Rage 128 and 17" Studio CRT - some progress - some help?

[Stefan Bruda]

At 21:17 -0600 on 2003-8-8 Napalm wrote:
 >
 > Well when I got started I had to add a "video=aty128fb:vmode:20" right 
 > away to the line to install and in yaboot to get something visible. Ok 
 > that worked but the text is about 5 characters off the display.

I had the same problem (albeit less severe) on my older ATI Rage 128
Pro VR PR (PCI)-equipped iMac.  I solved it (X-wise) using xvidtune,
adjusting the position of the screen, and then pressing the button
"show."  Finally, I copied the produced modeline into my XF86Config.
That's everything there is to it.

In terms of console the solution I found is far less elegant: I placed
in /etc/rc.sysinit a call to fbset like this:

/usr/sbin/fbset -a -t <timing info>

where <timign info> has been obtained by trial and error (i.e., doing
the moves as you do and then doing fbset -s).  See the manual page for
details.  You could also place your fbset -move commands here.  The
problem is of course that I had to put this commend after /usr is
mounted so a good deal of boot messages are still shifted.

 > Also am currently using the r128 driver as I cant get the ati one to 
 > work. 

I use the ati driver but a quick look into the log file reveals that
ati does not do more than load... the r128 driver.  So you should be
fine.

 > I dont believe it is doing any sort of hardware accelleration

The driver does provide hardware acceleration.  You should have
accelerated video already.

 > display panel from YDL menu -> system setting -> Display wont let
 > me enable accelleration using the r128 driver or fbdev.

Just ignode the video configuration GUI.  It's been utterly useless
for me (on the mentioned iMac in particular it produced a terrible
XF86Config which did not even allow X to start).

 > I also believe it may not actually be using r128 as there is an
 > option for "UseFBDev" set to true?

The option actually instructs the driver to use a hardware frame
buffer (generally a good thing).  Despite the similarity in names,
this does _not_ mean the use of the fbdev (unaccelerated) driver.

Hope I made it clear enough, anyway, feel free to contact me should
you need more details.

Stefan

-- 
If it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as
it isn't, it ain't. That's logic.
    --Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking-Glass