Baslinux mailing list

[Sindi Keesan <keesan AT iamjlamb.com>]

On Sun, 28 Dec 2003 3aoo-cvfd AT dea.spamcon.org wrote:

> Sindi Keesan wrote:
> >
> > Does anyone have any pci video cards working at more 
> > than 8-bit color?
> 
> Yes, I do.  All of my BL2 computers are running 16-bit
> color.  One of them is using the Mach64 Xserver; all of
> the others are using the S3 Xserver.

What might be the cause of my 'no screen' error for our S3 Trio64V+ card?
There is a screen definition section for that card, I checked.  

> 
> > These are all older than Slackware 7.1.  1994-1997 video cards.  
> 
> Then Slackware 7.1 will probably work with them quite well.
> 
> > I am getting the impression that SVGA only does 8-bit color, 
> 
> Then you are getting the wrong impression.  Perhaps you should
> read a bit more about the SVGA Xserver:
> -------------
> man XF86_SVGA
> -------------
> 
> > The PCI cards are Vesa 1.2.  
> 
> AFAIK, the frame-buffer Xserver requires Vesa 2.0 or better.

I will try that today and then read about SVGA and what is a frame buffer.  
I think JP had some mini-X setup requiring that sort of card.  


> > 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.  
> 
> That's weird.  None of my PCI video card needed that.  They work
> just fine in BL2.

We tried 11 PCI cards in one computer that came with an AGP card and 9 of 
them just beeped. (The two that worked were both STB - Tseng and 
Alliance).  We started trying these cards in another computer with onboard 
AGP and the first one would not display.  We put in an ISA card, which 
displayed, and then the first pci card again, and it worked this time.  
Something about undoing the previous setting (which the computer does 
automatically).  Maybe once the first pci card works the others will work, 
but not after an AGP card or onboard chip?

> 
> > A friend explained that this was because pci cards are plug 
> > and play.  ? 
> 
> PCI is not the same as plug'n'play.  The BL2 kernel has the 
> ability to handle PCI cards (but not PnP).  
> -------------
> cat /proc/pci
> -------------

Maybe it is AGP cards he was referring to?  Both our problem computers 
have AGP onboard or an AGP slot.  I think they are PII.  Both from the 
curb.

One of them (the faster) has been giving us odd error messages when we do 
a 'find' with the CD-ROM drive mounted:
hda: status timeout: status - 0xd0 {Busy}
hda: no DRQ after issuing WRITE  
ide0: unexpected interrupt, status = 0x80, count 1
6ide0:  reset:  success

I hit the enter key to get back the prompt.  
What does this all mean?  Is something wrong with the CD-ROM drive?
It copies/plays CDs okay.  
 
> > So what is the point of changing to a lower resolution than 
> > the largest one?  
> 
> I rarely change the resolution.  Once I've determined the most 
> appropriate screen resolution for the hardware/software, I 
> usually stick with it.

We prefer a high resolution (1024) for browsing rather than having to 
scroll around in websites designed for that, but a lower resolution for 
editing photos taken at 640 so as to need less memory for them, so I set 
it up for 16bit color to use 1024, and 24-bit color 640, with 16bit the 
default.  startx24 alias to get the 24/640.  

Thanks for all the help.
 > 
> Cheers,
> Steven
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