Xfree configuration

[mikebw at bilow.bilow.uu.ids.net (Mike Bilow)]

Karl Hergenrother wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

 KH> I know 5.1 is current, but 5.0 is what I have.

 KH> I have a 17" KDS 4600 multiscan monitor with horizontal scan
 KH> frequencies 30 to 82 kHz and 50 to 120 Hz vertical.  The
 KH> video card is a Tseng Labs ET4000 with 1 MB video memory.  I
 KH> tried several different settings with the same results. 
 KH> Right now I believe I have selected ET4000 video card and
 KH> custom settings for the monitor.  I have no information on
 KH> the clock chip. 

Your first problem is that there are two completely different chipsets known as
the "ET4000."  I don't know why Tseng Labs did this, but I have personally run
across both kinds and I can assure you that they are totally different.

This seems to be a common idiosyncracy of video hardware makers, since the OEM
versions of the Matrox cards are often significantly reduced in functionality
from the retail versions.  For example, the OEM Matrox "Millennium" you get
with a Gateway computer is not the same thing as a Matrox "Millennium" you
would get if you bought the card alone in a retail box.

In any case, it is usually the cheaper ET4000 that you see used in connection
with only 1 MB video memory.  This is sometimes called the "ET4000/AX,"
although I don't know what the "AX" suffix means, if anything.  The proper
XFree86 driver for this chipset is the standard SVGA driver, which works well.
Only the more expensive ET4000 chipset should use the W32 driver.

 KH> What is Superprobe?  I am kind of new at this.

It is a utility which you should get with your XFree86 distribution that
attempts to determine what hardware you have and what drivers should be used. 
It is pretty good, but it makes mistakes occasionally, and these are usually
already documented as concerns.  Most distributions -- I'm not that familiar
with Red Hat -- will run this utility automatically, although it can also be
run manually.
 
-- Mike


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