On Wed, Jun 26, 2002 at 10:22:36AM +0100, Peter Whysall wrote:
>
> I have one of these on my desk at work, it's running Sid/Windows XP. The ATI
> card is a strange Rage 128 Ultra TF, which isn't even listed on ATI's web
> site. I'm guessing that it's an OEM Spesh for Dell.
Figures...
> 1. use the "vesa" driver and live with extremely shonky video performance.
We've been doing this, and the users are complaining. I can't blame
them either; a big part of what this group does is reading PostScript
documents, which look awful on these machines.
> 2. Download the binary distribution of XFree86 4.2 and install this over
> your Debian install.
One or two other people have suggested this but I haven't tried it yet.
Looks like that's what I'm going to do next; I've tried every option I
can think of in the config file with no significant changes in
performance.
> What I did was to install XFree86 (apt-get install x-window-system) and then
> did a sequence of events that looked something like this:
>
> # mv /etc/X11 /etc/X11.pw
> # mv /usr/X11R6 /usr/X11R6/pw
> # cd /root/downloaded_x/
> # sh Xinstall.sh
Oh -- so you didn't download the .deb of 4.2, but a binary tarball from
the XFree folks?
> I then did the little dance with XFree86 -configure, changed my keymap to
> gb, and the mouse device and protocol from /dev/mouse and "auto" to
> /dev/psaux and "IMPS/2".
Yeah, all of this I'm familiar with.
> Hope this helps.
I think it will. Thanks.
> When I return to the office I will, if you like, post a copy of my working
> /etc/X11/XF86Config-4.
Shouldn't be necessary but can't hurt...
> On an GX240-related note, have you noticed that the thing runs far slower
> than you would expect, particularly with respect to disk performance? (Yes,
> I've turned on DMA :-)
I have a Dell OptiPlex GX400 on my own desk, and I've toyed with a few
of these new 240's just in the process of setting them up, and yeah,
from a strictly subjective "feel" perspective, they don't feel any
faster than my home-rolled dual P-III/500 at home. In particular, when
load is high, they get really stuttery. Mouse movement bogs, keystrokes
take a while to come back even in the virtual terminals... but when I
let mine put all its attention into one task like a big compile, it
smokes. Kernels in no time at all.
Oh well...
--
# Michael Jinks, IB # JFI/MRSEC/EFI Computing # University of Chicago #
Reader! Think not that
technical information
ought not be called speech; -- Anonymous, "How to decrypt a DVD"
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