On Thu, 2004-03-25 at 18:03, Mark Zimmerman wrote: > On Tue, Mar 16, 2004 at 05:35:39PM +0100, Christian Guggenberger wrote: > > On 16.03.2004 17:15 Mark Zimmerman wrote: > > >On Mon, Mar 15, 2004 at 11:59:05PM +0100, Christian Guggenberger wrote: > > >> On Mon, 2004-03-15 at 16:44, Mark Zimmerman wrote: > > >> > Greetings: > > >> > > > >> > I am running a mixed testing/unstable setup on a Dell system with the > > >> > Intel 865G onboard graphics device. I installed the latest Xfree86 > > >> > packages 4.3.0-5 and everything works fine with one exception: I still > > >> > need to run the 865patch program to reserve video memory prior to > > >> > starting the X server. The changelog comments in xserver-xfree86 > > >> > indicate that this should no longer be the case. > > >> > > > >> I'm not sure, if even XFree86 4.4 can work around all broken Dell > > >> Bioses... > > >> > > >> Well you could give it try: > > >> Basically, it should be sufficient to replace the following files > > >> (make a backup of the old ones) > > >> /usr/X11R6/bin/XFree86 > > >> /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libpcidata.a > > >> /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/libscanpci.a > > >> /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/i810_drv.o > > >> > > >> with those found at http://www.xfree86.org/~alanh/drivers/x86/ > > >> > > >> See, if it works better then... > > >> - Christian > > > > > >Good news and bad news: It looks like it is reserving memory properly. > > >The old log showed this: > > >(--) I810(0): Maximum space available for video modes: 832 kByte > > >and the new log shows this: > > >(--) I810(0): Maximum space available for video modes: 32576 kByte > > > > > >However, the X server fails to start. Here is what I see on the console: > > > > > >giving up. > > >xinit: No such file or directory (errno 2): unable to connect to X server > > >xinit: No such process (errno 3): Server error. > > > > > > > > > > I'm busy right now, but I could check (actually not check, just merge into > > 4.3.0-5) all changes from HEAD's i810 driver within a week, or so, and > > build some homebrew debian packages. > > I'll drop you a note, when I'm finished - maybe it would work then. > > > > - Christian > > I have tried a few more experiments, with discouraging results: > > 1. I downloaded the files (noted above) from xfree86.org and tried > them. No luck. > 2. I tried various combinations of these with the ones from ~alanh. > No luck. > 3. I went back to all of the ones from ~alanh and was unable to > reproduce the partial success. > 4. I installed the latest OpenBSD snapshot which includes driver > updates as recent as a week ago. No luck. > > My bios revision is A03; this is the latest version available from > Dell. Perhaps older ones are better (less bad?) but I have no access > to them. >
Hi Mark. I did some further tests on our Dell Optiplex GX270 Systems. To sum up: a) Neither XFree4.4 nor debian's 4.3.0-7 is able to work on the GX270 if BIOS a03 is used - it would only work with the help of 865patch program by C. Zietz. b) Dowgrading the BIOS to a02 _and_ setting it's BIOS VideoBuffer Option to 8MB helps. (with both 4.4 and 4.3.0-7) The Bios image's called gx270a02.exe - go grab it from dell's ftp server (in subdir 'bios'), if you have a GX270, of course. I've heard rumours that some GX270 refuse to downgrade to a02 - don't force it, it might destroy your Bios completely. cheers. Christian
