Re: Video Card for Woody
On 14 Sep 2003, Richard Otte wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 14, 2003 at 12:13:48AM +0200, Mario Vukelic wrote:
> > I did nothing special at all. It worked out of the box with both the
> > XFree driver and the Matrox-supplied driver.
> > My XF86Config-4 includes this:
> >
> > Section "Device"
> > Identifier "MATROX CARD 1"
> > Driver "mga"
> > BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
> > EndSection
> >
> > If you use the proprietary drivers, be sure to include
> > Option "HWCursor" "off"
> >
> > in this section, too. I found that the XFree drivers worked better than
> > Matrox's drivers. I can't see anything Matrox's do better, on the
> > downside they can't use HWCursor and X needs longer to start up. It may
> > be that some stuff I don#t use like Xinerama and TV out are better or
> > only work with them, though.
> >
> > If you use XFree's, you#ll get the message that mga_hal can't load, but
> > this does no harm - it's only needed for Matrox PowerDesk config tool,
> > availabel with their drivers. You can get the Matrox drivers here
> > http://www.matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/latest/home.cfm
> >
> My 550 is working fine, but I'm not completely sure that I'm using the matrox
> driver or if I'm using the XFree one. I'm running testing (version 4.2.1.6 of
> xserver-common and xserver-xfree86). In my XF86Config-4 file I have:
>
> Section "Device"
> Identifier "matrox 550"
> Driver "mga"
> EndSection
>
> and when I type lsmod I see:
> mga 103384 1
>
> I know I did install the Matrox driver at one point, assume I'm still
> using it. Could you let us know exactly how to use the XFree86 driver?
> What would the XFree86Config-4 file look like for each driver (and do I
> have to install some other module to use the XFree86 driver)?
>
> Also, were you able to use the Matrox Powerdesk config tool; I was not
> able to get it working (or to get dvi to work with it).
>
> Thanks,
> Ric
Just chipping in here: if you go to the matrox site and download the tgz
file you get an installation script which works well (the one on the
Matrox CD didn't work for me). However, the Matrox driver produced a bad
cursor and I couldn't see any particular advantage otherwise. I did
install the mga_hal driver but I haven't bothered with Powerdesk.
AC
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