Very Computer

I tired to setup XFree86 on my pc and failed. I traced the problem to
the video card which used Trident TVGA9000B chipset. XFree86-HOWTO
listed TVGA9000, TVGA9000i as supported, but not TVGA9000B.  This was
confirmed when I ran MakeCard and it didn't fill in the chipset blank.
I tried fooling XFree86 by filling in manually the chipset entry
as TVGA9000 and TVGA9000i, but the display was all messed up.

Anyone had similar problem with TVGA9000B chipset, or knows a solution
to get around this problem?

Thanks

--yfwang

I someone running XF86 on a Trident 8900B.  You don't wanna do it.
Trust me, it's slooooooooooooooooooooooooow.  Tseng labs et4000
boards are cheap, your sanity is worth the $60.

--
____
\bi/  Ian McCloghrie      | FLUG:  *MUCK Linux User's Group

GCS (!)d-(--) p c++ l++(+++) u+ e- m+ s+/+ n+(-) h- f+ !g w+ t+ r y*

The above represents my personal opinions and not necessarily those
of my employer, Qualcomm Inc.

Quote:>> Anyone had similar problem with TVGA9000B chipset, or knows a solution
>> to get around this problem?

Ian> I someone running XF86 on a Trident 8900B.  You don't wanna do it.
Ian> Trust me, it's slooooooooooooooooooooooooow.  Tseng labs et4000
Ian> boards are cheap, your sanity is worth the $60.

Even better: S3805/801 cards are enormously faster than either, give
better screen quality, and can be found for less than $100. For enven
cheaper you can find Cirrus 542[68] cards.

Quote:>Ian> I someone running XF86 on a Trident 8900B.  You don't wanna do it.
>Ian> Trust me, it's slooooooooooooooooooooooooow.  Tseng labs et4000
>Ian> boards are cheap, your sanity is worth the $60.

I'm running XF86_SVGA with a Trident 8900B on a 386/25.
OK it's fairly slow, but that's life, isn't it.
It's also pretty good, in my judgement.
I use it with xdvi, and don't find it unduly frustrating.

Actually, would another card speed it up substantially?
How much does the speed eg of xv depend on the CPU?

--
Timothy Murphy  

tel: +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

The speed difference between my old system (386/25, no cache, 10M
with an ISA tseng labs et4000) and one of my friends' system
(386/20 64K cache, 8M with an ISA trident 8900B) was incredible.
At a guess, the et4000 was about 5 times faster at drawing windows,
moving things around, etc.  This was just X with an xterm or two,
memory was not a problem.

--
____
\bi/  Ian McCloghrie      | FLUG:  *MUCK Linux User's Group

GCS (!)d-(--) p c++ l++(+++) u+ e- m+ s+/+ n+(-) h- f+ !g w+ t+ r y*

The above represents my personal opinions and not necessarily those
of my employer, Qualcomm Inc.

: >I'm running XF86_SVGA with a Trident 8900B on a 386/25.
: >OK it's fairly slow, but that's life, isn't it.
: >It's also pretty good, in my judgement.
: >I use it with xdvi, and don't find it unduly frustrating.

: >Actually, would another card speed it up substantially?
: >How much does the speed eg of xv depend on the CPU?

: The speed difference between my old system (386/25, no cache, 10M
: with an ISA tseng labs et4000) and one of my friends' system
: (386/20 64K cache, 8M with an ISA trident 8900B) was incredible.
: At a guess, the et4000 was about 5 times faster at drawing windows,
: moving things around, etc.  This was just X with an xterm or two,
: memory was not a problem.

   What about the 8900CL set?  That is what I am running...
what is a good fast, cheap, ISA card?

--
Andrew K. Heller - Making the world safe once again.
------------------------------------------------------------------
  Computer Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University
     "The drinking University with a football problem"

------------------------------------------------------------------

Are these things supposed to be easy to get running?
I have what look like a Trident TVGA8900C chipset (though I
didn't choose and have no docs.) SuperProbe gets this, and
this is about what is printed on the chips. xinit guesses
as ET3000 for some reason.

Anyhow, the only mode that works is interlace 1024x768i, ie

 "1024x768i"     45     1024 1032 1208 1264    768  768  772  817   Interlace

The clocks line is

  Clocks     25 28 45 36 58 65 50 40

This implies that of the 25,36,40,50,45 clocks I can try, only
the 45 is correct in this list.

The trouble is that this mode is useless to me, because there is
only half a Meg of ram on board, so it goes stupid just beyond
half way down the screen.

Does anyone have any idea what chip I'm really using or what the clocks
really are... ie has anyone had this problem?

Greg

ISA tseng labs et4000 boards are about $75.  They're solid (it was
about the first chipset XF86 supported), cheap, and of acceptable (by
me, at least) speed.

Quote:>I have what look like a Trident TVGA8900C chipset (though I
>didn't choose and have no docs.) SuperProbe gets this, and
>this is about what is printed on the chips. xinit guesses
>as ET3000 for some reason.

If the chip says it's a Trident 8900C, there's a 99.9999% chance it's
a Trident 8900C.

Quote:>Anyhow, the only mode that works is interlace 1024x768i, ie
> "1024x768i"     45     1024 1032 1208 1264    768  768  772  817   Interlace

Did you WRITE this mode?  Did you actually read any of the
documentation?  Go read the VideoModes.doc file two or three times,
and you'll know why it doesn't work.

--
____
\bi/  Ian McCloghrie      | FLUG:  *MUCK Linux User's Group

GCS (!)d-(--) p c++ l++(+++) u+ e- m+ s+/+ n+(-) h- f+ !g w+ t+ r y*

The above represents my personal opinions and not necessarily those
of my employer, Qualcomm Inc.