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baslinux - [BL] 2.4.31 modules for AGP and Promise, was Re: i810 binary

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  • From: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • To: baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [BL] 2.4.31 modules for AGP and Promise, was Re: i810 binary
  • Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2007 15:55:25 +0000 (UTC)

nOn Thu, 8 Nov 2007, baslinux AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:

Our only computer that would take a 1.0GHz Intel cpu has onboard i810 and
no AGP slot. The PCI Rendition video card (that worked perfectly in
another computer which has i810 onboard) gives odd error messages with
Xvesa and also turns highlighted text invisible in CMOS setup. Xvesa
works with a PCI ATI card but we have Win98 on the same computer and
cannot find the right ATI driver, despite downloading some monstrosity
that should include all RAGE drivers for all versions of Windows. The
temporary solution is to use onboard i810 with Win98 (4MB driver worked)
and switch to PCI card in BIOS to use linux with the ATI card but my
partner does not like doing this.


Xvesa works with i810 up to 800x600 16-bit (or 1024 256-bit in odd colors)
which is tolerable, but the svgalib i810 libvga only does 640 resolution
or less. I use svgalib-based zgv to view images, svp to view pdf files,
and links -g if I need to view website inline images. Lee was so opposed
to svgalib that he never discovered this. Maybe agpgart will help svgalib
too?

X_SVGA should in theory work for 1024 resolution 8-bit. agpgart was
suggested for use with it. It is supposed to make better use of memory
(maybe increasing it from 1MB to the 4MB used by Windows) which I will try
to compile. If it works, no need for the i810 X server, which works with
kernel 2.4 or later.

Xvesa may be more useful with this module, which also appears not to exist for kernel 2.2. There is also an nvidia nvagp which is faster than agpgart for nvidia. I don't need faster, just more resolution/memory.

To compile the module set CONFIG_AGP=M in character devices if using menuconfig (or just after floppy tape if plain config).

You then choose what chipsets to support. I included ALI, VIA, SIS, ATI and NVIDIA which provides GLX and DRI support (whatever that is) and I810 support which apparently lets up to 204MB of onboard RAM be used for video memory and makes the i810 family of video chips useful in linux. Have not yet tested except on this computer where it said the device was not present. It should work with any of my 2.4.31 kernels
http://keesan.freeshell.org/bl/2.4.31
for kernels (bzimasmf.431 is all-purpose) and the module agpgart.o

While making config I ran across a section on Promise Ultra 100 TX2 which is what I need to support the add-in PCI IDE controller for use on the motherboard which was running hard disks at 2.5MB/sec max burst transfer. My partner accidentally killed the board while swapping out cpus trying to fix someone else's board, but we will try the card in something else.

Promise Ultra TX2 100. Someone just gave us a 66. The 100 (in DOS) runs hds at up to 66MB/sec which are rated 100MB/sec (as is the card).

You should 'Use PCI DMA by default when available'.

IDE, ATA and ATAPI Block devices, Promise PDC202{68|69... support. Can be compiled as a module or in kernel (2.4 only, I think).


i810 does not support linear framebuffer, meaning we get only 80 col 25
lines unless we can get other non-framebuffer modes, which tend to be
quite unstable. So I will keep hunting for the ATI Windows driver.

Sindi





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