"Mike A. Harris" wrote: > ATI hardware has vendor code 1002, and subvendor code 1002. If > the subvendor code is not 1002, then it is not made by ATI, only > the core chip is made by ATI, and someone else manufactured the > board. I can't argue with that. All I can say is that whoever made it, did not make it too clear who they were. The GeForce 4 card I replaced the Radeon with clearly says "Inno", but there was no such clear markings on the Radeon 7500 box. > >I've bought an Nvidia GeForce 4 Ti4200 based card instead, made in this case by > >Inno. Inno does not produce GNU/Linux drivers, but I was hoping the Nvida > >drivers (from Nvidia's web site) would have worked. So far I've not managed to > >get the Nvidia drivers to work, but to be fair I've not put a lot of time into > >this, whereas a wasted a *lot* of time on the Radeon 7500 before giving up. I have now got the Nvida drivers working, which involved updating the kernel and compiling the drivers from source, rather than using the RPMs on Nvidia's web site. > Well, I can assure you that a real Radeon 7500 produced by ATI > does work. And any bugs reported in other variants are likely to > be fixed, as long as the person with the hardware is willing to > help troubleshoot it. Sorry I'm unable to do that now. > All GeForce 4 hardware is unsupported in XFree86 4.2.0 which > ships in Red Hat Linux 7.3. We defaulted the autodetection to > use the "vesa" driver, which uses the card's BIOS in an attempt > to provide mediocre working 2D. Reports that I've received back > are that it does not work - at least on some GeForce 4 hardware > anyway. XFree86 4.3.0 will support the GeForce 4 family however. I did have some limited success with the vesa driver I believe, but using Nvidia's driver, I have managed to get 1600x1200 out from the DVI port. However, the problems I have are very odd to say the least, but are basically: a) With only a digital connection on the DVI-I port, my TFT monitor is unable to lock to any text-mode the card can produce. No boot messages, such as "press DEL to enter setup", "Testing memory" can be seen, so problems start before GNU/Linux (or Windoze) ever tries to load. However, when XFree86, or Windoze 98SE, runs, it can be seen. b) Adding a connection from a VGA monitor, causes boot messages to come from both the DVI-I and VGA ports. Hence adding a VGA monitor allows me to use the digital section of the DVI-I port of the card to see console messages. c) Having a VGA connection on the card causes Nvidia's driver to output X to the VGA port. So while adding a VGA monitor enables boot messages to appear, it prevents X from running from the digital part of the DVI card. d) Connecting a VGA monitor before re-booting the machines allows boot messages to be seen from the card, and removing it before XFree86 attempts to run, allows the digital port to be used under X. Hence my turn-on procedure has to be: i) Connect both a VGA monitor (does not matter if it is powered up) and the TFT via the DVI connector. ii) Wait for the "Press DEL to enter setup" to appear. iii) Remove the VGA monitor's connection. This crazy procedure, seems the only way I can get get both console messages and X to my TFT screen. There must clearly be a bug if console messages from the card can not be output to the TFT screen without using a VGA monitor. Getting support from Inno seems impossible. > That problem has been around for ages, and is not specific at all > to video drivers. Look at some of the Linux kernel's network > drivers for an example. The NE2000 driver, and DEC tulip drivers > being good examples. I'm beggining to realise this. > >I also have a Sun workstation at home, which costs a lot more > It is not a flaw of Linux per se. but a problem due to hardware > vendors not treating Linux as a primary platform. Linux support > is often last-ditch support thrown over the fence. There isn't > any technical reason why hardware can't be supported in Linux. > All that is required is: > In the case of video hardware, it is pretty much impossible for a > given driver maintainer to acquire one of every single board out > there that could be just slightly different. I appreciate this. > So yes, there is a problem, but it is nothing new. And it is > unlikely to change any time soon. People buying hardware should > do compatibility checks, and research the hardware adequately > ahead of time in order to be confident that their specific > hardware selection will work adequately. It is clearly very difficult for people to assertain this. Before buying the Radeon 7500, I checked that there were drivers available for the card. After having my fingers burnt (I hope that is not just an English expression) on the Radeon with DVI, I asked Nvidia if their driver for the GeForce4 did support the DVI port too. They assured me they did, so I bought a Nvidia based card from Inno. Now I find I've still got hassles. There is clearly an issue that most people using these cards use them with VGA monitors. Those that do use the DVI port, generally use them with the DVI-I -> VGA adapters supplied with the cards. The number of people using these cards with only DVI seems to be quite small. > expecting it to work, and having it work. > > Some might argue, that that is the case in Windows also > however... I'm no fan of Windoze, but clearly hardware manufacturers take support for that OS more seriously than they do GNU/Linux. I just hope that changes, which I believe it will. Peaple asking for Linux support from hardware manufacturers can only help in this matter. -- Dr. David Kirkby PhD, email: drkirkby@ntlworld.com web page: http://www.david-kirkby.co.uk Amateur radio callsign: G8WRB
