled correctly.

QUESTION: The seagate driver doesn't work.

ANSWER: There are several possibilities
1) Is the board jumpered for IRQ5 ?

The factory settings are
for MSLOSS, and have interrupts disabled.  Interrupts are controlled
by the W3 (ST01) or JP3 (ST02) jumper, which should have pins FG
shorted.  See your manual.

2) Cached machines will not have problems IF the Seagate's address
space (typically C8000 - CAFFFF) is not marked "non cacheable."
This applies to the i486 internal cache as well as i386/i486
external caches.

This can be set in the XCMOS of most machines.  If you can't disable
cache for the Seagate's area (16K in size, starting at the base
address), then you must disable the cache entirely, otherwise
it won't work.

3) The new seagate drivers (not yet released) can operate in a mode where
the 0ws ISA bus line is used to synchronize the ISA and SCSI busses.
This makes things fast, since the alpha Seagate driver can dump SCSI data out
fast enough to swamp the bus.  However, this will only work if the 0ws
jumper is enabled.  If this isn't the case, the Seagate driver "should" detect
this as an over/under run condition, but it might not.  Either enable
the 0ws jumper, or #undef FAST in seagate.h.

QUESTION: The Adaptec driver doesn't work.

ANSWER: The Adaptec BIOS does some initialization that affects
the driver.  If the BIOS was disabled, it may fail on your system.

Older versions of the SCSI drivers ran the 174x in 1542 emulation
mode, where some of these cards have a bug that interferes with
reads / writes > 512 bytes.

The new SCSI drivers support the 174x in 'native' mode, so this isn't
a problem.

QUESTION: What about bugs?

ANSWER: It works on MY hardware.  It works on Tommy Thorn's Adaptec
system, Dave Gentzel's Ultrastor, Thomas Wuensche's WD7000, Rick
Faith's Future Domain, and quite a few other systems.

Bugs that are there will mostly be very hardware specific, and nasty
to track down.  SCSI should be basically error free - consequently,
the error code has not been heavily tested, and there are known bugs
in it.

If you have found a bug, please mail it to the mailing list with
specifics of your hardware.  Other people may have the same problem, a
solution, etc.

If you provide a patch, in context diff form, the bug will be fixed
Immediately.  If you can provide me with a procedure that reproduces
the bug on *MY* system, the bug will be fixed "soon."  Your chances
of getting it fixed increase exponentially with the amount of
information provided.  If I can't reproduce it, and your
description gives me no idea as to where in the code to  look,
it won't get fixed by me.

QUESTION: What are the known bugs?

ANSWER :

Many of the drivers cannot abort a command that is in progress - if
something goes haywire, all drives off that controller will hang.

QUESTION: I get a message saying READ CAPACITY FAILED. What does this
mean?

ANSWER: UPGRADE.

QUESTION: Why does the system "hang" when SCSI disk access occurs.

ANSWER: Older Linux distributions (pre .97)  used  earlier versions
of the SCSI drivers, where the drivers were not interrupt driven
(easier debugging, or so we thought).  Since the drivers did not return
from the device driver strategy routine, until the SCSI command
completed, no other tasks were scheduled, and ineteractive performance
was abysmall.

UPGRADE.

QUESTION: Why can't I swap to a SCSI disk?, Why can't I mount a SCSI
disk as root?

ANSWER: This was due do a race condition that has since been fixed.

UPGRADE.

QUESTION: What future developments are planned?

ANSWER: The following changes will/have occurred :

        - have occurred :

        - support for scatter / gather is there.  This
          means that all read (and readaheads) will be
          handled via one command.

        - Significant changes have been made to the
              Seagate driver.  Among other things, it supports the
          0ws line, which means we can dump data fast enough
          to flood the bus.

        - Multiple outstanding commands per LUN are supported.
          This should result in vastly improved performance
          on multi-device systems.

        - SCSI tapes are supported.

        - Support for LUN !=0 is there.

    - Planned
        - SCSI commands are issued as linked commands
          wherever possible, eliminating the arbitration /
          selection / message out phases needed to start
          a command "from scratch".

        - I have the mode page specs, and am looking at
          doing "appropriate things" w.r.t. cache enable,
          buffer control, etc.  It seems that some drives
          power up, and keep the buffer off until told otherwise
          in software.


QUESTION: What drivers does the new code support.

ANSWER: ALL of the existing drivers work fine.  However, only an Adaptec
scatter/gather driver is included in the alpha package.  The seagate
scatter/gather driver is fast but not yet stable and still kernel
panics.

QUESTION: WHEN?

ANSWER: Again, thanks to Eric's code contributions, it's available in
alpha test now.


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Summary: Linux, a small and free unix for 386-AT computers.
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Archive-name: linux-faq/part4
Last-Modified: 92/11/20
Version: 1.11

*********************************************************
*                            *
*   Answers to Frequently asked questions about Linux   *
*                            *
*********************************************************

This post contains Part 4 of the Linux FAQ (4 parts).
It must be read *after* the 3 first parts.

===================================8<====>8============================
CONTENTS (of this part)

    XI.    X11, THE MAXIMUM and MORE    (part4)
    XII.    NETWORKING and LINUX        (part4)
    XIII.    EMACS for LINUX            (part4)

===================================8<====>8============================


XI. X11 THE MAXIMUM and MORE
============================
*** This section is maintained by Krishna Balasubramanian
*** <[e-mail]>. Mail him if you have corrections,
*** additions, etc.
*** Last update: Tue, 17 Nov 92 19:06:57 -0500

XI.A. X386 GENERAL INFORMATION
XI.B. HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS: Supported Video cards.
XI.C. LINUX DISTRIBUTION: Files required, Current version.
XI.D. LEARNING/USING X: Pointers to X documentation.
XI.E. DEBUGGING STARTUP PROBLEMS: Checklist, Screen restoration, Hanging.
XI.F. XCONFIG: Video mode settings and common errors in Xconfig.
XI.G. X-APPLICATIONS: Compiling X programs.
XI.H. BUGS

The X11 directories are (depending on your version of X)
XLIB = /usr/X386/lib/X11/ or /usr/lib/X11/
XBIN = /usr/X386/bin/ or /usr/bin/X11/



XI.A. X386 GENERAL INFORMATION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTION: What is the X11 release supported by Linux?

ANSWER: It's the X11R5 (xfree86-1.1).


QUESTION: What is X386/xfree86?

ANSWER: X386 is the port of the X11 server to System V/386 that was
done by Thomas Roell ([e-mail]).  It supports a
wide variety of VGA boards.  X386 1.2 is included in MIT's X11R5
distribution.

The Linux X386 port was based on the stock distribution from X11R5,
from MIT and was done by Orest Zborowski ([e-mail]).

It has since moved to becoming part of the standard xfree86 distribution.


QUESTION: Where can I get X386 1.2 (X11R5)?

ANSWER: The X386 1.2 and xfree86 sources are available at any site that
distributes the X11R5 source (too numerous to list here, but includes
export.lcs.mit.edu)


QUESTION: Any tips on compiling X11R5?

ANSWER:
-  Dont do it.
-  XFree86 is distributed with a link kit so you can optionally
    include what you like in the server.
-  You will need lots of disk space (around 150Meg for the MIT core).
-  Look at mit/server/ddx/x386/README and follow any instructions for
    your particular platform.
-  Contact the X11 channel at linux-activists




XI.B  HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Approx: at least 4 megs of ram + swap ...slooooww. 10 Meg disk for X.
Another 6-10 meg of disk for GCC if you want to compile X11 programs.

QUESTION: What VGA boards are supported?

ANSWER:
    et3000, et4000, gvga, pvga1a, wd890c00, tvga8900, ati ver. 5 or 6,
        8514/A, generic vga: 800x600 mono (Xmono), 640x480x16 (Xega).

    Diamond cards are not supported and will not be supported.
Contact Diamond if you have further questions or (better) buy another card.

Standard x11v1.1 or xfree86 server:
    ET3000         (for ex. GENOA 5300/5400)
        ET4000         (Tricom, STB PWR Graph, Sigma Legend, etc.)
        GVGA         (Genoa 6400)
        PVGA1A         (Paradise VGA Professional) ... see BUGS.
        WD90C00     (Paradise VGA 1024)

supported by xfree86:
    TVGA8900     TRIDENT 8900 support is in xfree86

    ATI        ATI VGA WONDER XL and most ATI VGA WONDER PLUS
            cards (chip version 5 or 6).
            Courtesy Rik Faith ([e-mail])
ATI Notes: An example Xconfig file is available from ftp.cs.unc.edu:
/pub/faith/linux/x386. Please note that:
1) clock.exe does *NOT* work with ATI cards.
2) The ATI Wonder driver in xFree86 is known only to work with
   chip version 5 and 6 cards.  This is most ATI VGA Wonder PLUS cards
   and all ATI VGA Wonder XL cards (although sporadic problems have been
   reported even with these very recent cards). The driver will tell
   you which ATI chip version you have, as will the ati.test program in
   XLIB/etc/


MONO    Any vga card should be able to use X386mono server. (At least
    640x480 with 800x600 virtual). Use vga2 section of Xconfig.

Also available as ALPHA test versions (join the X11 channel):
(The standard x386/xfree86 server will not handle the following cards)

8514    ATI graphics ULTRA, ATI graphics Vantage
    (should work with any VESA standard 8514/A register compatible card?)
    tsx-11 pub/linux/packages/X11/X8514/  (X8514new.T.Z x.8514.src.T.Z)
    courtesy Kevin Martin ([e-mail]).

Xega    Generic 640x480x16 compatible server (originally for laptops).
    This requires a microsoft mouse at /dev/mouse for now
    and it does not use Xconfig so use environment variables
    to define the font path etc. in .xinitrc:
    export FONT_PATH=/usr/lib/X11/fonts/misc:/usr/lib/X11/fonts75dpi
    Works better with courier fonts so add to .Xresources:
    *Font: -*-courier-medium-r-*--10* ..or whatever..
    A link kit is available at tsx-11 (you need gcc2.2.2).
    in pub/linux/ALPHA/Xega/X386.ega.T.Z
    courtesy Marc Hoffman ([e-mail]).

The Xega server is compiled with the gcc-2.2.2 libs and should be
upgraded soon. It should however work with programs/fonts in new X11
releases as long as you ensure you have the shared images needed by
the server in /lib.


XS3    S3 chipset server (Jon Tombs [e-mail])
I've started a FAQ on ftp.robots.ox.ac.uk (pub/linux/S3), but the Xserver
is still very alpha. Unless you know something about X386 and are prepared
to work at it, stick with the mono XFree86 server until you see different
advice. I'd hope to get the server integrated with XFree86 in the next
couple of weeks. This will make most the current problems go away.


WARNING: Do not try to bring up an Xserver that does not support your
hardware. There have been cases where damage has resulted from pushing
the monitor beyond its specs.


QUESTION: What Mouses are supported?

ANSWER: Serial : Logitech, Microsoft, MouseSystems .... compatibles ...
    Busmouses : Logitech, microsoft, ATI_XL, PS/2 (aux).


QUESTION: Has anyone gotten the "Mini-DIN" mouse on an HP Vectra 486/33T
to work? The slight info I've been able to find says it's PS/2 compatible.

ANSWER: First you need to create an entry in /dev for it:

mknod /dev/psaux c 10 1

There is no direct PS/2 mouse support in XFree86 yet, so to use the
mouse with X you'll have to use the mconv mouse protocol conversion
utility, which can be found on nic.funet.fi, in
/pub/OS/Linux/utils/tools/mconv.c. This program converts the packets
sent by the PS/2 mouse into the corresponding ones from a Microsoft
mouse, so you can fool X telling it you have a Microsoft serial
mouse instead. Instructions for use are included in the source file.
(Johan Myreen [e-mail])






XI.C. LINUX DISTRIBUTION
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTION: What is the current version?

ANSWER:    The newest public Linux release is x11v2.1. It is the linux
release of xfree86-1.1. It was compiled with gcc-2.2.2d and is available
for example at tsx-11 in pub/linux/packages/X11/xfree86-1.1/
The SLS distribution stays at 2.0.

QUESTION: What Files do I need to download?

ANSWER: For x11v2.1: There is a README file in the distribution directory.
Bring this down first and read it. Then get xbin, xman and xfonts.
You need xprog and xlibman only if you plan to compile X applications.
You dont need xkit if you want to relink the server.

**** You need The shared images libc.so.4 (4.1 or later) and libm.so.4 (4.0)
in /lib/. All the X11 binaries use these. To compile programs you should
get gcc-2.2.2d7 or later and the 4.x libraries.

For Other servers see also the notes in the previous section.



QUESTION: Where do the X11 files go? What are they?

ANSWER: x11v2.1 uses the directories /usr/X386/bin/ (XBIN) for programs
and /usr/X386/lib/X11/ (XLIB) for support files.

The support files include default/example Xconfig, xinitrc, twmrc
which you should copy to your HOME directory (as Xconfig, .xinitrc
and .twmrc) and edit them to define your hardware and X11 setup.
The directory XLIB/etc/ contains some documentation which
should explain how to configure your video.




XI.D.  LEARNING/USING X
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTION: Where can I find the basic help for learning/using X ?

ANSWER: Try man X386; man Xserver; man xterm; man twm; man xinit
on any unix machine.  The man pages on xterm and twm will reflect
behaviour on Linux systems quite accurately. The others will give you
some bearing though not every option will work.  These man pages are
part of the xfree86 distribution.


QUESTION: What docs are available besides man pages?

ANSWER: The FAQ in comp.windows.x11 is extensive and has a bibliography.
There is also the Xt-FAQ. Both are available from export.lcs.mit.edu in
pub/contrib/.





XI.E. DEBUGGING STARTUP PROBLEMS:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

QUESTION: How do I start up X?

ANSWER: Type 'startx' at the shell prompt.
Before doing this you should:
1) copy the file Xconfig.sample from the XLIB directory to your
    HOME directory (/usr/root/Xconfig?) or to XLIB/Xconfig.
2) Edit Xconfig and set the video data for you card and monitor.
   Use the clocks appropriate for your card and the modes appropriate
   for your monitor for those clock values. To determine what values are
   appropriate read files in XLIB/etc and the Xconfig section below.
3) Set the mouse device in Xconfig correctly....Use the busmouse entry
   for Logitech only. For other busmouses use microsoft.
4) Ensure that there is a termcap entry for xterm in /etc/termcap
   (One is available in the subdir /doc).
5) Ensure that the X11 binaries are in the path example:
   add the line PATH=${PATH}:/usr/X386/bin to ~/.profile or
   look at bash.ad in /doc.
WARNING: NONE of the modes (in the Modes line in Xconfig) should use a
clock your monitor cannot handle.
Now type startx.


QUESTION: I cannot type in my xterm

ANSWER: /dev/console must have major=4, minor=0
    rm -f /dev/console; ln /dev/console /dev/tty0


QUESTION: What are some of the common omissions and errors?

ANSWER: (Peter)
1) Add /usr/bin/X11 (or /usr/X386/bin) to your path.

2) Add the xterm termcap entry to /etc/termcap.

3) ln -s X386 X in the XBIN directory.
   ln -s X386mono X (if you want to use the mono server).

4) Run X as root first. This avoids some trivial problems.

5) If you change the font path entry .... X386 is finicky about
   the syntax.

6) Make sure your mouse entry in Xconfig points to a legitimate serial
   device  (or busmouse)... usually something like:  microsoft "/dev/ttys1"
   serial devices have major # 4 minor 64,65 ... busmouses are major 10.
   ls -l in /dev will show you the major and minor entries.

7) Need read/write/exec access to /tmp directory

8) Use startx 2> x.err to log your error messages. If the server sticks
   and you have to reboot you'll probably loose this stuff... see notes
   on `hanging' below.

9) See Xconfig problems and the device list below.

10) Have you read the X386 man page?


QUESTION: Why is the server unable to find some of the fonts?

ANSWER: First check that the directories listed in the font path exist
and have font files in them. Some of the servers are not set up to use
compressed fonts. In such cases you have to uncompress the fonts in the
directory and run `mkfontdir .`. Read the man page on mkfontdir.


QUESTION: My server "hangs" Why?

ANSWER: (Peter) Quite often it isn't a hang. If the server grabs the
screen(and enters graphics mode) and then dies, it may return you to
bash *without* restoring the screen. In other words, just because you
see no output, don't assume it's running/hanging.  The way to test
this is to see if you can use a bash command to spin your disk. eg.:
sync; ls -l /bin.

Also - I *suspect* that (at least for me), you can kill the
server if you include the servernum option in the Xconfig

You can kill the server when you want to by typing ctrl-alt-backspace.
Then a couple of ctrl-C 's in case your stuck in xinit.

The two line message
         X386 version .....
         (protocol Version ....
is returned from the X386 programme itself, so if you get
this (or if the screen blanks) X must be starting.


QUESTION: When I try to use X11 I got "Cannot connect to
server" or "process does not exist", any clue ?

ANSWER: The cause might be wrong fontpath variable setup in your
Xconfig; uncomment and set the correct fontpath variable.


QUESTION: Why cant I run more than 4 xterms?
      How can I have more than 4 pty's ?

ANSWER: set the number in the header include/linux/tty.h and
recompile the kernel. Also make nodes :
    mknod /dev/ptypxx 4  minor  (where minor = 128 + xx)
    mknod /dev/ttypxx 4  minor  (minor = 192 + xx)
    This is for before linux-0.97pl6.... for later versions
    you only need to make the nodes.


QUESTION: I have trouble with my logitech Pilot mouse and X under
Linux, any clue ?

ANSWER: (Thomas Roell?) There are TWO line of Logitech mice out there.
One is the programmable and uses MouseSystems protocol at startup.
X386 reprogramms them to use another protocol. If you specify
'Logitech' in the Xconfig, X386 assumes a mouse like C7 or S9 (notC7-M).
The second line is the MicroSoft compatible. Currently all newer
Logitech mice follows this practice, like the MouseMan. In that case
you have to say 'MicroSoft' or 'MouseMan'.

From: [e-mail] (Jean Liddle)
I just purchased a new logitech mouseman, and yes, the new X-Windows
(XFree86 as opposed to X386) requires that you use the "microsoft" mousetype.
However, if you turn Third Button Emulation off, the middle button WILL work.


QUESTION: How does X11 start up?

ANSWER: The startup involves the server (XBIN/X), and some
programs like startx and xinit.

Typing startx runs the script  XBIN/startx. Look through startx.
For explanation of the server arguments try man Xserver.
startx does little other than gather arguments and then call xinit.

xinit **calls** X (X is linked to X386). xinit therefore continues to
run, and quite often you will receive error messages from xinit rather
than X itself. If you get the message "giving up", it means X has died
(quite probably it died immediately) and xinit has been unable to start
x applications. xinit processes the startup script xinitrc.


QUESTION: How can I see what startx passes to xinit, and xinit to X?

ANSWER:  Add the line:  set -x      near the top of startx.

To see what xinit passes to X, try: (Peter)

    rm XBIN/X
 - yes, if you have set it up correctly, X should only be a link
 so it's safe to remove it.

 then create a shell script XBIN/X containing:
    #/bin/sh
    echo $*
 and run startx. You should see something like:
    X :0
 which is all xinit passes to X. If you don't see the :0, you may not
 have your DISPLAY=":0" set correctly. THEN RESTORE X!! :
    cd XBIN; rm X; ln -s X386 X


QUESTION: What devices does X depend on:

ANSWER: check your device numbers with ls -l /dev. You should have:

5 0 tty
4 0 tty0
4 0 console
4 1 tty1 (etc)
1 1 mem

4 128 ptyp0         pseudo ttys used by xterm/emacs etc
4 129 ptyp1 (etc)    to talk to unix programs.
4 192 ttyp0
4 193 ttyp1 (etc)

4 64 ttys1         one of these is the mouse
4 65 ttys2        or you have a busmouse.
10 x mouse         busmouse x = 0 => logitech     1 => ps/2 (aux)
            2 => microsoft        3 => ATI_XL.
/tmp/.X11-unix/X0       socket used by X apps to talk to the server.
            this is created by X386.




XI.F. Xconfig: Xconfig and Video mode settings.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
QUESTION: What do the mode names mean?

ANSWER: The mode names like "640x480" are used to match entries in
the modes line with the modeDB entry which actually defines the mode.
You can toggle between modes in the modes line  with ctrl-alt-numericplus.
If you're experimenting with 640x480 you can define
      modes "640x480a" "641x480b" "642x480c"
with corresponding entries under ModeDB so you can toggle between
these three modes. Try man X386.