From: "Jun Sun" <jsun@mvista.com> > Geert Uytterhoeven wrote: > > > On Mon, 27 May 2002, Steven J. Hill wrote: > > > >>Kevin D. Kissell wrote: > >> > >>>I'd like to get a video-capable graphics card up > >>>and running on a MIPS Malta board (therefore > >>>PCI), ideally something mainstream like ATI. > >>>Does anyone on the list have any positive or > >>>negative recommendations in terms of cards > >>>and particularly in terms of the degree to which > >>>the drivers (and PCI set-up) have been ported > >>>to MIPS/Linux? I'll do what I must, but I hate > >>>re-inventing the wheel. > >>> > >>> > >>I can think of two things. First, a lot of graphics cards > >>rely on BIOS calls to be set up before the operating system > >>even boots. Second, I would stick to graphics cards that > >>have framebuffer support in the kernel as you stand at least > >>half a chance that those cards don't rely so heavily on a > >>peecee bios. Just my $.02. > >> > > > > Even then, most frame buffer device drivers rely on the firmware (PC BIOS or > > SPARC/PPC Open Firmware) having set up the video card. > > > > One of the exceptions is matroxfb, > > > Steve Longerbeam has a fb driver with BIOS init for ATI Xpert98 card, which > you can still buy. Yeah, but it's a pretty wimpy card (8MB) and has no TV output. > Dan Malek also wrote a driver for MQ200. Which is essentially a handheld/webphone graphics chip, for which the documentation is only available under NDA. Not terribly useful for me, thanks. > If you ask around, I am sure you can the patch somewhere. I *am* asking around - that's why I started this thread. > > For a while, I also had 3dfx voodoo3 working. Not sure about its status now. > You can find the patch at http://www.medex.hu/~danthe/tdfx/. 3dfx, in case you hadn't heard, folded some time ago. So it sounds like the Matrox G450 PCI is really the only game in town... Kevin K.
