Problems with "ati" driver and ATI Rage XL

Gustaf Tham

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Feb 27, 2002, 12:58:53 PM2/27/02

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Hello,

Does anyone know if the new "ati" driver actually works
with the ATI RAGE XL chip, 8MB?

I installed XFree86 4.2.0 on my FreeBSD 4.4 system,
but when I start X, I just get a flashing screen,
about 1Hz.
Changing modes doesn't help.

Similar result setting up with Xfree86 -configure,
xf86cfg and xf86config.

This chip works with the old Mach64 driver, but image quality is
bad on my TFT screen. Perfect quality with windows :-(

That exact chip is not listed among supported cards.
It's onboard a Supermicro 370DER server mainboard.

Any help appreciated.

Gustaf Tham
g...@algonet.se

Martin Herren

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Feb 27, 2002, 1:30:09 PM2/27/02

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Gustaf Tham wrote:
>
> Hello,

Hej,

> Does anyone know if the new "ati" driver actually works
> with the ATI RAGE XL chip, 8MB?
>
> I installed XFree86 4.2.0 on my FreeBSD 4.4 system,
> but when I start X, I just get a flashing screen,
> about 1Hz.
> Changing modes doesn't help.

i've got similar problems with my ATI RAGE XL 8Mb which is onboard a Sun
Blade 100
(i'm running XFree86 4.1.0)
sometimes X flashes up for 2 sec... but usually only a fraction of
second, and then it gets dark again for some seconds.

several people reported X running on their Blade100, but several had
picture quality problems

> This chip works with the old Mach64 driver, but image quality is
> bad on my TFT screen. Perfect quality with windows :-(

i also try to run it with a TFT, and got also perfect quality with
Solaris...

i seems as if it were a clock-chip initialisation problem. X reports
running @ 75Hz/80kHz, but is seems as the signal is higher...
and TFTs seems to be more sensitive on this than CRTs...
(the people reporting their Blade100 running probably use CRTs)

can't help you as i am still looking for a solution...

/Martin

Gustaf Tham

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Feb 28, 2002, 3:46:36 AM2/28/02

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Thanks for replying.
Yes, I think your tentative diagnosis is correct --
my Eizo TFT screen has the advantage that it
displays the input hor. and ver. frequencies even
when it cannot display a picture, and I always
get sometehing a little above the max. frequencies
specified in the config file.
G

Alien

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Mar 1, 2002, 12:11:57 AM3/1/02

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I reported this issue in the Slackware forum and heard nothing but silence.
I had this card working perfectly under 4.1. In fact, once I'd installed
4.2, the blinking immediately developed and soon after falling back to 4.1
the blinking was gone. Another thing I'd noted is that the monitor would
make snapping noises.

Anyway, after compiling and researching at XFree86.org and posts in ng's
I'd come to realize no one had the fix. One thing I didn't try was frame
buffer mode but I'd just as soon upgrade to a better card--which I did. My
Radeon and Rage 128 work perfectly with 4.2.

But another issue developed with X and KDE. I started getting the
"microscopic font disease". That problem was solved by hardwiring the dpi
setting in X.

I guess you'll be needing to stay at v4.1 and wait for the fix--or do what
I did and upgrade to a card that *really* does work. But if you do discover
the cure please post back.

Hej då

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