[tlug] SIS & Intel Video Chipset Support on Linux

["Lyle H Saxon" <llletters@example.com>]

This is a sloppy report in that I don't have the exact chipset numbers, but I thought I'd mention some recent hardware experience in connection with a few recently acquired IBM ThinkCenter boxs (for myself and a couple of friends).  Keep in mind that all of what I'm commenting on is relating to production line boxes from major manufacturers, and not custom boxes.

I had had some bad luck with the Intel chipsets that came with P-III boxes (in combination with flat panel displays & KVM switches), and then better luck with some Hitachi micro-towers (DG3) with SIS chipsets, so I got myself and a few friends onto the Hitachi's, and they worked fine... until attempting to go to the newest version of Suse & Kubuntu (they still work fine with Debian).  What happens is that they still work on a CRT monitor, but keystrokes generate some noise on the screen (lines), and with a flat panel display, the screen goes black for a couple of seconds every 20-30 seconds.

So, I picked up a few IBM ThinkCenter boxes out of the last batch at Otto (they closed yesterday), with a more modern Intel chipset that works fine with the latest major distro releases.

I was a little surprised/disappointed to experience sudden chipset support problems with the SIS chipset Hitachi boxes, as I thought that once a driver was out there for a chipset, it wouldn't degenerate, but that's what appears to have happened - at least with Suse & Kubuntu.

Incidentally, now that Otto has closed their used desktop shops, can anyone report on other used shops they've had good experience with?  My experience with several of the other used equipment shops is that they when they get something in, they slap a price sticker on it and dump it on the street in front of the shop with no cleaning, no testing, and no warranties.  It's generally a real gamble to buy boxes from shops like that.  The good thing about Otto is they obviously had good connections with leasing companies and got in a lot of perfectly good equipment, that they then cleaned, tested, and guaranteed....

Lyle