Date: Sun, 30 Jun 1996 13:34:13 -0400 (EDT) From: Tim Vanderhoek <hoek@freenet.hamilton.on.ca> To: Darrell Taylor <dtaylor@eyemagic.com> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: ATI Mach64 cards Message-ID: <Pine.SOL.3.91.960630131248.9598C-100000@james.freenet.hamilton.on.ca> In-Reply-To: <199606292153.RAA13510@mail.biddeford.com>
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On Sat, 29 Jun 1996, Darrell Taylor wrote: > Though the compatibility list for FreeBSD includes ATI Mach64 cards, the FAQ > says that to make these cards work, a whole stack of workarounds and > rebuilds will be necessary. (Text below). Does this state of affairs still > exist? Has the bug been squashed? Having barely survived lengthy attempts I know the newer stuff from -current has probing of com port 3 disabled... I imagine that 2.1.5 will also have probing of that port disabled by default. Really, the only bug in 2.1-RELEASE is that com port 3 will be probed, even if you've only enabled probing of com port 1. As the FAQ says, the solution is to disable all four of them whenever you boot with the boot disk, and the first time that you boot after installing. Later, if you ever feel like recompiling your kernel, you just edit one of the source files and do the `make world' thing... It's really not so much of a challenge as you expect, I think. > " The problem is that the ATI Mach 64 uses address 2e8, and the fourth > serial port does too. Due to a bug (feature?) in the sio.c driver it will Hmm.. 3rd/4th...whatever... I thought it was the third, but I'm not going to go change every reference to `com port 3' in my message to `com port 4', now... Anyways, you can see this problem by using DOS, too. Start your favourite com program, and tell it that the modem is on com port 3 or 4 (whichever). Then try to dial someone. In my test, the screen switched to some really nifty font which looked ugly and was somewhat slow. > fixed, you can use this workaround: 1. Enter -c at the bootprompt. [ > the kernel goes into configuration mode] 2. Disable sio0, sio1, sio2 and > sio3 (all of them). This way the sio driver doesn't get activated -> no This is very easy. While your at it, you can also disable probing of anything else you don't have (ie. network cards, second hdds, etc) to make the booting process a little faster. Type `view' once your in configuration mode for a sexy little menu-deal. > ports. You'll have to build a new kernel with the following > modification: in /usr/src/sys/i386/isa/sio.c find the one occurrence of > the string 0x2e8 and remove that string and the preceding comma (keep > the trailing comma). I've never done this, but it really does sound quite easy! :) You have to have the sources installed, of course... > Now follow the normal procedure of building a new > kernel. The procedure for doing this is well-described in the FreeBSD handbook available in /usr/share/doc/* and at www.freebsd.org. This is something you'd want to do even if it wasn't for the Mach 64 - sio4 conflict. > 7.11. Now everything runs great, except for X Window: my screen goed > black or X Window runs but with all kinds of problems. Some newer ATI > Mach 64 video cards (notably ATI Mach Xpression) do not run with the > current version of XFree86. You can get a beta-version of a new X-server > that works better, by looking at the XFree86 site > <URL:http://www.xfree86.org>; and following the links to the new beta > release. Get the following files:..." This problem is not related to FreeBSD. You chopped off which files the FAQ reccomends getting, but I only remember getting one - the Beta Mach64 X server from ftp.xfree86.org. www.xfree86.org has more information available on this that you might be interested in reading. It says specifically which chips will only work with the beta Mach64 server (`CT' and `VT' ones, I think). -- Outnumbered? Maybe. Outspoken? Never! tIM...HOEk
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