Replace Xvesa with Xfbdev in TC

[bmarkus]

TC comes with Xvesa by default which gives poor quality on most notebooks while Xfbdev gives perfect quality, nearly the same as full Xorg for the same size as Xvesa. Why dont we replace it to offer much better experience for first time users?

[coreplayer2]

I don't know about that...

I am grateful that we have Xfbdev available because it is my only choice where Xvesa and Xorg fails in x64 systems, that said I use fbdev only because am forced too.  So I am curious exactly how "quality" is quantified here, PPI, color depth, resolution ? certainly not FPS.  AFAIK the Xfb can only draw one frame very slowly at a time. 
Video tearing appears a huge issue with the Xfbdev.   Seeing a window tear repeatedly as it is dragged across the screen probably isn't the the best image one could present to the new tc user, scary even  IMO

AIUI the fb requires more memory to support greater range of resolutions ?  But hey I could be wrong about that

 

[curaga]

Xfbdev cannot change the resolution at runtime, so it would be a much worse experience for desktop users. (or laptop users with external screens).

The resolution selection is often better with vesa than fbdev too. I'm curious too, what's bad on Xvesa on laptops?

[bmarkus]

OK, will make a camera picture

[curaga]

Probably graphics-specific, my couple laptops work well with Xvesa.

[bmarkus]

Probably graphics-specific, my couple laptops work well with Xvesa.

It is a notebook with Intel graphics. Looks ugly. On my desktop with ATI Xvesa is OK.

[gerald_clark]

Try the boot option video=LVDS-1:d

[tinypoodle]

Video tearing appears a huge issue with the Xfbdev.   Seeing a window tear repeatedly as it is dragged across the screen probably isn't the the best image one could present to the new tc user, scary even  IMO

Perhaps you might want to look into a wm which offers "outline" as an option for moving and resizing, instead of "opaque", to avoid such.

[coreplayer2]

with these particular 64bit systems I had no reason to look beyond flwm_topside for it's simplicity, but thanks for the tip.  Will definitely look at this solution for my remaster needs.   My reference to the tearing was to point out only that if a departure from Xvesa was considered then a fix for the tearing and any other anomalies would also need attention.

Thanks for the heads up on the wm

[tinypoodle]

I just did a test with Xfbdev and jwm, comparing "move" set to "opaque" versus "outline" - the difference is rather impressive...

[spence91]

Does Xfbdev offer any benefits?

[coreplayer2]

I just did a test with Xfbdev and jwm, comparing "move" set to "opaque" versus "outline" - the difference is rather impressive...

Cool thanks,  I need to use the wbar with it and as I recall jwm has a menu taskbar which needs removal.   

With Xfbdev I also have USB mouse and keyboard detection issues in many systems (both Mac's and pc notebooks) I think I'll have to revisit this, maybe only a change to xsession required ??

[tinypoodle]

I've always used jwm's taskbar and wbar as it was default, and same ever since jwm ceased to be default wm.

Run "xsetup" after loading Xfbdev.