On Friday 07 December 2001 04:16 pm, Felix Miata wrote: > Randy Kramer wrote: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > I have a new machine that has an SiS 730s Display adapter with hardware > > > acceleration that I am trying to get Mandrake installed on. > > > > > > The problem is that the Xserver hangs everytime I go through the full > > > installation. It will also not allow me to select the Xfree86 4.0 > > > Xserver as well and only shows for the 3.3 Xserver and still hangs even > > > if I install this Xserver. > > > > Well, maybe I just have bad news (maybe not). Read > > http://www.xfree.org/4.1.0/Status30.html#30 for the status of drivers > > for SiS. We had similar troubles attempting to install Mandrake 8.0 > > beta on my son's computer, and set it aside and never got back to it > > (still running Windows). > > > > After some effort, I was told somewhere by somebody that the 730 uses > > (works with) 630 drivers. The Xfree86 4.1.0 driver for the SiS 630 has > > "some problems" -- I don't know what they are. > > > > Mandrake, knowing this, might have set up the install for Mandrake 8.1 > > to only handle the SiS 730 under Xfree86 (that sounds sort of > > familiar). You might find some old posts related to my problems / > > questions in either the newbie or expert archives (not sure which). > > > > Somebody *may* have told me of a way to force the installation of > > XFree86 4.1.0. Also, it may be possible to use the generic SVGA driver > > or the "framebuffer" (I don't know if that is possible, or if that is > > fully compatible (or a replacement for) X. > > > > If you are successful, post something. > > I just gave up trying to install 8.1 on an Amptron 810LMR w/ SiS730. The > first several times the install would abort before boot finished second > stage loading. This message came up during two of my attempts at least: > > segmentation fault: seems like memory is missing as the install crashes > panic: top_env > > On the latest try it managed to boot and seemed to progress normally. I > got through package selection and waited out package installation. Twice > it popped up messages on package installation failure, but eventually it > got done with the third CD. Then a black screen returned: > > Entering step : 'choose packages to install' > Entering step : 'install system' > install exited abnormally :-( -- received signal 11 > sending termination signals . . . done > sending kill signals . . . done > > This same CD set gave me no problem on several other installs. > > This motherboard produced trouble with windoze 98SE as well and is being > packaged up to return to vendor tomorrow. Already got the RMA, but we > aren't sure whether they can fix me up with anything but another of the > same motherboard. Hopefully they can come up with some alternative to > SiS, which I didn't know the system had before ordering it for a friend.
Panics like "memory missing as install crashes" are typical when memory is bad, the IDE channel is noisy, the disk media is bad, the CD drive is eccentric, or the target install drive is Western Digital running at udma3 or higher, or the motherboard is very low quality. PCChips and its subsidiary Amptron have improved quality lately but still have a notorious reputation. A Matsonic board with the same chipset has been successfully set up with a custom BIOS to boot linux with framebuffer X in less than three seconds. For the SiS 730, use the 630 driver, set Options no_bitblt and FastVram in the XF86Config-4 file and you should be OK, as long as you have no other hardware problems. Civileme I have also had very mixed reports and experiences with the K7S5A from ECS which has very high performance if it works. Problems stem from ACPI and PnP in the BIOS and a stacking of nearly all IRQs at 10 and a buried buried and iundetectable on-board sound and a very flaky implementation of the SiS900 NIC. Some folks manage to get the NIC going, and I can as well, but to use it with a gateway? Sheesh, it doesn't seem to be able to do DHCP. Yet on the matsonic board with 730 Chipset, this same SiS900 worked flawlessly. Go figure! When you buy the cheapest, sometimes you find even that price is too high. Civileme
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