On Tue, 18 Jun 2002, Doug Alcorn wrote: >Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2002 09:39:05 -0400 >From: Doug Alcorn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 >List-Id: General X Discussion <xpert.XFree86.Org> >Subject: Re: XF4.2 and RADEON Support > >Michel D�nzer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > >>> and FireGL 7800 cards?? >> >> For FireGL cards ATI's binary drivers are probably the best bet. > >I just ordered an IBM A31p with the FireGL2 7800 in it. I passed up >the Dell with an Nvidia card because I thought choosing ATI was >choosing open source. :( > >Has ATI published any information on the FireGL 7800? Is there any >hope for a free driver?
My recent emails about this card seem to not be getting out, or are being missed somehow. ;o) Red Hat Linux 7.3 comes with open source support for this card, which is otherwise unsupported in the stock XFree86 4.2.0 releases. I don't know if current CVS supports it yet or not either. The reason it came to be supported is a bit funny however, so I'll share the full story in case someone else gets a laugh... In order to maximize compatibility with the distro for various hardware each release, and to autodetect as much hardware as possible, even if it is unsupported, I go through published PCI ID data that I can get my hands on, and use it to update our pcitable, Cards database for Xconfigurator et al. and also occasionally xf86PciInfo.h etc. While perusing the ATI ID list in the R200 specs, and updating our pcitable entries and checking against xf86PciInfo.h to see if I needed to add an entry to Cards, I discovered that one of the Radeon Mobility M7 cards (the LX) was not supported by XFree86, so I thought I'd take a stab at adding the necessary bits by basically cloning the existing support for the other M7 to work with the LX also. Without having the actual hardware, worst case is that it just doesn't work, so no harm done as it doesn't work with stock X either. Up until about a week ago I had no idea if the patch worked or not, and no good or bad feedback about it. A week ago, a user who has a FireGL 7800 told me "it just works" with RHL 7.3 after I told him it was unsupported hardware. I asked him to give me the PCI ID, and after looking it up discovered that the FireGL 7800 *is* the Radeon Mobility M7 (LX). ;o) So the joke was on me. Not only, have I been telling people that that card is not supported, but I actually wrote the support for it unknowingly. ;o) If anyone else has one (since I don't), I would greatly appreciate hearing feedback on what works/doesn't work so that I can more accurately inform others who happen to inquire. In particular I would like to know how well 2D/3D/Xvideo works and what (if any) problems there are, and I'll try to fix/enhance it if possible. The patch is submitted to XFree86.org, and is available in our src.rpm package. I've also uploaded the patch to the following URL so that other distributions, people, etc can use it more easily: ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris/patches/ Enjoy! -- Mike A. Harris Shipping/mailing address: OS Systems Engineer 190 Pittsburgh Ave., Sault Ste. Marie, XFree86 maintainer Ontario, Canada, P6C 5B3 Red Hat Inc. http://www.redhat.com ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris _______________________________________________ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert
