[linrad] Re: linux and graphics cards

[Jeffrey Pawlan <jpawlan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I did not want to prematurely post details about graphics cards and drivers
without exhaustive testing but the recent posts suggest that I ought to. I had
previously mentioned that I was using the older version of svgalib 1.4.3
and I configured it as VESA.  The card I am using is in fact the Radeon 7000 AGP
that is being discussed. I bought it on sale at MicroCenter for $39.95.  They
also had on the shelf PCI versions of the same board in case your motherboard is
so old that it does not have an AGP slot.  So instead of hunting for the 3rd
party video driver and/or installing a later version of svgalib I am able to get
1024x768 resolution running. But I cannot say that everything is finished.  I am
still testing the ability to leave the linrad screen while it is running and go
to another window. So far I have been successful in getting to a command line
login prompt but not back to linrad without rebooting. Kohjin is helping me with
this. I also cannot get any sound out of my cards in linrad even though I have
tested them independent of linrad using multimedia players and they both work
fine.

Regarding Frys, they were running a sale last weekend for the same motherboard I
am using: an ECS Mainboard P4VXASD2+  plus a retail boxed Intel P4-1.8GHz (with
fan) for a total price of $159.99   This board has a VIA chipset that had
difficulties when I tried RedHat 7.1 but now that I have purchased Mandrake 9,
linux loaded perfectly and likes all the on-board hardware. I did have to buy
the OSS licenses for the two sound drivers I am using.

Rein Smit is coming here tonight and we will report on the results tomorrow.


73,

Jeffrey Pawlan, WA6KBL





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