Subject: Re: Kernel 2.4.x video problems

From: Chris Boot <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 18:39:21 +0100

Hi Ben,

>> I've got a few questions pertaining to video in recent kernels (2.4.x, x >=
>> 10) on both an iMac DV SE/500 (Summer 2000, ATI Rage 128 Pro) and a G4 Dual
>> 533 (ATI Radeon).
>>
>> First of all, I can only boot the iMac using the novideo kernel argument.
>> If I attempt to use video=aty128fb with or without any vmode parameters, the
>> screen just remains black.  I can type blindly and reboot, and got a dmesg.
>> Nothing out of the ordinary.  If there are any ways of getting verbose
>> messages from the kernel or the driver itself, I would be rather grateful.
>>
>> Second, the G4/533 works fine with no arguments, but it remains in 640x480,
>> 8-bit color.  As soon as I try to get some accelerated video using the
>> Radeon FB driver, the screen remains blank as in the iMac.  A dmesg this
>> time does in fact yield a message: "radeonfb: could not claim FB region" or
>> something similar (not by the machine at the moment).  Anyone know what's
>> causing this?
>
> for radeon, can you try with a recent 2.4.18pre4 ? It should work
> (it does for me actually). You should probably get XFree 4.2.0 to fully
> benefit from accel though.

Thanks, I'll give it a spin when I get my hands on that G4 again.  The
problem is that it's a friend's computer and he's away for a few weeks now,
so it won't be until about three weeks time if even that.

> I'm not sure what's up with aty128fb, it should work, but you aren't
> the only one to report a problem. I'll check this out.

I've got that running in the end.  I had to use
"video=aty128fb:vmode:16,cmode:32", the modedb way didn't work.  I may even
have a "noaccel" in there, but I can't remember to be honest.  I can look
into it further if you wish, I did attach a dmesg with the aty128fb
debugging enabled to a message I sent to [email-masked], so
check the archives there for it.

Thanks,

--
Chris Boot
[email-masked]

"Use the source, Luke." - Obi-Wan Gnuobi

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