Re: S3 Trio64 support
Thanks for the hints. Unfortunately, without documentation on the
setup of the s3 driver, I'm not sure that it isn't just my error that
keeps it from working. That makes me reluctant to report my problems
as a bug or defect in the software. In fact, I'm still not sure
whether I should be using s3 or s3virge. I've been using
'dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg' to try out different X configurations,
but I'll give your command a try.
The other issue, about the text console going dead during boot,
though, seems to be something else. I had this machine running without
using the graphics at all. When I first set it up, I didn't have a
keyboard and monitor handy for it, so I installed it to use the serial
port as a console. I think what must be happening is that the console
gets switched to the serial port at just that point, and of course
I've disconnected the other terminal from that port. So I need to
figure out how to change that. In some distributions it would mean
compiling or at least loading a new kernel. I'm not sure in Debian
though whether I have to do that or just change a configuration option
somewhere. Slackware would let me replace the kernel alone from the
installation CD, for instance. But when I tried that with Debian it
wanted to repartition the drive and reinstall everything. Obviously
that's not my goal, I have the system all set up and customized now.
--Gary
On 11/4/07, Gianluca Bonetti <gl@decadence.it> wrote:
>
> Hello Gary! :)
>
> The card should be supported by the 's3' video driver.
> In Etch, we have version 1:0.4.1-5 which is not the latest release
> (version 1:0.5.0-4)
>
> It seems that the driver is bugged and failing, but by now, there is no
> issue in bugreport:
>
> http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?which=pkg&data=
> xserver-xorg-video-s3&archive=no&version=&dist=stable
>
> Please try 'Xorg -configure' that prepares a new xorg.conf in your
> ~home.
> Then use 'Xorg -config <new-config-file>'
> If it doesn't work, then the driver is buggy and please open a bug
> report.
>
> In the testing stage of Etch, I had the same problem with Voodoo 5/5500
> and MGA G450. Hence it was a problem common to all drivers.
> Today, those X drivers work on my PWS 500a.
>
> > I could actually live without X on this machine, since it works well
> > enough as a client to other machines. However, I really would like to
> > at least have a shell interface from the console, and even that does
> > not work. Booting from SRM (which finds the keyboard and video card
> > without difficulty) I do get the bootup messages right up to the
> > point at which Apache loads. I think this is part of init level 3.
> > Then the display stops updating, and the keyboard is unresponsive.
> >
> > The system finishes booting and can be reached via ssh from another
> > node, though. What do I have to do to keep the attached keyboard and
> > monitor working?
>
> Debian only uses runlevel 2 for everything, including X.
>
> If I understand correctly, you see boot messages on the console, but at
> last it becomes black or unreadable.
> It should be X that loads and makes the card unworking.
>
> You should boot by SRM appending the parameter 's' or '1' to boot in a
> runlevel where X doesn't load.
> Then remove (or use update-rc.d) the symlink in /etc/rc2.d/ that points
> to a login manager (xdm|kdm|gdm|wdm|whatever-else-dm)
> Tipically, it should be /etc/rc2.d/S99gdm
> After removing, you should boot up to a point where X doesn't load.
>
> Bye!
> gl
>
>
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