iB::Topic::Trying XFree86 on Apricot Xen(1)

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Topic: Trying XFree86 on Apricot Xen(1), Help with Mach32 display

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ozknight

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: July 2005

Posted: July 19 2005,02:32

Hi
I've got an old atticware Apricot Xen with an onboard ATI mach32 chipset. Runs fine with Xvesa but only 4 bit depth.
Tried FB800x600 (also enabled Linear Frame Buffer in Bios). No joy. Xfbdev refuses to run under any boot prompt commands (eg vga=792 etc).

I downloaded xfree86.dsl. Followed instructions using XF86Config-4_ati (finds no screens). Tried XF86Config-4_vesa (finds screen but none usable).

Been googling for hours. Most searches for Mach32 refer to xf86-3.

Any help would be appreciated.

ozknight

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: July 2005

Posted: July 20 2005,15:25

Got it!

I saw there was an Xserver called Xserver_mach32. I apt-get installed it which also installed X86-common. It ran debconf automatically after installing. To run automatically, I had to edit .xserverrc to read exec sudo /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_mach32 (or X as debconf changed the symbolic link).

Now my only problem is getting the colours to work properly. They are fine if I enable a 4mb linear frame buffer in the bios but this makes thing run *slowwwwwwwly*. Oh well, all part of the fun.

ozknight

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: July 2005

Posted: July 31 2005,22:23

After further reading, it appears that the startup dockapps are grabbing the colours. I stopped them loading and all colours now appear correctly. Nothing like having a pentium 60 doing something useful. Excellent!

cbagger01

Group: Members
Posts: 4264
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: Aug. 01 2005,03:27

I have used DSL with a Gateway P5-60 computer. I used to have a mach32 installed, but I upgraded to a screaming fast Mach64 instead.

It runs a little slow, but it is usable.

If you want a full-featured web browser that will run faster than Firefox on this machine, try installing the Opera.uci extension from the myDSL "UCI" repository.

You will be pleasantly surprised.

and you can get rid of the icons and dockapps by adding the "noicons" boot parameter at the startup boot prompt.

ozknight

Group: Members
Posts: 5
Joined: July 2005

Posted: Aug. 02 2005,03:00

Cheers for the info. I was impressed by Opera's look and functionality but it was slower than Firefox and displayed certain webpages incorrectly. Not sure why, it looks like a better browser.

I've reduced the machine's boot time to 2.5 minutes by taking out the hardware autoconfig. Got a modem to work happily and everything is just peachy.

I'll probably give it to someone who can't afford a computer. My only problem is that most people are more familiar with windows. If I only had a theme that disguised itself as windows. I know the DSL themes are fairly user-friendly but you know what it's like when your not computer savvy. Never-the-less, once I explain what they need to do (and the fact the computer cannot be used for DVD encoding or video editing) they should be home and dry.

I'll try to get sound working as well, as soon as I work out what chipset "Enhanced Business Audio system" uses. I'm sure I read it's a SB vibra 16 variant but I'll open the machine up again to check.

You know, if someone told me 15 year ago this is what I was going to think was fun, I wouldn't have believed them.

;)
Oz

5 replies since July 19 2005,02:32

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