Very Computer

by **Kevin Holbroo** » Wed, 19 Aug 1998 04:00:00

While attempting to boot either 2.0.x or 2.1.x kernels on a system with
a Matrox Millenium MGA-2064W video card, a hard system reset occurs at
what appears to be the console initialization sequence. This only occurs
with a specific variant of the board, as another slightly older revision
works fine. These graphic controllers shippped on-board many HP Vetra
PC's evidently, as that's where this one sits.

The exact card specs are:

MGA Millenium
MGA-2064W B2 R2
DAC: TI TVP3026 (220Mhz)
BIOS: 8/21/96 V2.2 Rev 0.37

Whats funny is the card that works reports the following (note the BIOS
date):
MGA-2064W B2 R2
DAC: TI TVP3026 (175 Mhz)
BIOS: 13/12/95 V1.9 Rev 0.28

This post is for informational purposes only.
If I get time I'll see if I can narrow it down a bit.

by **Tom Easte** » Wed, 19 Aug 1998 04:00:00

> While attempting to boot either 2.0.x or 2.1.x kernels on a system with
> a Matrox Millenium MGA-2064W video card, a hard system reset occurs at
> what appears to be the console initialization sequence. This only occurs
> with a specific variant of the board, as another slightly older revision
> works fine. These graphic controllers shippped on-board many HP Vetra
> PC's evidently, as that's where this one sits.

> The exact card specs are:

> MGA Millenium
> MGA-2064W B2 R2
> DAC: TI TVP3026 (220Mhz)
> BIOS: 8/21/96 V2.2 Rev 0.37

> Whats funny is the card that works reports the following (note the BIOS
> date):
> MGA-2064W B2 R2
> DAC: TI TVP3026 (175 Mhz)
> BIOS: 13/12/95 V1.9 Rev 0.28

> This post is for informational purposes only.
> If I get time I'll see if I can narrow it down a bit.

The latest BIOS available from Matrox is 3.0 (IIRC) -- it's easy to
upgrade your bios but you have to remove the card and set a switch
first. I recommend getting the bios from Matrox rather than from HP;
HP's version requires that you have a FAT partition whereas the one from
Matrox doesn't.

There's another problem with these cards on Vectra XUs that at least two
of us have run into -- using kernels older than 2.1.116Pre1, we must run
scanpci (as root) prior to starting X! Otherwise, the MGA driver in
XF86_SVGA can't detect the card. I run scanpci in my rc.local script and
the card runs fine.

-Tom
--
Tom Eastep
COMPAQ Computer Corporation
Enterprise Computing Group
Tandem Division

Very Computer

Console bug w/Matrox

Console bug w/Matrox

Console bug w/Matrox