ATI ID: EXM255, PCI graphics card, only 800x600?

[Oakems]

Hi all, today I managed to get two PCI graphics cards and I can't figure how to install either of them?

The one I'm concentrating on is an;

Code: Select all

ATI PN 109-25500-20 FCC ID: EXM255

and the only descriptions or specs I can get of it is; "109-25500-20 ATI MACH64 PCI VIDEO CARD" or "ATI MACH64 GX PCI Video Card 2MB 109-25500-20" which doesn't tell me much.

I boot a frugal Puppy from the USB (with Grub on it), and when I first tried booting with the newly installed PCI card, I got past the bios boot-up screen fine (so I know the card kinda works). It then goes on to the next screen where it starts to load Grub, it gets past the first stage normally, but then it starts loading gfx Grub, which I've never noticed before (but that could be because normally it's really fast), this time it took ages to get to the actual graphical screen, and when it did finally get there, it didn't fit properly on the screen and I lost control of the keyboard (that is to say; it stopped working, it didn't suddenly turn on me, or fly out from underneath my fingertips).

I had a poke around in the bios and changed "vlink x8" to auto and set the init device from PCI-E (which has nothing connected to it) to PCI, then booted again. It took ages to get past gfx again, but the keyboard worked so I could choose my Puppy and boot (without loading any pup_save.files).

Then I could only get 800x600 resolution on both Xorg and Xvesa, there were other option that 'might' have been okay, but they were not.

I've no clue why this is happening, it could be something that needs changing in the bios, that's what I guessed was the reason for the keyborad not working (irc conflicts), but in the bios it's all been set to auto, so I thought that would be okay?

The CPU doesn't have an AGP slot but it mentions AGP in the bios quite a bit. I don't know what this refers to? I've only ever used AGP cards and this one is a PCI card, are they really that different to set up?

Any suggestions trouble shooting this would be greatly appreciated, as I can't find any hint of a solution and some of the bios options both scare and baffle me.

The CPU (2.8GHz 1GB=RAM) is running a frugal Puppy 4.2.1 from the USB drive and has 1 PCI Express x16, 1 PCI Express x1 (both empty), and 2 PCI slots one has my LAN card the other is now empty. It also has APCI, raid and USB controllers that take some of the PC's resources. If you need any more information please let me know.

[Oakems]

Okay, I've had another go at trying to get this thing to work, and it can only get 800x600 when using the generic driver, the ATI driver is no good.

Also when I'm just past the initial bios screen (the bit where it mentions dmi pool data), I get a list of all things I have and what resources they use (it doesn't stay on the screen for long) and for the display it says N/A. Puppy can't even find what monitor type I have (I have to select it from a list). I've tried pci=force but that didn't help any, I don't know if there is another boot code that would compliment this?

Here is a copy of my xorg.conf

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#Special base config file used in Puppy Linux.

# **********************************************************************
# Module section -- this  section  is used to specify
# which dynamically loadable modules to load.
# **********************************************************************
#
Section "Module"

# This loads the DBE extension module.

    Load        "dbe"  	# Double buffer extension

# This loads the miscellaneous extensions module, and disables
# initialisation of the XFree86-DGA extension within that module.
    SubSection  "extmod"
      Option    "omit xfree86-dga"   # don't initialise the DGA extension
    EndSubSection

# This loads the font modules
    Load        "type1"
    Load        "freetype"

# This loads xtrap extension, used by xrandr
    Load       "xtrap"

# This loads the GLX module (if present)
    Load       "glx"

# This loads dri module (if present)
    Load       "dri"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Files section.  This allows default font and rgb paths to be set
# **********************************************************************

Section "Files"

# The location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally
# no need to change the default.

    RgbPath	"/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/rgb"

# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (which are concatenated together),
# as well as specifying multiple comma-separated entries in one FontPath
# command (or a combination of both methods)

    FontPath   "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/misc/"
    FontPath   "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/"
    FontPath   "/usr/X11R7/lib/X11/fonts/TTF/"

EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# Server flags section.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"

# Uncomment this to disable the <Crtl><Alt><Fn> VT switch sequence
# (where n is 1 through 12).  This allows clients to receive these key
# events.

#    Option "DontVTSwitch"

# Enables mode switching with xrandr
# There is a report that this can cause Xorg not to work on some
# video hardware, so default is commented-out...
# but i want to use it in xorgwizard so leave on...

    Option "RandR" "on"

EndSection

#everything past here is auto-generated by Puppy's Xorg Wizard...


Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "X.org Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	#Screen      1  "Screen1" RightOf "Screen0"
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
	Option      "XkbRules" "xorg"
	Option      "XkbModel" "pc105"
	Option      "XkbLayout" "dvorak" #xkeymap0
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto" #mouse0protocol
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/mouse"
	#Option      "Emulate3Buttons"
	#Option      "Emulate3Timeout" "50"
	Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5" #scrollwheel
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
	HorizSync    31.5-79
	VertRefresh  50-85
	#UseModes     "Modes0" #monitor0usemodes
	Option      "PreferredMode" "1280x1024"
	EndSection
	
Section "Modes"
	Identifier "Modes0"
	#modes0modeline0
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor1"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	### Available Driver options are:-
	### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
	### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
	### [arg]: arg optional
	#Option     "probe_sparse"       	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "accel"              	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "crt_display"        	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "composite_sync"     	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "hw_cursor"          	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "force_pci_mode"     	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "dma_mode"           	# <str>
	#Option     "agp_mode"           	# <i>
	#Option     "agp_size"           	# <i>
	#Option     "local_textures"     	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "buffer_size"        	# <i>
	#Option     "tv_out"             	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "tv_standard"        	# <str>
	#Option     "mmio_cache"         	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "test_mmio_cache"    	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "panel_display"      	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "reference_clock"    	# <freq>
	#Option     "shadow_fb"          	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "sw_cursor"          	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "AccelMethod"        	# <str>
	#Option     "RenderAccel"        	# [<bool>]
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver      "vesa" #card0driver
	VendorName  "ATI Technologies Inc"
	BoardName   "210888GX [Mach64 GX]"
	BusID       "PCI:0:5:0"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	### Available Driver options are:-
	### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
	### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
	### [arg]: arg optional
	#Option     "ShadowFB"           	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "DefaultRefresh"     	# [<bool>]
	#Option     "ModeSetClearScreen" 	# [<bool>]
	Identifier  "Card1"
	Driver      "vesa"
	VendorName  "Unknown Vendor"
	BoardName   "Unknown Board"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
   Identifier "Screen0"
   Device     "Card0"
   Monitor    "Monitor0"
   DefaultDepth 16
   Subsection "Display"
      Depth       16
      Modes       "1280x1024"
   EndSubsection
EndSection

#PuppyHardwareProfile=ATI_MACH64

It looks as if it has two cards present, the second one could be the onboard graphics which are unichrome, and I don't know how to switch this off, or if it would help any.

Any thoughts appreciated.