To: SuSE LINUX
IBM
ATi
XFree86
Date: Day Month Year
Date: 29th October 2002
RE Linux Driver for ATi Radeon Mobility Fire GL 7800
Hi folks,
I recently bought an IBM A31p Thinkpad with a 15 inch 1600 X 1200 UXGA
TFT Monitor, 1.8Ghz P4 Pentium and an ATi Radeon Fire Gl 7800 graphics
card running Windows 2000.
Everything was perfect [eventually - more or less], except...
Wanting to learn about the Linux operating system I bought SuSE Linux
8.0 at PC World in Blanchardstown last weekend, having heard good
things
about it and having read several reviews.
I installed it in the intervening period, using System Commander 7 to
resize the existing "C" partition and create new ones.
Lots of fun later [with a vertical learning curve for an extended
period], the default SuSE operating system and packages were
installed,
Win2K was rebooting after the Iomega Drive bullied its way into the
"E"
position again and in general I was on an up...
Then my problems began. SuSE booted to a blank screen! This was
despite
being able to have some neat little product advertising screens at
1600
X 1200 during the installation while running off the CD-ROM.
Lots of fiddling around showed that the default installation had
loaded
the XFree86 3-series drivers. Weird. So I reinstalled SuSE, this time
specifying the 4-series and tried again. Screen this time, with
command
prompt. Ran SaX, set the driver preferences as best I could IBM TFT
and
Radeon XV [?] but the test couldn't see my monitor.
THEN I trawled the sites of you, the recipients and the web to find
that
graphics acceleration isn't supported in XFree86 for alot of cards and
the ATi Radeon Mobility isn't listed at all.
Now I know [after some considerable hunting around SuSE's website]
that
the Radeon 7500 is supposedly supported by SuSE 8.1 <groan> but again,
that is the Desktop 7500, which has more features than the Radeon
Mobility 7500. Yet the Radeon Mobility Fire GL has special drivers and
physically more RAM [68 as opposed to 32 Mb] than the Mobility Radeon
7500, but still doesn't equate to the Desktop 7500.
HELP!!!
Could you guys address this issue? Please? Pretty Please?
Is there a driver I can use perhaps with some comment in the
configuration files?
I attach some comments I saw during my search but while they may be a
workaround, they made little sense to me. Either XFree 86 supports it,
or I get a separate driver from ATi or SuSE or a third party.
I don't mind paying for it BTW. Having shelled out nearly �6K for a
mobile graphics/CAD Workstation + Case, I won't balk at paying for
what
I need, even to the point of commissioning a driver if I must or
buying
SuSE 8.2 if its sorted by that release.
Sorry for the intrusion, but it never hurts to ask.
Best regards,
Michael O'Neill
O'Neill Quigley & Associates
180 Ballinclea Heights,
Killiney, County Dublin
Tel: 01-2354808
Fax: 01-2354680
Mobile: 0872870903
E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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