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.\" $XFree86$
.TH Xvesa 1
.SH NAME
Xvesa \- VESA VBE tiny X server
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B Xvesa
.RI [ :display ] 
.RI [ option ...]
.SH DESCRIPTION
Xvesa is an X server for Linux on the x86 platform.  Xvesa manipulates
the video hardware by running the VESA BIOS in VM86 mode.  It
therefore runs untrusted code with full priviledges, and is one of the
most insecure X servers available.
.B Run at your own risk.
.SH OPTIONS
In addition to the normal tiny-X server's options (to be described in
a separate man page),
.B Xvesa
accepts the following command line switches:
.TP 8
.B -mode \fIn\fB
specifies the VESA video mode to use.  If mode
.I n
is not supported by your BIOS and hardware,
.B Xvesa
will fail, hang your system, or make your monitor explode.  You are on
your own.  The list of video modes that your BIOS claims to support
can be obtained by using the 
.B -listmodes
option.
.TP 8
.B -listmodes
tells the server to list all supported video modes.  If
.B -force
was specified before
.BR -listmodes ,
lists all the modes that your BIOS claims to support, even those that
the
.B Xvesa
server won't be able to use.
.TP 8
.B -force
tells the server to disable some sanity checks and use the specified
mode even if the BIOS claims not to support it.
.SH KEYBOARD
Xvesa handles the keyboard in the same manner as the
.B Xfbdev
Linux X server.  See Xfbdev(1) (not yet written) for more information.
.SH BUGS
.B Xvesa
opens all IO ports and runs your VESA BIOS, which may safely be
assumed to be buggy.  Allowing your users to run
.B Xvesa
is a major security hole.  Allowing yourself to run
.B Xvesa
is probably a mistake.
.SH SEE ALSO
X(1), Xserver(1), xdm(1), xinit(1), Xfbdev(1).
.SH AUTHORS
The tiny-X server was written by Keith Packard, and the VESA driver
was added by Juliusz Chroboczek who didn't realise what he was doing
until it was too late.  Tiny-X uses code from XFree86, which in turn
is based on the Sample Implementation.