On Tue, 4 Mar 2003, Nicolae Mihalache wrote: > > > The first error that is reported is: > > > (EE) ATI(1): Cannot read V_BIOS > > > (WW) ATI(1): Unable to initialise int10 interface.
> > > What does this mean and how can I overcome it? > > It means that the motherboard is not making the XL's BIOS available when > > it is not the primary. Unless the BIOS can be told to force the XL as the > > primary, you are currently out of luck. > That's the point, the motherboard BIOS doesn't have any option for this. > I thought that is possible to bypass the motherboard BIOS completely and > access the card directly. I've recently read that in today computers the BIOS > is somehow obsolete (because of ACPI?) and it can be bypassed entirely. When > compiling the linux kernel I know that there is an option for PCI card > detection: to use the BIOS or to do it without. The driver needs the adapter's BIOS so that its initialisation entry point can be emulated to initialise the adapter. From a power-up state, all ATI adapters need to be initialised in very adapter-specific ways. To duplicate this code in the driver is unrealistic and impossible to maintain. Your motherboard's system BIOS contains the video BIOS for the onboard adapter. By the time the system BIOS loads the OS, the onboard video BIOS remains accessible by the CPU if, and only if, the onboard video is the primary. Eventually, we will do what Windows can be made to do: make a copy of the onboard video BIOS while it's the primary and use the copy otherwise. There are a number of issues that need ironing out before that happens. So, for now, I repeat: you are out of luck. Marc. +----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ | Marc Aurele La France | work: 1-780-492-9310 | | Computing and Network Services | fax: 1-780-492-1729 | | 352 General Services Building | email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | | University of Alberta +-----------------------------------+ | Edmonton, Alberta | | | T6G 2H1 | Standard disclaimers apply | | CANADA | | +----------------------------------+-----------------------------------+ XFree86 Core Team member. ATI driver and X server internals. _______________________________________________ XFree86 mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xfree86
