[juneau-lug] Re: Linux Games Notes
- From: Nels Tomlinson <nelstomlinson@xxxxxxx>
- To: juneau-lug@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 21 Apr 2004 23:12:46 -0800
Well, I figured out some of the problems.
First of all, the big problem was that the BIOS settings called for
giving precedence to the PCI video card. I haven't a clue why it was
set that way: I'd never before had a PCI video card in there. Once I
set it to prefer the AGP card, it booted normally.
That still leaves the question of why I couldn't see anything after the
kernel booted, but I guess that's inconsequential.
So, once I could see what I was doing, I simply followed the directions
in the Xinerama HOWTO, and got it working. I have one big desktop
stretched across the two monitors, and it's pretty good. I still need
to get the bells and whistles copied over from the old, Knoppix config
file; things like the mouse wheel, and the color depth.
I think that the color depth is set at 8 bits or so: applications change
colors as I mouse over them, just like on an old, tired Xterm. I think
all that can wait for tomorrow night, though. I still have to get up in
the morning and get to work.
I was a little disappointed in Linux: I had hoped that I could just plug
in the new hardware, and it would be automatically found and put to
work. It wasn't quite that easy. I had also hoped that Knoppix would
find the two video cards and configure them for dual head, but again, no
luck.
Over all, it wasn't hard at all, once I realized that I stupidly had the
BIOS looking at the wrong card, but I had really hoped it would be
automatic. I've never tried doing this on Windows, but while looking
for HOWTOs, I found a couple of Windows-oriented pages explaining how to
make it happen there. I gather it's not totally automatic there, either.
And so to bed.
Nels
Nels Tomlinson wrote:
> Hello, all,
>
> First of all, thanks, Reber, for the Indigo. I haven't gotten the mouse
> fixed yet, but everything else looks great.
>
> Second, getting the SGI box inspired me to do some experimenting that
> I've been delaying for a while. I'm trying to set up my PC for
> dual-headed operation, using my present AGP card and a nice old PCI
> video card (both work fine alone). When I put them both in and boot, I
> see the usual boot messages on the PCI card (why that one?) up through
> the LILO 21.5.1, then as the machine starts to boot, the screen goes
> blank, and the other screen stays blank.
>
> When I try booting with Knoppix, things don't look exactly the same, but
> I _think_ that the active screen goes blank at the same time.
>
> So, any ideas why:
>
> * The PCI card is the one that the BIOS finds?
> * The PCI card stops sending a signal when the kernel takes over?
> * What questions I _should_ be asking?
> * What in the world I can do about it (without spending money)?
>
> Thanks!
> Nels
>
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