README (2059B)
1 Xephyr README 2 ============= 3 4 5 What Is It ? 6 ============ 7 8 Xephyr is a a kdrive server that outputs to a window on a pre-existing 9 'host' X display. Think Xnest but with support for modern extensions 10 like composite, damage and randr. 11 12 Unlike Xnest which is an X proxy, i.e. limited to the 13 capabilities of the host X server, Xephyr is a real X server which 14 uses the host X server window as "framebuffer" via fast SHM XImages. 15 16 It also has support for 'visually' debugging what the server is 17 painting. 18 19 20 How To Use 21 ========== 22 23 You probably want to run like; 24 25 Xephyr :1 -ac -screen 800x600 & 26 27 Then set DISPLAY=:1 and run whatever X apps you like. 28 29 Use 'xrandr' to change to orientation/size. 30 31 There is a '-parent' switch which works just like Xnest's ( for use 32 with things like matchbox-nest - http://matchbox.handhelds.org ). 33 34 There is also a '-host-cursor' switch to set 'cursor acceleration' - 35 The host's cursor is reused. This is only really there to aid 36 debugging by avoiding server paints for the cursor. Performance 37 improvement is negligible. 38 39 Send a SIGUSR1 to the server ( eg kill -USR1 `pidof Xephyr` ) to 40 toggle the debugging mode. In this mode red rectangles are painted to 41 screen areas getting painted before painting the actual content. The 42 delay between this can be altered by setting a XEPHYR_PAUSE env var to 43 a value in microseconds. 44 45 46 Caveats 47 ======= 48 49 - Depth is limited to being the same as the host. 50 *Update* As of 8/11/2004. Xephyr can now do 8bpp & 16bpp 51 on 24bpp host. 52 53 - Rotated displays are currently updated via full blits. This 54 is slower than a normal oprientated display. Debug mode will 55 therefore not be of much use rotated. 56 57 - The '-host-cursor' cursor is static in its appearance. 58 59 - The build gets a warning about 'nanosleep'. I think the various '-D' 60 build flags are causing this. I haven't figured as yet how to work 61 around it. It doesn't appear to break anything however. 62 63 - Keyboard handling is basic but works. 64 65 - Mouse button 5 probably won't work. 66 67 68 69 70 71 Matthew Allum <mallum@o-hand.com> 2004