[LI] The 3dimage975 card headaches

[Vimal Mathew <vml@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,
 I have configured about 4 or 5 systems with the Trident 3dImage975 video card and have been successful in a text-book install only on one. This card
is supposed to be supported by the SVGA server, but I got the foll. errors/problems -
- You startup X, but the monitor is blank with LED blinking. Diagnosis? Possible misconfiguring of Modelines/Monitor. So inserted proper Monitor config. from monitor manual(the monitor is usually a Samtron 40BN, 45, 50E, or 55E).No difference. Tried moving into next
  video mode(Ctrl-Alt-+). Works sometimes, but differently for different systems with same card+monitor+X server(version).
- On one or two systems, the system hangs(kernel panic?) on trying to switch to a text console(Ctrl-Alt-F1/F2/..). Got frustrated and used the X frame-buffer driver. One guy moved back to the original XSVGA server successfully
  by commenting out the [Chipset "3dImage975"] in the "Device" section of /etc/X11/XF86Config. Odd!
- Some video modes were unattainable on some systems. Eg- On one system, 800x600@16bpp was available but not 640x480@16bpp. Usually, the X server started into 640x480 with
  monitor blank+monitor LED blinking and we manually switched to 800x600 by Ctrl-Alt-+ each time. So I modified the XF86Config file to make it start up in 800x600@16bpp. When you do this, it does not work. That is, it seems that you sometimes *have* to startup in a non-working mode and change video mode to a working one.
- And, annoyingly enough, the card works beautifully in Windoze. So, I guess there is a video-driver problem in Linux for this card.
- Each card needs a different solution. Even copying the XF86Config file between 2 *identical* systems does not seem to help.
I would rather configure 4 SiS cards than a single 3dImage975 in Linux.
-
--vml

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