Hi !
> I am running debian, so i installed the libggi2 package, and the libgii
> package, etc. Then i went to put kgi in my kernel. I found
> framebufferconsole (fbcon) support, and thought that kgi stuff was renamed
> to fbcon, so i selected it for my ATI mach64 PCI video card. (selected vesa
> & ATI driver).
You activated the standard kernel ATI driver, then. This should work.
I do not know the state of the kgicon ATI driver, but I suppose that you
are for now better off with using the kernel version.
> Anyway, my system booted and i got the penguin on bootup, and figured all
> must be working just peachy... then i went to run heretic as a demo... My
> screen started jumping, and my monitors menu had a cow. It reported that
> the video card was trying to refresh at 214Hz.
If you use a standard fbcon dirver, you have to set up modelines for it.
Look at the fbset utility that comes with the degas source tree or is
available from other sources.
These modes are described in /etc/fb.modes
If the appropriate modes are not found, the LibGGI driver will not be able
to give timings to the card, which usually results in bad timings. You should
have gotten a warning about that at runtime.
> I later found (using the monitor test demo) that whenever i go to
> 320x240 it pushes it to 214Hz (acording to my monitor). 640x480 seems
> to work fine. 800x600 8bpp says not enough memory.
This is a bit strange. 800x600x8 only needs half a meg of RAM, so ...
We might be able to find a bug here ...
> I have lately heard reference to KGIcon, which seems to be some kind of
> module to load in. Do i need this if i'm getting the penguin and other
> 640x480 8bpp tests are working?
No. kgicon is an alternate driver model that is capable of producing drivers
for various environments, including fbcon.
If you fbcon is working fine, there is no need to use kgicon.
Does anyone here know more about the status of the kgicon ATI driver ? Would it
be worth a try ?
> also, how do i get the "setmon" utility? i've heard about it, but don't see
> it anywhere.
You can not use it with the stock kernel fbcon drivers. With a kgicon driver
it would allow you to download the monitor characteristics to the driver,
which allows us to bypass the nasty modeline problem, as the kgicon driver
can calculate timings on the fly.
> The matrox fbcon driver references being able to set the refresh rate, does
> the ATI Mach 64 just lack that support?
No. Any fbcon driver usually _must_ set its refresh rate, as the complete
timings are given at mode setup time.
> (by the way i've created a modes database from the XF86Config database,
> which used to work ok, and it's still going nutty)
You mean a /etc/fb.modes ?
> I've noticed multi-heading options only under matrox drivers, is matrox the
> only brand which will nicely remap thier addresses to allow more then one
> card in the system?
No - most modern cards should allow this. I'll give a Dualmon setup with my
Permedia a try again some day soon. Should work.
CU, ANdy
--
Andreas Beck | Email : <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
