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My 166Mhz laptop DELL has MagicGraph 128 V/ZV 40K SVGA BIOS
 with 1MB RAM and scrawny text.


> Crashes to vertical pink and purple stripes with Xvesa.
> Crashes with SVGA X server, lots of numbers and an error message.

> Slackware 4.0 (XFree86 3.3.3.1) has video support for
> Neomagic 2200 2160 2097 2093 2090 2070.  This is 2090 or 2093.
> I don't know what the server is called - it is not listed for SVGA.

For XFree86 3.3.3.1 and 3.3.6 the neo driver is included in the xsvga 
(SVGA X) server (which crashes).

Slackware also provides  a generic framebuffer X server xfb (800K tgz).
XF86_FBDev.

Use this server when all else fails, for VESA 2.0 video.  The following is 
for kernel 2.2.5 and Slackware 4.0, for a laptop where nothing else 
worked.

http://medialab.freaknet.org/pub/documenti/silicon.txt

Compile or find a generic fb kernel (my zimage.fsm or most of my 2.4.31 
kernels).

When booting specify vga= as for vesafb.
Or vga=ask and get a list of modes (hex instead of decimal this time)

You need to create /dev/fb0 for xfb same as for xfbdev.
mknod fb0 c 29 0
mknod fb1 c 29 32  (I don't know why you need several of these).
mknod fb2 c 29 64 .....

ln -sf /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_FBDev X

You set it up to use the fixed mode (what you booted into) or allow 
multiple mode options.  The author provides an XF86Config for fixed mode.
Driver "fbdev".  His laptop had HorizSync 31.5-48.5, VertRefresh 55-90.
Mine must be older - 31.5-37.9  and 50-60  You specify only depth, not 
resolution.  He did not explain how to vary resolutions, but on my laptop
I am happy with 800x600 for everything.

xfbdev (like Xvesa won't support 256 color mode) is about a third the size 
and memory requirement, and you can only use the resolution you booted 
into. svgalib stops working if you boot into framebuffer mode with the 
chips or neomagic video.

Since XFBDev also needs to boot with framebuffer mode, it would have the 
same problem.  It might work in 256 color mode and let you vary 
resolution.  It is not worth the bother to me.  I doubt any laptops use 
video chips new enough to be VESA 2.0 that don't have enough RAM to do 
more than 256 colors at 800x600.  1MB gives you 800x600x64K (16-bit).

XFree86 4 has a neomagic server which lets you choose various types of 
framebuffer, linear or otherwise.  I don't follow the details, but 
probably the vesafb is interfering with the X server via framebuffer.

vesafb booted into framebuffer mode prevents svgalib from working on this 
DELL and also on the Toshiba laptop with Chips and Technology video, but 
not on the Matrox Millenium PCI card (where xfbdev crashes).

> Framebuffer and svgalib appear to be incompatible, at least for this video
> chip.

For neomagic and chips - maybe they both use framebuffer in X?

> Steven, could you compile a framebuffer 2.2.26 kernel?  Better yet, 2.2.27
> kernel with all the modules, to avoid machine check exception problems on
> some laptops of the BL age.

The other option is plain old VGA.  Run Xsetup selecting VGA, and replace 
Xvesa with the vga16 server XF86_VGA (?) in startx and /usr/X11/bin and 
you will also to install Steven's no-xvesa.tgz.  Do you need to edit 
XF86Config to do only 640x480 and depth 4 instead of 8 or more?

http://ling.upenn.edu/~alexis/neomagic/readme.html also could not get SVGA 
server to work on his DELL Latitude with Neomagic NM2070.  'This page is 
now obsolete!  Xfree86 now supports the Neomagic!'.  A later neomagic 
driver worked for him.  First he set up with the VGA 16-color server.

A final option is for Steven to compile XFree86 4 for libc5 to get more 
servers (including i810 - supported in 3.3.6 with some fiddling).

I did not try fiddling with modelines for SVGA server, which fixed my 486 
with wd video that was displaying only 4 colors.

Conclusion - if Xvesa fails, try xfbdev, unless you really want svgalib, 
in which case first try SVGA X server, and then plain VGA.

Sindi