Hitchhiker's Guide to Openbsd

11.3.3 - What if it isn't that "easy"?
Sometimes, things just don't go together. Here are some tips. 
http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq11.html (10 of 14)9/4/2011 10:02:17 AM

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11 - The X Window System
●
Read the man page for the X server you are using. In our example, 
/var/log/Xorg.0.log
shows X is using TDFX as the driver, so that would be the 
tdfx(4)
man page. You will often find 
tips, limitations, and options for configuring your video card. These vary from driver to driver, so 
don't assume you don't need to read the man page for the driver you are using now because you 
read a different one before. 
●
Try different monitors. As we discovered in our above example, different monitors will often 
give different clues as to what might be wrong. 
●
Try the 
vesa(4)
X driver. This is definitely a "last choice" for performance reasons, but it works 
on almost all video cards, including those for which none of the "better" X server drivers will 
work with. 
●
Use different hardware. If you have a choice of video cards to use, try some others. 
11.4 - Starting X
There are two common ways to run X: 
11.4.1 - On Demand:
Log in to a console as normal, then run 
startx(1)
. 
11.4.2 - Boot directly into X:
This is done using 
xdm(1)
, the X Display Manager. xdm(1) is started as root, normally by 
rc
, and 
presents a login prompt. Upon successful login, it starts an X session for that user. If or when that X 
session should be terminated (including by hitting CTRL-ALT-Backspace), xdm(1) will return, 
prompting the user to login again. For this reason, do NOT attempt to start xdm(1) from 
/etc/rc.
conf.local
until you have verified X works as you wish, or your machine may become very difficult 
to manage! (worst case: boot single user, as if you 
lost your password
, and edit out the xdm_flags line in 
your 
/etc/rc.conf.local
file.) 
On some platforms, you will need to disable the console 
getty(8)
to use xdm(1).