Baslinux mailing list

[sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>]

On Thu, 12 May 2005, David Moberg wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "sindi keesan" <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
>
> > The Modelines were copied over from a computer that was working
> > with a 1600 res monitor and xsvga driver with SiS and S3 Virge.  I
> > did not copy anything for 1600 or the higher hsyncs for other
> > modes.  I hope this will work on all monitors at their highest
> > resolution (up to 1280).  Start with the lowest hsync for each
> > resolution.  Mine worked with the first one that was not interlaced
> > but not with the next one up (black screen).  In theory using too
> > high hsync (or is it vsync?  I left that at the minimum) can damage
> > a monitor.
>
> Modern monitors will not try to display modes which they cannot handle.
> Older monitors can be fried.

A good reason to use the lowest settings for your resolution.

For the Compaq 486 laptop with Chips and Technologies I changed the Mode 
line to "640x480" (no "800x600") and commented out all but the 640x400 and 
640x480 modelines.  I changed HorizSync to 31.5 and VertRefresh to 50.  I 
changed to PS/2 mouse (all based on Steven's XF86Config for 800 
resolution, not my config file for 1024).  Before installing no-xvesa.tgz 
I copied startx to startxvesa (not that Xvesa works here either).

I copied over the xsvga.tgz and no-xvesa.tgz files via plip.  First I set 
up the parport zip disk linux with xsvga at 1024 on the pentium and it 
works fine there, if a bit slowly, in svga X.  I then tried to boot it on 
the Compaq 486 and discovered that the zimage on the floppy disk is for 
pentium only.  So I substituted zimage.4dx from BL3 and was told that imm 
thinks the block size is 512 bytes and the disk size is 1GB.  I have a 
100MB parport zip disk.  I tried using the zip disk from regular ext2 BL3 
and when I did insmod imm.o I got the same error message.  So David 
appears to have included something in the kernel (not specific to imm, his 
kernel was originally for ppa.o) which lets something know that the zip 
disk is 100MB.  What do I need to add when I insmod imm.o in order to use 
it with a regular linux, rather than from the zip drive?  Maybe the 
package I downloaded from Iomega for linux has the answer, but it is still 
not going to let me boot parport zip linux on a 486 with this kernel.

David, if you have time, you could change this kernel to one that works
with 386 and 486, so it could be used for file transfers to old laptops.
Or to show friends with old laptops that they can run linux on them.

I tried copying the packages via floppy disk but this computer will only 
read floppy disks that it has formatted and I did not want to bother 
formatting a disk in it (I don't even know how to do that in linux, just 
in DOS) so I plugged in the parallel transfer cable and plip worked.

The result of all this was that xsvga is not working.


SVGA:  WD (three lines about this - I have a WD video chip)
SVGA:  chipset wd90c24 (it detected this)
clocks :  28.32  28.32 .. (two lines of this)
Using 8 bpp, Depth 8, Color weight: 666
Maximum allowed dot-clock:  90.000 Mhz
There is no mode definition named "640x480"

Fatal server error: No valid modes found.

Did I do something obviously wrong, besides not using xf86config?

I just attempted to run it and there is no /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/Cards card 
database to look at.  So I chose XF86_SVGA server (will try plain VGA 
next, it beats having only 4 colors).  It asks how much video memory I 
have and when I tried to run X it said 1024.  I set it to do only 640x480 
in 8-32 bit color (but I think svga driver only does 8-bit color).

I typed startx and got exactly the same result as before except instead of
There is no mode definition named "640x480"  I got
There is no defined dot-clock macthing mode "640x480".

I had answered n to probing for dot-clocks.  Will try again with y.
X -probeonly call failed.  No Clocks line inserted.

I just tried again with xvg16.tgz and got:
There is no defined dot-clock matching mode "640x480"
Same for xmono.tgz.

Sorry about this bad news to the other two of you with 486 Compaqs that 
won't do Xvesa.  But I could actually get Xvesa working in 4-color mode if 
I did not use a config file.  I have an alias
X = 'Xvesa -screen 640x480x2 -2button &rxvt -e icewm'
(It needs updating but it does work, in 4 colors, for those who prefer to 
run programs in an rxvt).

> > In theory, it should also work with any other computers to
> > eliminate the problems people are having with Xvesa and MS-DOS 6 or
> > 7 himem.sys or other things in config.sys (was it smartdrv that
> > also caused problems?).  There are no guarantees that you won't
> > damage your monitor, but if you want to take a chance try it with
> > the lowest setting for your highest resolution, and you should not
> > have to puzzle out xf86config to set things up.  Would someone else
> > please try it (on an older 1024 monitor) and report back?
>
> I don't think mine qualifies as "older". 1998, and it is very tolerant
> of strange video modes.

Surely someone else has a monitor that goes to only 1024 and is early 90s 
like ours.  It should be one that does no higher than 1024.

> > I was able to switch between the three resolutions (starting with
> > 1024) with Ctrl-Alt-+ (?I think that was it) which gave me
> > magnified partial screens at 800 and 640.  How do I move around in
> > this sort of screen? I forget how to set this for a virtual screen
> > at 1600 or larger - someone please remind me and I can add that to
> > the config file too.
>
> Look a few days back in this thread for my post on this. You can find
> Steven's original message about this on Apr 14, 2003.

Thanks, I will use google to search on virtual screen and basiclinux.

xf86config actually asks whether to set something up for you and it is 
getting easier - just don't look at the card base, choose svga server, and 
it will tell you what chip it detects and then you can decide whether to 
use another server later.  It also detects video ram for you.

> David


Sindi