(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Normally, XVESA or Xorg - no problems, either worked. However, the bog standard ATI128 card used for testing and setup has developed bad caps. That leaves a bag full of graphics options that the trade refers to as 'pulls' - except mine are the ones no-one else wants. That's when the tears start. Have always hated nVidia, anyway. Their infamous MX400 refuses to display with Puppy under any circumstances. Nor do a bunch of Matrox refugees. Same with the notorious Savage cards. Suddenly, nothing will drive Puppy. Way to go, Barry. Only the problem children reach these fora.
Meanwhile, back to the bench to swap out a pair of dud caps....

you might post your /var/log/Xorg.0.log for troubleshooting.

Mark

Thanks, Mark - prefer to work with standard kit.
Prologue on the ATI card: one of the electrolytics had been mounted with reversed polarity!! When it finally did fail, it's taken out too many other components, probably the GPU itself or memory. Replcement caps didn't fix it!! Guess there'll be another along any time soon.

Sage, I might be getting the wrong end of the stick, but when you say your mx400 refuses to work with puppy - do you mean completely?

I only ask because my pc is running an old ELSA Nvidia Geforce-based mx400 right now as I type this very reply in Puppy..

Mine's using a Geforce4 MX4000 or something like that. Definately four thousand, though. Works great. I don't know if there's a difference between 400 and 4000, but I figured I'd mention it.

My info says 400, but it could be a typo, of course. There are other HW issues at this time. Working on it. Thanks for suggestions, folks.

Both 400 and 4000 exist. I looked.

Not sure which mine is, but either way it doesn't register as anything other than a generic display device in the pci puppy hardware probe.

I gave up trying to get my Digital notebook with Neomagic video card working - neither Vesa or Xorg. work in puppy1.07. DSL linux with inbuilt framebuffer is back on that one now. My new main notebook is a Portege 3440 CT. Puppy Vesa and Xorg don't work on this either - it having a S3 Savage 1X video chip. I am deciding whether to install Slax popcorn, Vector or Goblinxmini all of which recognise the card properly and give great display at 1240 x 768 x 16. (Vectors Xorg has the exact card type listed) Has anyone got this machine or this graphics card to work in Puppy?. If so, a copy of an Xconfig. file would be useful.
Puppy with it's relatively big, clear icons and built-in Gnumeric/Abiword would be ideal for my needs on this machine.

Like I said at the top, S3 Savage 4 is a nightmare. Sometimes systems with it work, sometimes not. Sometimes it can be persuaded to work in 'doze with the wrong drivers!!
As for laptops, like I also said somewhere else, total waste of time and money - if you were given it gratis, make that waste of time. There's a working desktop behind every door these days. If on an aeroplane, it's often more productive looking out of the window. If used whilst driving, they can be very helpful in eliminating people who advocate their use.
Rarely, it's possible to change the video chip on laptops. The special soldering tips for multi-legged chips are now available at very reasonable prices for those skilled in the art. If you must persist with laptops, it would be cheaper and quicker to engage in such radical surgery. Otherwise, some of those smc s might come in useful for the spares box!

I like the portability of small notebooks- I have never seen the attraction of the really big heavy 'desktop' laptop of the last couple of years. My older notebook which cost me

Tim Criger has has something in his Simplepup 0.3 edition that, for the first time, allows me use Xvesa perfectly at the right res. where Puppy 1.08 failed before. I understand that Simple pup is based on Pizzasgoods 'EMPTYCRUST' version which came from Puppy1.07 I think. Whatever: Puppy1.08 seems to have lost something on the way which allowed my Savage S3 card to work. I haven't yet tried xorg but I don't feel I need to - display is great.
(EDIT)
Bingo - XORG works for the first time too! without any xorgonfig messing around.

Simple pup is based on pizzapup

Actually it was Empty Crust. Just so the discussion remains unmuddled