[Spanner]

I made a mistake when I bought this low-end motherboard from PCCHIPS. Now I'm stuck with a vga chipset that my Corel Linux won't recognize (I won't even think about the onboard modem until I can startx) my graphics chipset.
The manual says it is a VIA Graphics set.
Windows9x is using a Trident 8400 driver.
A local computer store told me that it is in reality, probably, a SiS 620(?)

How far gone am I? Will I be able to find a driver? Is anyone even thinking about making the driver? Should I go out and buy a new motherboard and graphics card?

Thanks,
Spanner

[MikeV]

Well, I think the easiest thing to do would be checking w/ the manufacturer of the motherboard, so you can find out which chipset you use.

Linux doesn't care what kind of video card you have, it depends on the chipset. I'm pretty sure just about anything will work w/ vga16, as well as svga.

I still haven't tried a Corel install, but is there a way to manually specify your video, and not autodetect???

Let me know, and we'll get this set up.

Oh, and forget about the onboard modem. I seriously doubt that it'll work. Probably a winmodem, in which case there's almost no chance. Bummer, dude!

M

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It is easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission.

Lewis' Law: People will buy anything that's one to a customer...

Hurewitz's Memory Principle: The chance of forgetting something is directly proportional to... to... uh.....

[Spanner]

M.,

Thanks for answering so quickly. I chose the Corel distribution for a couple of reasons, the main one being that it was supposed to have the easiest install. Now I wish I had a box to test things on.

I have sent a couple of messages to the manufacturer, but my expectations are low. They have a reputation for being slow, they don't support Linux and, or they have scant Linux drivers posted on their site. This guy at a store was confident it was SiS. The SiS website is a little less confident.

It is possible to reconfigure after the autoprobe by going into XF86Setup, at the command line. I punched in different options and made the flickering screen flicker even more.

What do you know about XFree86? Is it possible to update?

What is happening? KDE is coming up and filling up the middle 2/3 of the screen and waving so much that I can only tell its KDE is because of the colours.

Thanks,
Spanner

PS. I'm not worried about the modem too much as there is Linux driver for my network adapter and I'm hoping to use it with a DSL modem.

[MikeV]

Okay...

first, yes, you can reconfigure at any time by running XF86Setup again, but you can also just edit the XF86Config file that it creates, if you're confidient with vi or emacs or something.

Second, yes, you can update X... I'm not sure which version comes with Corel, but go to www.xfree86.org for all the info you need, as well as a link to a bunch-o-mirrors for downloading from.

Oh, I never checked, but I assume the video is onboard too, right??? You may want to think about disabling it and getting an el-cheapo video card that you know works (there's a link to the current video card 'supported' list on the X site, too!)

Hope this helps a bit.
Mike

------------------
It is easier to get forgiveness than it is to get permission.

Lewis' Law: People will buy anything that's one to a customer...

Hurewitz's Memory Principle: The chance of forgetting something is directly proportional to... to... uh.....