A general HELP! to all.
I am having a problem with XFree86 and its detection of my video card.
I cannot find a solution in any of the normal references, so I thought I
would put it out to the list.
I am running an NEC P100 with 16M ram. Hda is FAT16 with Chicago
(Windows94++) on it, hdb contains Debian 'hamm'. I boot Debian from a
floppy.
The video chipset is an Alliance ProMotion6422PCI, 1M video ram,
24bit internal RamDac, and a 6422 internal clock chip. The chipset is
not mounted on a PCI card, but is mounted on the NEC mainboard (as is
the SB Pro II sound 'card'). The monitor is a 1024x768 SVGA multisync.
The problem: I can download the necessary XF86 .debs and the VGA
server and XF86 will run fvwm95 perfectly in VGA mode. If I download
and install the SVGA server, and configure it for the Alliance Promotion
chipset (which is supposedly supported by the SVGA server)-- crash. The
windows session either aborts or freezes dead.
After an abort, the bash screen contains many lines -- "mode
1024x768 not supported, ignoring. mode 800x600 not supported, ignoring"
(or something close to this) and so on for all the video resolutions.
When 320x200 isn't supported, you know there's a problem!!
This happens if I let the XF86 Setup programme autodetect the
chipset, or when I set the RamDac and all the other settings manually.
Using Johnson and Reichard's 'Unix Sys Admin Guide to X' I was even
brave enough to edit the Xconfig settings by hand with no improvement.
The SVGA server will not even run resolutions (like 640x480) that the
VGA server has no problems with. Strangely, if I probe the video
chipset it returns the correct information.
I cannot figure out why the SVGA server cannot drive a supported
chipset. I have downloaded the SVGA .deb three times all with the same
results, so I do not believe it is a corrupted file.
One of the many places I was looking for information (cannot
remember which one now) said that there were sometimes discrepancies
between how video cards handled certain operations and allocated memory,
and how the exact same on-board video chipsets performed these same
functions. Is this what is happening with my system? Is XF86 expecting
a PCI Alliance Promotion chipset which behaves a certain way, and is
instead finding something.... different?
And the bigger question -- does anyone know what I can do to
correct/ bypass/ fool the system and get the SVGA server up and running?
640x480 is okay for a while, but I really would like to have the same
higher resolutions I have on the 'other' OS!
Does anyone have an opinion about the new Scitech Display Doctor for
Linux? The Dos/Win version has worked very well on this computer, and
as the Linux version claims to use all the same PnP and autodetect
protocols I am wondering if this is a simple solution to my headache.
All Help Appreciated!!
Frank Packer
