Re: [XFree86] i830 video ram problems

[Kipp Cannon]

On Tue, 4 Nov 2003, Christopher Thom wrote:

> Quoth Kipp Cannon:
> 
> > This is a request for help with an i830 video interface in a Gateway
> > laptop (Solo 1450).  Everything had been working happily in this system
> > until I "upgraded" my BIOS.  This laptop has some power management
> > difficiencies I hoped would be addressed in the BIOS update.  Anyway...
> > the BIOS update has changed the laptop's video BIOS somehow so that it
> > now thinks there's only 1MB of video ram installed when infact there's
> 
> yep, this is a common problem with systems using intel's integrated
> graphics - most commonly laptops.  My dell laptop has this exact same
> problem.  It IS a BIOS problem.  The bios is only pre-allocating 1MB of
> system memory at bootup, instead of 8 (as you want).
> 
> > (II) I810(0): detected 892 kB stolen memory.
> > (II) I810(0): I830CheckAvailableMemory: 206844 kB available
> > (**) I810(0): DRI is disabled because it runs only at depths 16 and 24.
> > (II) I810(0): Will attempt to tell the BIOS that there is 8128 kB VideoRAM
> > (WW) I810(0): Extended BIOS function 0x5f11 not supported.
> 
> This tells you that it's a BIOS problem. The i810/i830 driver is
> attempting to tell the BIOS is got more memory.  This is required since
> the driver uses the BIOS to programme the video modes.  There is a patch
> here:
> 
> http://www.chzsoft.com.ar/855patch.html
> 
> but unfortunately, it's Dell-specific.  You may be able to modify it to
> your needs.  This patch has been included in the XFree86 source, but I
> don't know whether it's been generalised to all hardware (or is still dell
> specific).  There more info here:
> 
> http://www.xfree86.org/~dawes/845driver.html

Thanks.  I'll look into that.  I have the 4.3.0 source tree installed and
verified that I can compile it so maybe I can try giving this a go now.

> It doesn't solve your problem immediately, but it's a known problem with
> this hardware.  Probably your best bet is really to get the old BIOS from
> gateway - maybe dig on their ftp site? sometimes they leave old versions
> lying about....

Thanks for your help.  I will definitely continue looking/asking for a
BIOS because that would definitely be the easiest way to fix the problem.

                                                        -Kipp

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