From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 17 13:09:05 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 12FAE16A4CE for ; Tue, 17 Feb 2004 13:09:05 -0800 (PST) Received: from heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net (heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.189]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 09A1043D1F for ; Tue, 17 Feb 2004 13:09:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from algould@datawok.com) Received: from 20-74.lctv-b4.cablelynx.com ([24.204.20.74] helo=yoda.datawok.com) by heron.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (TLSv1:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 3.33 #1) id 1AtCP9-0003zg-00; Tue, 17 Feb 2004 13:05:19 -0800 From: "Andrew L. Gould" To: "bradford fligor" , Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 15:05:54 -0600 User-Agent: KMail/1.5.4 References: In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200402171505.54757.algould@datawok.com> X-ELNK-Trace: ee791d459e3d6817d780f4a490ca69564776905774d2ac4bc302379356407b9e89412bba9222957a350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c Subject: Re: Video card compatibility X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 17 Feb 2004 21:09:05 -0000 On Tuesday 17 February 2004 02:10 pm, bradford fligor wrote: > Hello Support ! > > I bought FreeBSD 5.1 and Handbook for my 10 year old "computer nut" son for > Christmas and have had problems installing the full graphical version. > > When asked for "video card" on installation, I don't' know what to select. > I have on-board video on the motherboard at this site. > > http://www.albatron.com.tw/english/it/mb/specification.asp?pro_id=35 > > I also have an old monitor but I don't think that's the problem. > > Will I need to buy a separate video card and if so would you have any > suggestions? > > Thank you very much for your help!! > > Brad Fligor > 508-627-4862 Brad, Do you now, or have you ever, used FreeBSD? If not, please do not give FreeBSD 5.1 to your 10 year-old son. Please download 4.9 from the servers or wait for FreeBSD 5.2.1. If you do not have an adequate internet connection for such a download, you can purchase the cd's online, or contact me off-list. FreeBSD 5.1 was not released for production use. FreeBSD is a wonderful operating system. It would be a shame if your son's first experience with FreeBSD was unnecessarily frustrating. As for the video card: I could not identify the onboard video chip at the web page indicated above. On other Albatron pages, I noted that they sell video cards with nVidia chips. If this holds true for the motherboard, you probably have a compatible card; athough you may need to skip the graphical configuration step until you can identify the card. Once the operating system is installed, there are various ways to detect the card identity if it is known to the kernel or to XFree86. For more information, see: http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/x-config.html which you can also find in the handbook. Although we are volunteers (not a Support Department), we are happy to help. Best of luck, Andrew Gould