Re: RH 6.2 install causes screen to explode

["SN_Diamond" <Norman.Diamond@example.com>]

Tobias Diedrich wrote:

> The Trident Cyber 9xxx should be supported by both XFree 3.3 and XFree 4.
> I have the same chipset in my notebook (Well I don't know if it's a 9382,
> I can't verify that at the moment, but it is a Trident Cyber 9xxx).
> However with XFree 3.3 I had some trouble getting it to work because
> you had to specify the right timings.

My Trident 9385 chip was recognized correctly by XFree 3.x but I had to edit
XFree86Config to push the vertical refresh rate down to 60Hz.

My Trident 9385 chip was interpreted as a Trident 966x card by XFree 4.x.
The driver was close enough so that it partly worked.  However, I think the
4.x driver doesn't know that the 9385 chip needs to be told to allocate 0 MB
of video ram to the video capture function, so the chip defaults to
allocating a bit over 0.5 MB to video capture, leaving the remainder for
normal display.  I had to edit XFree86Config to tell X to use 1536 KB of
video ram instead of the correctly detected 2048 KB, and then it mostly
worked.  A small amount of corruption remains visible on the screen
sometimes.  But if I push the video ram setting down any lower, I can't get
1024 x 768 @ 16 bpp.  So I accept the small amount of corruption.

In my experience, XFree 3.x messed up the jp106 keyboard very badly, XFree
4.x as distributed by Red Hat needs only one fix to get the jp106 keyboard
right, and XFree 4.x as distributed by SuSE gets the jp106 keyboard right
the first time.  However, this is all for PS/2 keyboards only.  On a USB
jp106 keyboard, the kernel still prevents some keys from working unless
patched.

The Trident Cyber series were a bit newer than the TGUI 9385 and 9382.  As
far as I can tell, the use of the word Cyber for the old chips in the XFree
configuration files is just a naming error.

XFree can take comfort from the fact that Microsoft's Trident drivers are
even worse.  For one chip that is certified as Compatible and one that is
Logo certified in the hardware compatibility list for Windows 2000, for
which Microsoft-provided drivers are included in the Windows 2000 CD and
installed automatically during Windows 2000 setup, Microsoft gives us blue
screens.

Sincerely,
Norman Diamond