Re: [aclug-L] Video card choice (was: Debian package management)

["Greg House" <ghouse@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>At this point I'm back to swapping hardware.  I have a choice of a S3 ViRGE
>GX2 (AGP) or a STB Velocity 3d (PCI).  Anyone got any guess which will be
>less hassle to set up?  This system's owner is getting pretty antsy to get
>it and I'm tired of being hung up trying to get this video card to work...


As an update to my previous message, here are my results.  I tried the S2
Virge/GX2 card and it woudln't work at all.  W98 found it and used it ok,
but Linux wouldn't even complete the boot.  It hung every time right after
the line where it said it was probing the serial port (I think).  I suspect
some sort of PnP-based resource conflict, but I don't know for sure.

At that point I stuck the STB card in there.  It worked better with the STB
card (uses an S3 Virge/VX chipset), but I can't seem to get anything beyond
8bpp to work.

Sort of disturbingly, it actually locks the entire machine when starting X
at 16bpp (or with acceleration enabled...).  Down to the hardware level, the
ATX hot power switch won't even turn the thing off!  The reset switch still
works, but that's about it.  None of the ALT-Fn or Ctrl-Alt-Backspace,
Ctrl-Alt-Delete, Ctrl-C, none of that does anything.

When I've worked with other video cards, if X doesn't start right, you can
just kill the X server with Ctrl-Alt-BS and try again.  This really stinks
in terms of time 'cause you have to endure a reboot complete with fscks to
clean up the mess left behind when you flipped the power off.  Kind of
flying blind on the stuff too.  The README for the chipset says stuff like
"you might try this option, or that option, or the other option" but doesn't
really say what'll actually WORK.

At this point, I think the point's moot 'cause I probably won't use these
video cards for it, but I'm still curious why they're not working.  If
anyone can give me a clue, I'd appreciate it.  In the mean time, it's off to
DejaNews for a prowl through comp.os.linux.x

Thanks,
Greg

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