Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

baslinux - [BL] BL3.32 - fun with Xvesa

baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Baslinux mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [BL] BL3.32 - fun with Xvesa
  • Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 03:18:44 +0000 (UTC)

I have three Gateway boards (made by NEC/Intel, something like JN440BX, all with the three pins missing from the configuration jumper needed to upgrade the cpu and change speeds but we are told we can run a wire between the solder blobs where the pins should have been).

One came with a 266MHz cpu, the others with 233MHz.
AGP video in the first, AGP or PCI in the second, 4MB RAM.

I booted them all with Win98 DOS and system files, and put on BL3 (various versions but the same Xvesa).

1. 266MHz. The system files do not interfere with Xvesa, and it all works properly at all available resolutions and color depths. AGP.
I don't recall the version number but I think it is BL3.0 or something shortly after that.

2. A 233MHz with PCI video, I need to bypass the system files in order to use Xvesa at all, otherwise I get a black screen (something like Interrupt pointers... flashes by briefly first). This is the only computer where I need to bypass Win98 DOS system files (not needed on two other Win98SE and one Win98FE). Then it works in lots of colors, specifically with Steven's swm setup at 800x600x12, PS/2 mouse, 2 button. This one has BL 3.0.

3. Another 233MHz with AGP video, does NOT need to bypass system files with Win98SE in order to run Xvesa at various resolutions and color depths, all of which works fine (I tested up to 1024 and 24 bit color without a window manager). Using BL3.32 just downloaded today, with swm and not icewm.

BUT if I run Xsetup and startx it works at 640, 800, 1024 in 4-bit color. In 8-bit or higher color it starts to load the expected screen (in 8-bit it is doubled and odd looking) and then crashes with the message:

XPM: could not allocate colors.

If I spell things out with xinit (which I note BL3.0 does not have)
xinit -- /usr/X11R6/bin/Xvesa -screen 800x600x12
it also crashes.

If I leave off the xinit -- it works fine (but no swm).

I think I also tried
Xvesa -screen 800x600x12 & swm (but I did not keep good notes)

4-bit color works fine with swm, 8-bit or higher gets the XPM message.

I am wondering if, since these boards all behave differently, the two 233MHz ones were rejected by Intel/NEC as slightly defective (not able to go faster than 233MHz) and had some other bugs in them as well. One appears to have some sort of memory problem (the only one that won't let me use Xvesa with Win98 DOS himem.sys) and the other has some strange conflict between Xvesa, swm, and more than 4-bit color.

The one with the color problems was given to a thrift shop recently, the other two came from a friend whose office upgraded.


I was trying to figure out which of the 233MHz machines would be better for Xvesa. I guess it is the one which does not like himem.sys, since I don't know of any way to bypass the color problem on the other, however I will first see if icewm cures it and report back if so. First we need to figure out why all the modems we have tried at that location except one (a 28.8K) won't dial unless you first separately give them an ATH1 - two 33K's, a 14.4K, and a 56K winmodem. Bad phone line slowing down some signal? Too many phone lines in a row? We also tried running the telephone cable directly to the modem rather than through three computers and a fax machine. I have put ath1 at the end of eznet.conf. Otherwise there is 'no dial tone'

We might try the upgrade since someone gave us two 300MHz Slot 1 cpus identical to what is in there except for speed (same bus speed, different multiplier). To upgrade you need to find the pdf manual, jumper pins 2-3 (which are not there) and reboot which puts you into a special Maintenance Mode with its own additional menu for setting speeds, power off, remove the jumper pins, and reboot again. To make things more interesting, google could not display text from the pdf manual nor could pdftotext. I got a message something like ' it is not permitted to extract the text from this file'. xpdf worked perfectly with 128MB RAM.


Not that we need 300MHz but that seems to be what is free now.
The bottom tends to drop out of the used computer market at about 7 years, which will soon be 1998, the age of these cpus.

Steven, could you compile JUST pdftops for BL3, which could be used in conjunction with the SW4.0 gs on newer pdf files by first converting to ps?

keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page