Re: Inspiron 8100 + S-Video...
On Wed, 2001-12-05 at 20:43, Rob Hensley wrote:
> Hi, I recently got my Dell Inspiron working perfectly with the unstable
> tree of debian, i just have one other question. Has anyone gotten the
> S-Video out to work under linux? It seems to work fine under windows, but
> how can i get it to work under linux too? Any suggestions would be greatly
> apprecciated. Thanks in advance!
The i8100 has, to my knowledge, an NVidia GeForce 2Go graphics card. So,
I'm shamelessly quoting myself from an earlier post:
--8<--
Assuming you have an NVidia GeForce2Go, you need to get (non-free)
drivers from NVidia. Fortunately, these drivers have been packaged for
woody by Randall Donald. So you should apt-get install the following
packages:
nvidia-glx-src
nvidia-kernel-src
Then, read the documentation in /usr/share/doc/nvidia-* (one for each
package) and follow the step-by-step instructions.
After you have X running with the new driver, go to
http://www.nvidia.com/docs/lo/1021/SUPP/README.txt and skim throgh the
text so you'll see what a magnificent job Randall has done :).
Seriously, you want to look at Appendix D where NVidia tells you how to
set different options for the card in your XF86Config(-4), such as
activating the s-video port.
One small note about the driver: In a certain version, you could only
start X once. If you stopped X, and tried to start it again, your
computer would hang. In my setup this no longer happens, but be aware of
this "feature" if it happens. You then need to reboot after running X.
Another good pointer for more info is http://www.linux-laptop.net/
(click the Dell link).
--8<--
The NVidia site has info about how to set up your XF86Config(-4) to use
the S-Video port. Also, many sites available from www.linux-laptop.net
have XF86Config's that enable the S-Video port.
Note that the NVidia driver has its own multi-display features. That
means you can spread the X screen over several displays, somewhat like
Xinerama - but without Xinerama. In fact, it's incompatible with
Xinerama.
Hope that helps.
fabbe
PS. If there's anyone who would like to collaborate to make better
support and documentation for the Inspiron 8000/8100 series with NVidia
Geforce2Go graphics cards, then I'd be willing to contribute. Maybe even
put some XF86Config's + docs in deb packages?
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