Re: [gentoo-user] Re: ati-drivers

[Mark Knecht]

On 9/3/07, James <wireless@×××××××××××.com> wrote:
> Mark Knecht <markknecht <at> gmail.com> writes:
>
>
>
>
> > > Dell Inspiron 1721 is based on AMD ATI M690T chipset, Turion 64 X2 dual core
> > > processors with speeds from 1.8GHz to 2.2GHz, and ATI Mobility Radeon X1270
>
>
> > > so How/where do I read which chipsets are covered by which drivers?
>
> > I would personally visit the Phoronix forums, sign up and ask the
> > question there.
>
>
> > On the other hand, why do you need the ati-driver package at all. Have
> > you considered just using the radeon driver in the kernel until you
> > get this machine up and running and then deal with this driver issue
> > later? That's my usual path to making a new ATI machine useful as
> > quickly as possible.
>
>
> Got vesa working. For now that good enough. I'll give the ati-drivers another
> shot, once I read somewhere where this chips is covered by the ati-drivers

Glad for that much. Now the machine is usable. that's a good first step.
>
>
> 01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 791f
>
> It does not even show up in my favorite hardware index:
> http://sources.gentoo.org/viewcvs.py/hwdata/trunk/pcitable?rev=5
>

I suspect that ATI has integrated an existing VGA core into a new
chipset. sometimes it takes Linux quite awhile to catch up on this
sort of issue. I had a Compaq laptop a couple of years ago with a new
chipset. It was probably 4 months before I could even attempt to turn
on DMA on my hard drives. The machine was very slow for quite a while.

It will get worked out. Look for a reasonable location to post some
info on the chipset. Note that the Linux kernel guys won't really help
with this as they don't like drivers that taint the kernel. I use ATI
drivers when I have to, like on my Myth frontend machines, but I stick
with the radeon driver if I want any real support.

Good luck,
Mark
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