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New X servers (ATI Rage & SiS)
SuSE has released new X servers for the Rage based cards, as well as for SiS. It looks like it was too late to be included on the XFree86 V3.3.5, but its good to see SuSE doing lots of efforts to write those drivers for those chipsets.
Well, not to worry, GLX to the rescue :)
Seriously, someone from the GLX Dev. team has came up with an idea - why not support ATI in 3D? everyone knows that ATI are not the best in 3D, but there are LOTS of users who have ATI graphics cards, and more users with systems with built in ATI chips who cannot afford to switch.
To make long story short - ATI has agreed to give the technical documents to the GLX team, and now there are few guys who hack their way with the info. Ofcourse - if you can help - PLEASE do so..
Offtopic (I cannot resist but to say it), looks like GLX drivers for Matrox WILL kick windows driver's ass hard! (once the AGP module will be ok and the XFree86 4.0 will be out)
Hetz (Heunique)
Yeah, that's a really good point - you are right. I was more confirming that the nVidia stuff _works_ pretty well than trying to deliver any judgement on the overall suitability vs anything else. I have no direct experience with the Matrox stuff but a friend has a G200 and swears by it.
Believe me, I tried. What I ordered was a 440LX board with just an open AGP slot. They were short on these and sent me a BX board with the onboard crap chip. I was pissed, called right away and got no satisfaction. They pointed me to their terms that said they could substitute for equal or greater _value_ as long as they notified me (they did send me an e-mail the same day it shipped).
Bastards. I learned my lesson. Machines I've built since then I've ordered from more reputable suppliers and usually get individual components separate rather than a kit.
As it turns out, I kind of ended up on the better side of this anyway, since they shipped a 100mzh board, the memory was upgraded pc100 as well and I ended up using the board in a different machine anyway. The board actually had AT and ATX connectors and fit nicely into my old 386 tower. I got a new powersupply and ended up getting a 450Mhz OEM PII at a swap meet and a nice 14gig HD and ended up turning this into a server anyway.
There have been several X drivers in the past few years that we would have never gotten (or at least had to wait a long time for) if it weren't for the money-makers.
That said, it's nice to see SuSE continue to release their stuff back to the community. They should be applauded for their efforts.
Werd.
So why didn't you send it back and get a refund? If it came with a different video chip to the one you ordered, then they are not equivalent for your purposes, and you're entitled to a refund. The fact that your average Windows user wouldn't notice the difference is irrelevant.
"The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike." -- Delos B. McKown
Werd.
Accelerated X is nice (and speedy - compared to XFree 3.X)
But:
1. XFree86 4.0 (which hopefully comes soon) got some great results (as far as I know - the Matrox G200 & G400 is FASTER then Accelerated X 5.0)
2. in Accelerated X - you don't get DGA support. So bye bye for full-screen VMWare, Full screen MPEG-TV etc..
Hetz (Heunique)
Right, I can second that. I was using a STB Velocity 128 wich is the nVidia Riva 128 - works great. The older Diamond viper is the TNT while the new Viper 770 is the TNT2, both work very well under X (I have my wife's machine running the TNT PCI on an AMD K6-2 300 and I'm using the TNT2 AGP on a PII-333 - both are great).
:-)
The 3D stuff still runs best on my Voodoo2, but the drivers for the nVidia are getting there and hopefully XF86 4.0 will be ready by the time Quake 3 is out.
Here's my suggestion:
- Config your machine to use the Mach64 server. Don't test anything, just configure it.
- Delete XF86_Mach64 and rename XFCom_Rage128 to XF86_Mach64.
- You might have to edit XF86Setup. I did. (newbie? Yikes)
- Give it a try.
I could always send a copy of my XF86Setup file.
3D accel support's not as easy as it looks.
:-)
It took about a half dozen people (some of the best and brightest out there) something like 4-6 months of work to achieve what we've done so far with the G200/G400 driver for GLX- and we're not done yet... (Note: I've been a lurker on the list for the development team- I have done no coding for the GLX project...YET.). When it officially ships as a GLX driver, I honestly think it will make Linux look good.
(As for the ATI 3D support... Well, be looking for it soon... How soon? Depends...
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas