Very Computer

I have an ABIT BP6, with a Cirrus Logic GD5434 video card in a PCI slot.

Before putting an AGP card in, I would like to know if it's possible to
keep the PCI card in there, and select to use one card or the other at
boot time.

Note, that I don't want to use both at once; neither Xinerame, nor same
output to each of two screens.

Current X is 4.1.0, but I'm planning to upgrade to 4.2.0 as soon as I
download the precompiled binaries.

--
++
If I'd wanted you to spam me, I would have given you my real address

Why would you want both if you are not going to use two displays?

The answer to your question is no. If you have two video cards in at once,
normal operations will only use the one that is recognized by your BIOS as
the " first" video card. In Gnome, your desktop will be stretched to cover
two monitors

Well, here's why.

Let's say I take out the PCI card and put the AGP card in. I reboot
(into text only mode, of course) and spend some time trying to set up X.
I give up, and want to go back to the PCI card to run Netscape, look for
more info, maybe download some new files. I have to open the box, take
out the AGP card and put the PCI card back in.

Now, once I've found out some more info, or downloaded some files, I
need to open the box, take out the PCI card and put back the AGP card.

It would be much simpler if I could keep both cards in there for a few
days. I would be able to boot the machine in text mode, change a
parameter so as to select initialisation of the AGP card, reboot and try
X. If it doesn't work, I change the parameter so as to select the PCI
card (which works), and do some more research.

Now, I have read somewhere, that you can set the order of initialisation
of PCI cards. I think that this is the mechanism used to set, for
instance, which NIC is initialised as being eth0 and which as eth1 in a
two-NIC system.

I hope that a similar mechanism can be used to select a PCI card or an
AGP card to the exclusion of the other... Or perhaps, if the BIOS
automatically enables the AGP card whenever present, simply disable the
AGP card in the boot sequence, so that the OS is forced to use the PCI
card.

I hop also that my problem is sufficiently well defined, now, and that
somebody will have run into a similar problem. No schadefreude intended,
of course ;-) since I am hoping for a solution!

--
++
If I'd wanted you to spam me, I would have given you my real address

It doesn't matter what card you use for text mode and you can select
whichever card you want in X, even if you have a dozen video cards all
installed in the same system. The BisID option (Device section) is
relatively well documented.

Quote:> Now, I have read somewhere, that you can set the order of initialisation
> of PCI cards. I think that this is the mechanism used to set, for
> instance, which NIC is initialised as being eth0 and which as eth1 in a
> two-NIC system.

This doesn't matter since X has its own way of telling which card to use
(using the scanpci module). Set the BusID for the first card or the
second. Don't forget to change the Driver option or it would not work :)

--
Vladimir

Quote:> Well, here's why.

> Let's say I take out the PCI card and put the AGP card in. I reboot
> (into text only mode, of course) and spend some time trying to set up X.
> I give up, and want to go back to the PCI card to run Netscape, look for
> more info, maybe download some new files. I have to open the box, take
> out the AGP card and put the PCI card back in.

> Now, once I've found out some more info, or downloaded some files, I
> need to open the box, take out the PCI card and put back the AGP card.

> It would be much simpler if I could keep both cards in there for a few
> days. I would be able to boot the machine in text mode, change a
> parameter so as to select initialisation of the AGP card, reboot and try
> X. If it doesn't work, I change the parameter so as to select the PCI
> card (which works), and do some more research.

> Now, I have read somewhere, that you can set the order of initialisation
> of PCI cards. I think that this is the mechanism used to set, for
> instance, which NIC is initialised as being eth0 and which as eth1 in a
> two-NIC system.

> I hope that a similar mechanism can be used to select a PCI card or an
> AGP card to the exclusion of the other... Or perhaps, if the BIOS
> automatically enables the AGP card whenever present, simply disable the
> AGP card in the boot sequence, so that the OS is forced to use the PCI
> card.

> I hop also that my problem is sufficiently well defined, now, and that
> somebody will have run into a similar problem. No schadefreude intended,
> of course ;-) since I am hoping for a solution!

You may be worried about nothing, Linux plug and play works really well
these days. I just swapped in a new video card today, the whole process
was painless. I plugged in the card and then rebooted. A screen came up
and asked me if I wanted to deconfigure my old card (yes), then it
recognized the new card, asked me if I wanted to configure it (yes
again), then brought up Xconfigurator so that I could select the desired
resolution. After Xconfigurator was done it booted into Linux and all was
fine.