Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

> Sindi Keesan wrote:
> >
> > we are putting linux on computers with SiS and S3 Trio3D 
> > video, for which the Cards file says use XSVGA (the specific 
> > chips are listed in the file), not an accelerated driver.  
> > These are both fairly new video chips with 2-8M RAM, that 
> > will do up to 1600 res and 24bit color.  Is there any way 
> > to predict if Linux 
> 
> Do you mean Linux?  Or the XSVGA server in Slackware 7.1?
> Linux will almost certainly be able to use those higher
> resolutions, but it's questionable whether Slackware 7.1
> will.  This is always the case with hardware capabilities
> developed post Slackware 7.1.  To fully utilize recent
> hardware, you will probably need a recent Linux.

We mean Slackware71/Basiclinux.  Our hardware is all older than Slackware
7.1.  I got an S3 chip working in lots of colors with the S3 driver on our
first linux computer but have not had any luck with other pre-1999 video
cards.  An S3 Virge card, with driver from xs3v.tgz, installed okay but
would display only in 256 colors.  The book says the SVGA driver often did
only 256 colors, but sometimes more.  The onboard AGP SiS chip was also in
the Cards list for SVGA and also ran only at 256 colors.  I tried startx
-- -bpp24 which still gave only 256 colors. So then I tried an S3 Trio64V+
which the Cards file says uses S3.  It would not work at all - 'no
screen'.  I even tried upping the hor. synch. and vertical refresh.

Does anyone have any pci video cards working at more than 8-bit color?
We also have ATI, Alliance, Trident, Tseng, Cirrus and another S3.

They are all at least 2M video RAM.  The ones I tried are all on the list.  
The list says Virge cards use S3V or SVGA.  S3V worked but only 8-bit.

>   
> As I have said many times, BasicLinux is designed to run
> on older PCs.  There are plenty of up-to-date distributions
> that run beautifully on up-to-date PCs.

These are all older than Slackware 7.1.  1994-1997 video cards.  
I am getting the impression that SVGA only does 8-bit color, but my sample 
of two chips is not statistically significant.  
 
> > will only run them at 8-bit color before actually 
> > configuring for them?
> 
> Try it and see.  Changing the color depth is easy.  Start 
> with 8-bit colour and get it working perfectly.  Then edit 
> /etc/XF86Config and change the DefaultColorDepth from 8 to
> 16 (or 24 or 32).

I did not do this, just typed startx -- -bpp 24, which works on the one 
computer with more color depth.  I got only 8-bit color at 16 or 24 bit 
depth (medium teal instead of dark blue screen in icewm).
  
> 
> > They are both VESA 2.0 compliant.  
> 
> Then you should be able to use the frame-buffer Xserver 
> (xxfb.tgz) instead of XSVGA.  Whether this will give you 
> a better display, I do not know.  I have never tried the 
> FB Xserver.

Thanks!  This was not listed in my books as a possibility.  Nothing to
lose but time.  I will try it with both AGP video chips/cards and report
back. 

The PCI cards are Vesa 1.2.  In order to get them to work at all, we 
had to put in an ISA video card, take that out, and then put in the PCI 
card, otherwise there was nothing to see.  A friend explained that this 
was because pci cards are plug and play.  ? 
 
> > Also, what do I change in XF86Config so that when I have 
> > the video set to 1024 res and I type Ctl-Alt-+ it does not 
> > give me a 1024 virtual screen with everything magnified in 
> > it, but a plain 800 or 640 res screen 
> 
> I know of no way to do that.  The screen size is automatically 
> set to the largest resolution in your XF86Config (unless you 
> specify a different virtual size in XF86Config).  AFAIK, once 
> set, that screen size (virual or otherwise) is fixed irrespective 
> of the display resolution you use (CTL-ALT-+).

Tonight I eventually figured this out by hand editing XF86Config.  So what
is the point of changing to a lower resolution than the largest one?  Is
this just an easy way to zoom?

I have set each of the color depths to a different maximum resolution and 
can choose resolutions by choosing color depth.  Is there some other way 
to choose color depth when starting x, without editing XF86Config 
(changing the default color depth)?  

We downloaded ltools, which claims to let you access ext2 linux partitions 
from DOS, and will try it soon.  It is supposed to be another way to 
rescue broken linuxes.  
 
> Cheers,
> Steven
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