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baslinux - Re: [BL] ATI RAGE 264GT PCI video card now usable with fb and xfbdev for X

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  • From: sindi keesan <keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org>
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [BL] ATI RAGE 264GT PCI video card now usable with fb and xfbdev for X
  • Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2006 16:57:42 +0000 (UTC)

On Thu, 16 Nov 2006, sindi keesan wrote:

We have several ATI RAGE PCI cards that do framebuffer but not Xvesa, or
Xvesa but not framebuffer. An Emachine with ATI Rage IIc where Xvesa (or
X SVGA) only works if you boot with lilo. A Compaq with Rage LT Pro that
works with X SVGA server and loadlin, but not Xvesa. ATIs are all
different and most are not very standard or vesa-compatible. But they
made lots of PCI cards and onboard video chips.
.....

Our 2MB 264GT RAGE cards will do Xvesa after a loadlin boot (with himem.sys in config.sys), IF you don't use vesafb. They work with xfbdev and I have not tried SVGA or MACH64 servers or svgalib. mplayer -vo vesa does not work even without vesafb.

The onboard RAGE 128 chip in our Emachine and the 8MB ATI card with RAGE 128 chip will NOT do XVESA when booted with himem.sys in config.sys, but they work perfectly with XVESA and -vo vesa if you boot with lilo or hit F5 during boot. They work with SVGA or MACH64 X server. I have not tried xfbdev with them.

Don't give up on ATI Xvesa without first booting without config.sys (F5 or lilo), and also try without vesafb.

Some other ATI cards don't do vesafb. Highly inconsistent.

The Rage128 card will not work with svgalib (with setting chipset VESA or VGA, booting without himem.sys, links2 and zgv work once but then it crashes) but the zgv display looks like the wrong pixel clock settings - it is fuzzy and jittery when used with automatic chip detection, or mach64 or VGA or VESA.

The mach32 instructions say it should auto detect and fix libvga.config with the right clock lines but this has not happened. Has anyone on this list used svgalib with a mach64 chip? There are warnings about destroying your hardware with the wrong settings. Would this be video card or monitor and are the newer ones susceptible?

I am supposed to probe for clock settings - how?

Name-brand computers in the 330-500MHz range often have onboard ATI video. (Compaq, Emachine).

Mplayer works with -vo vesa or x11 (without complaining about slow hardware, on this 800MHz, tho it disliked the 600 and 700), and links2 works with x11. But my partner likes zgv, which NEEDS svgalib.

Sindi




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