[TriLUG] X Problems

[Jason Tower]

rage pro cards do NOT have 3D support under DRI (i have several rage pro
video cards and was bummed to learn this).
> On Sun, Jun 30, 2002 at 08:38:49AM -0700, rob wildermann wrote:
>> Background -- I am a more or less complete noob trying
>> to get Gentoo running on my system. I have an ATI 3d
>> Rage Pro (8MB) and an ADI LM-1764 monitor (Micron
>> branded, 5+ years old). I am using XFree86 version
>> 4.2.
>
> Were you using 3.3.6 before?
>
>> X is coming up with the top third of the screen
>> wiggling more or less constantly, about every five or
>> six seconds the whole thing goes blank, then the
>> pattern repeats.
>
> Do you have a color depth and resolution that your card can handle? I
> presume you're just shooting for whatever was on your Mandrake setup,
> but I figured it was worth asking. An 8Mb card should be able to handle
> 1024x768 at 32-bit color with double buffering (IIRC) but probably
> can't get 1152x864 at 32-bit with double buffering (that's right at
> 8Mb).
>
>> I assume it's not hardware because this combo works
>> fine in Mandrake 8.1 in another partition. (Although
>> the XF86Config file doesn't work when pulled over--
>> 3.3.6 vs. 4.2 differences?)
>
> I think 3.3.x config files are completely incompatible with 4.x files.
>
>> I have tried the more common, brain-free methods of
>> writing XF86Config, including XFree86 -configure and
>> xf86config, both produce the same results. I've tried
>> tweaking the h sync and v refresh values, always
>> staying well within my monitor specs, with no success.
>
> How about xf86cfg? One of those, xf86config or xf86cfg, actually uses X
> to configure X, so it might be interesting to see what the graphical
> version  gives you, if anything.
>
> You used to have to actually add resolutions and, if desired, a default
> color depth and so forth to the config file that is given to you by
> XFree86 -configure for it to work completely. If you want to send me
> (as opposed to the list) a copy of the file I can take a peek at it and
> see whether there's anything obvious you'd need to add.
>
> Now that I think about it, that you get some wiggly semblance of X in
> the first place perhaps says I'm completely off base on this.
>
> Have you another monitor you could try?
>
> I actually have a Rage Pro here that I could test with, if it came down
> to that. I've spent more time playing with X than I care to admit, so
> perhaps going through the motions again would make me remember
> something that needs to be tweaked.
>
> Oh, and one last question: are you enabling DRI? I think that the Rage
> Pro cards are just getting 3D support with DRI and I'm not sure if a
> preliminary version is in 4.2 or not. If the card is setting aside
> memory for 3D, then you will run dry on memory before you think you
> should (by just calculating using screen size, color depth, and
> buffering). Something to consider...
>
> Regards,
> matt
>
> --
> Matt Matthews     \ ph: 919.660.2811        \ Use GNU/Linux  _o) w00t
> Duke Univ., Postdoc\ jvmatthe at math.duke.edu  \____________   /\\
> Dept. of Mathematics\ http://www.math.duke.edu/~jvmatthe/ \ _\_V
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