Testing AIX 5L NFB drivers

Set up the test machine

When first testing your NFB driver, direct the X server to use your local copy of the driver with the following command sequence:

   $ cd <driver development directory>
   $ NFBDRIVERS=`pwd`
   $ export NFBDRIVERS

This sets the NFBDRIVERS environment variable to the name of the working directory for your driver.

NFB driver testing should be run either from the serial console terminal or a remote terminal. When running the X server remotely, use the -force option:

   $ /usr/bin/X11/X -force

The error messages from the X server are routed by by ErrorF(D3nfb) print statements to the /tmp/xlogfile file. If you are using ErrorF( ) statements to debug your code, check this file for those outputs.

You should route any stderr messages to a file and run the X server in the background:

   $ /usr/bin/X11/X -force 2> x.errs &

In most cases, the X server does not generate stderr messages. The one exception is if an NFB driver uses fprintf(stederr...) statements for error handling; this is not recommended.

To make local X clients connect with the X server, set your DISPLAY:

   $ DISPLAY=localhost:0
   $ export DISPLAY
   $ xlogo &

When the X server has successfully operated an NFB video driver, and a video card has been found and configured, the ODM class NFB_GRAFDEV is set to indicate what has been configured. You can query that class with the scripts in the /usr/ddk/src/native/nfb/tools directory:

ShowNFBMode: display the current NFB mode
SelectNFBMode: select a different NFB operating mode. SelectNFBMode is effective only if you have NOT used smitty to configure the video modes. The selections in smitty override selections made with SelectNFBMode. SelectNFBMode is merely for your convenience; in practice, users will use smitty rather than SelectNFBMode to configure the video system.

The NFB_GRAFDEV setting may not be accurate until the X server has successfully loaded the NFB driver. It is set by the X server to indicate either the current or most recent mode in which the X server is operating.