4. XFree86 and You

4.1.1. Probeonly

One of the best diagnostic tools and sources of information about your X system is probeonly output. To use it, kill X if it's already running and from a console, type:

    X -probeonly 2> X.out
					

Yes, that's a single dash; so much for standards. The output of X goes to stderr, so we have to redirect stderr with "2>" to a file named X.out. This file will have almost everything there is to know about your X system. It's crucial that you know the difference between the various markers you'll see in probeonly output:

    (--) probed              (**) from config file    (==) default setting
    (++) from command line   (!!) notice              (II) informational
    (WW) warning             (EE) error               (??) unknown.
					

Here's an example of some information I gleaned from my output:

I'm running at 16 bpp color:

    (**) TDFX(0): Depth 16, (--) framebuffer bpp 16
					

X has detected what my videocard chipset and videoram are:

    (--) Chipset 3dfx Voodoo5 found
    (--) TDFX(0): VideoRAM: 32768 kByte Mapping 65536 kByte
					

4.1.2. Getting info about your setup: xvidtune

xvidtune is your friend when your X screen is shifted a little bit too far to the right, or if the vertical length is too small to fit on your monitor. However, it's a great diagnostic tool also. It'll give you:

• the hsync/vsync range specified in your XF86Config file

• the 4 horizontal and 4 vertical numbers which defines your videomode (the 1st horizontal/vertical numbers gives the screen resolution). These 8 numbers will tell you which modeline your X uses. See the XFree86 Video Timings Howto for more information. Note that explicit modelines are no longer necessary, since XFree 4.0.1 and up computes modetimings automatically based on your monitor's and video card's capabilities. However, there may be times when you'll want to play around with mode timings, like for weird hardware or if want to tweak your display.

• the "dot clock" your videocard is running at.

4.1.3. Getting info about your setup: xwininfo

xwininfo tells you all sorts of information about X windows. And actually, your "background" or "root" window is considered a window too. So when xwininfo asks you to click on the window you want the information on, click on your background. It'll tell you things like screen and window resolution, color depth, window gravity state (which gives a hint to the window manager about where to place new windows), backing store usage and more.

4.1.4. Other sources of information

xdpyinfo gives cool stuff, like X version and loaded extensions (invaluable when trying to see what's missing, like GLX, DRI, XFree86-VidMode, etc.).

4.1.5. Getting information about your 3D system

glxinfo gives lots of useful information about OpenGL like whether direct rendering enabled, the currently installed versions of glx and mesa, vendor/renderer strings, the GL library files being used and more.