Gary Warner wrote:
> 
> I'm a frustrated newbie who needs to RTFM, but can't find the right FM
> to R.
> 
> My first FreeBSD box is an old Compaq DeskPro with an ATI 3D Rage (Mach
> 64 card).

Welcome to FreeBSD!  Now let's get you over this hump so you can start
enjoying it.

> I'm TRYING to follow the directions, but I keep getting an error message
> that server component XF86_MACH64 needs to be installed.  I've run
> setups and configs and I always end up back at this same place:
> XF86_MACH64 needs to be installed.

That sounds like you're probably using FreeBSD 4.4 which comes by
default with XFree86 3.3.6.  "Server component ... needs to be
installed" doesn't sound familiar, though.  Where and when do you see
that message?

Oh, wait, I think I understand what happened.  In sysinstall, when you
selected the "distribution sets" to install, you made a choice that
includes X.  You were presented with another list of components of
XFree86 that you could choose to install or not.  SVGA and VGA16 are
selected by default, and you didn't know that you needed the one listed
as Ma64 as well, for your ATI Rage.

OK, here's what to do (as root):  Run /stand/sysinstall.  Pick from the
menus: "Configure" -> "Distributions" -> "XFree86" -> "Server" ->
"Ma64".  You'll be asked to choose the distribution media, pick CD-ROM
or an ftp site or whatever you used when you first installed, and follow
through installing the Mach64 server, similar to your initial system
installation.  When that's done, wend your way back up through the menus
to the "FreeBSD Configuration Menu" and choose "XFree86".  Now you
should be able to go through the usual XFree86 graphical configuration
successfully.

Alternatively, you could get the XFree86 4.2.0 binaries for FreeBSD 4
from ftp://ftp.xfree86.org/pub/XFree86/4.2.0/binaries/FreeBSD-4.x/,
that's even easier to install and configure (read the Install file
there).  Be aware that it's about 62.5 Megabytes to download, and the
3.3.6 version will probably work just fine.

The reason for your difficulty is that XFree86 version 3 provided a
separate, complete server for each type of video board, and since
they're big they don't all get installed by default.  You didn't know
that you needed to "opt in" for the particular one for your Mach64. 
With XFree86 version 4, the various video boards are handled by
dynamically-loaded modules.  The modules are smaller, so they're all
installed by default, and the one server automagically loads exactly
what it needs when it starts.

-- 
Remember, more computing power was thrown away last week than existed in
the world in 1982.  -- http://www.tom.womack.net/computing/prices.html
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