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XFree86 4.1 config for ATI XPert98/Rage XL



I'm helping a friend switch from Red Hat to Debian (Woody). He just had
a hard disk crash that took out the Red Hat system, and he had no backup
of the core system, so he was willing to try something different.

We are running into one really annoying problem, though. XFree86 4.1
does not seem willing to believe that his video card and/or monitor can
handle 1600x1200 resolution; it insists on coming up at 1280x1024 at 60
Hz. We have checked and double-checked the relevant sections of
XF86Config-4, and manually added mode lines and a DacSpeed entry, to no
effect.

The hardware is an ATI XPert98 card with a Rage XL chipset and 8 MB of
RAM, hooked up to a ViewSonic P810 21" monitor. According to ATI's web
site, the card supports dot clocks up to 230 MHz, and modes up to
1600x1200 at 85 Hz. ViewSonic's web site says that the monitor can
handle 1600x1200 at 75 Hz, with hsync from 30-95 kHz and vsync from
50-160 Hz. XFree86 was told all this in the initial configuration of the
xserver-xfree86 package, and it's all in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.

/var/log/XFree86.0.log says, however, that the maximum clock is 125 MHz,
not 230, and refuses to accept the 1600x1200 modes we have manually
added into XF86Config-4. So we added the line "DacSpeed 230" to the
video card section. According to www.xfree.org's docs for the 4.1 ATI
driver, this should work, but it seems to be ignored.

The old Red Hat 7.1 system was working at 1600x1200 at 75 Hz, so it is
surely possible. Unfortunately, the XFConfig-4 file from that system was
lost along with everything else on the failed hard disk.

I would really appreciate any suggestions anyone has on this, or
examples of successful configurations of this hardware for the desired
mode (or something close to it).

Here is the relevant sections of XF86Config-4:

Section "Device"
	Identifier	"ATI Rage XL"
	Driver		"ati"
	DacSpeed	230
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier	"Viewsonic P810"
	HorizSync	30-95
	VertRefresh	50-160
	Option		"DPMS"
	Modeline	"1600x1200"  202.5  1600 1664 1856 2160  1200 1201 1204 1250 +HSync +VSync
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Default Screen"
	Device		"ATI Rage XL"
	Monitor		"Viewsonic P810"
	DefaultDepth	24
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth		24
		Modes		"1600x1200" "1280x1024" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

(Other display subsections are not given here, as they are all the same
except for depth.)

And here is some of what the XFree86 log says:

XFree86 Version 4.1.0.1 / X Window System
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6510)
Release Date: 21 December 2001
	If the server is older than 6-12 months, or if your card is
	newer than the above date, look for a newer version before
	reporting problems.  (See http://www.XFree86.Org/FAQ)
Build Operating System: Linux 2.4.17 i686 [ELF] 

[snip]

(--) PCI:*(1:0:0) ATI Mach64 GM rev 39, Mem @ 0xe4000000/24, 0xe3800000/12, I/O @ 0xd800/8, BIOS @ 0xe5fe0000/17

[snip]

(II) ATI: ATI driver (version 6.3.6) for chipsets: ati, ativga
(II) R128: Driver for ATI Rage 128 chipsets: ATI Rage 128 RE (PCI),
	ATI Rage 128 RF (AGP), ATI Rage 128 RG (AGP), ATI Rage 128 RK (PCI),
	ATI Rage 128 RL (AGP), ATI Rage 128 Pro PD (PCI),
	ATI Rage 128 Pro PF (AGP), ATI Rage 128 Pro PP (PCI),
	ATI Rage 128 Pro PR (PCI), ATI Rage 128 Mobility LE (PCI),
	ATI Rage 128 Mobility LF (AGP), ATI Rage 128 Mobility MF (AGP),
	ATI Rage 128 Mobility ML (AGP)
(II) RADEON: Driver for ATI Radeon chipsets: ATI Radeon QD (AGP),
	ATI Radeon QE (AGP), ATI Radeon QF (AGP), ATI Radeon QG (AGP),
	ATI Radeon VE (AGP)
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 01:00:0
(II) ATI:  Candidate "Device" section "ATI Rage XL".
(II) ATI:  Shared PCI/AGP Mach64 in slot 1:0:0 detected.
(II) ATI:  Shared PCI/AGP Mach64 in slot 1:0:0 assigned to active "Device" section "ATI Rage XL".

[snip]

(II) Loading sub module "atimisc"
(II) LoadModule: "atimisc"
(II) Loading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/atimisc_drv.o
(II) Module atimisc: vendor="The XFree86 Project"
	compiled for 4.1.0.1, module version = 6.3.6
	Module class: XFree86 Video Driver
	ABI class: XFree86 Video Driver, version 0.4

[snip]

(II) Setting vga for screen 0.
(==) ATI(0): Chipset:  "ati".
(**) ATI(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32

[snip]

(II) ATI(0): VESA BIOS detected
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE Version 2.0
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE Total Mem: 8128 kB
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE OEM: ATI MACH64
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE OEM Software Rev: 1.0
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE OEM Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE OEM Product: MACH64GM
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE OEM Product Rev: 01.00
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE DDC supported
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE DDC Level none
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE DDC transfer in appr. 2 sec.
(II) ATI(0): VESA VBE DDC read failed
(--) ATI(0): ATI 3D Rage XL or XC graphics controller detected.
(--) ATI(0): Chip type 474D "GM", version 7, foundry TSMC, class 0, revision 0x00.
(--) ATI(0): AGP bus interface detected;  block I/O base is 0xD800.
(--) ATI(0): ATI Mach64 adapter detected.
(--) ATI(0): Internal RAMDAC (subtype 1) detected.

[snip]

(--) ATI(0): 8192 kB of SGRAM (2:1) 32-bit detected (using 8191 kB).
(--) ATI(0): Internal programmable clock generator detected.
(--) ATI(0): Reference clock 157.5/11 (14.318) MHz.
(II) ATI(0): Viewsonic P810: Using hsync range of 30.00-95.00 kHz
(II) ATI(0): Viewsonic P810: Using vrefresh range of 50.00-160.00 Hz
(II) ATI(0): Maximum clock: 125.00 MHz
(II) ATI(0): Not using mode "1600x1200" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan)

Thanks for any help that anyone can offer.

Craig

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