Amiga Unix — 68040 · 68060

Manual pages › File formats and configuration files (4)

display.d(4)

the display cards X can use, one file each

Package: amxbase, added for amigaux.

display.d - the display cards X can use, one file each

/etc/display.d/card

Each display card's package puts one file in /etc/display.d, named for the card, that tells xstart(1) how to find the card and run its X server. The file is the card's own data, replaced with its package; it is not edited. Which card is used, and in which mode, is in /etc/display, not here (see display(4)).

Each line is a key and its value, separated by blanks or tabs; a # starts a comment.

the card's device node, opened to see whether the card is there.
the kernel module that drives it, when there is one.
the X server.
the screen sizes the card and its server take, the default first; or auto when the server picks the mode itself. The card's mode list is kept here and nowhere else.
the pixel depths, the default first.
the server's arguments after the display number: %m is the mode, %w and %h its width and height, %d the depth and %n the display number.
the server's environment, with the same %-names; it reaches the server alone, never the session's programs.
the limits raised before the server starts: vmem (the address space, for a card whose memory the server maps whole) and data (the server's own memory).
whether the card shares the monitor with the chipset display, so that the monitor switch of display(4) applies. When the kernel's monsw module answers, it switches the monitor itself; otherwise the tool below does, before the server starts and back when the session ends.
that tool, given the switch value and rtg or off.
run, by its full path, after a session whose server ended on its own (it crashed or was killed) rather than being stopped at the session's end; for a card whose server must give the keyboard back to the console itself.
the server's option to end with its first session instead of resetting for another, given to the server of a session xstart runs (never to xdm's or dtlogin's, which keep their server for the next login); none gives no option. Without the line: X11R6's -terminate for a server under /opt/amix/X11R6, the system's -once for one under /usr/X, nothing for another. The system's server has no -terminate and stops at an option it does not know.
reserved for the card's console takeover; no tool reads it yet.
the card's name in words.

the chipset display with the system's own X11R4 server, shipped by the base package. The server is monochrome and picks its own mode: 1024x768 on an A2024 or a Moniterm, 640x480 on any other monitor. SCREEN_GROUP is the Alt-function-key screen group the server takes; it is the display number, so xstart :10 puts X on Alt-F10, as the system's own files do. This card is a best effort: the server and xinit start, but on an emulated machine no session was seen to reach the server; it may wait until its screen group is shown (Alt-F10).

The other cards' files come with their drivers' packages. The system's A2410 and DMI Resolver servers have no file: no one has been able to try them; their arguments are in the comments of the stock Xservers file of xdm.

The Z3660's file, /etc/display.d/z3660, as its driver package ships it:

# /etc/display.d/z3660 -- the Z3660 RTG card (display.d(4))
name      Z3660 RTG
node      /dev/zz9000
module    z3660rtg
server    /opt/amix/X11R6/bin/Xzz9000
modes     1024x768 640x480 800x600 1280x720 1280x800 1280x1024 1920x1080
depths    16
args      -mode %m -ac -kb
limits    vmem=131072 data=65536
monsw     yes
monswtool /opt/amix/bin/zz9k_monsw
restore   /opt/amix/bin/rtg-kbdback

The first mode, 1024x768, is the default. The server finds its fonts and its colour database by itself (the X11R6.3 package from 6.3-2 on), and links its X libraries in, so the file gives no -fp, no -co and no env. The limits cover the card's memory, which the server maps whole, and the server's own memory. The monitor switch's value is in /etc/display, not here.

The chipset's file, /etc/display.d/native:

node     /dev/console
server   /usr/X/bin/X
modes    auto
depths   1
env      SCREEN_GROUP=%n
monsw    no
once     -once

display(4), xstart(1)

A server that resets when its last client goes takes the whole set-up again before it can stop: on a 68LC040 or 68LC060, where X runs on the kernel's floating-point emulation, up to half a minute. xinit waits ten seconds and then kills it, and a killed server does not give the display back to the Amiga video. once lets the server end with the session instead.

31 October 2026 amix-base