[ltp] XFree4.0.2 and Silicon Motion

[Douglas E. Mitton]

I went through a similar exercise the first week of January on a -210
model.  I couldn't get V4.01 to work at all so I updated to V4.02 to get
the "siliconmotion" drivers.

Then I detected an apparent bug in "Xconfigurator", with this video chip
it ALWAYS seems to insert "vga" into the driver fields in
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4.  I had to actually manually edit the file and
replace "vga" with "siliconmotion" and then it worked.

Then I found I was getting "redraw" and reliability erros as I like to
switch between the GUI and the text console a lot.  The GUI would be
displayed half off the screen, or wouldn't display until I typed a key or
similar problems.

Next, I decided I liked the framebuffer text console.  After I
de-activated Aurora it would stay in 800x600 text mode and that was very
nice SO I started using the XF86 framebuffer driver.  I manually edited
/etc/X11/XF86Config-4 again and changed "siliconmotion" to "fbdev".  It is
not the fastest GUI but it is super reliable and I don't get any of the
"redraw" errors I had before.

So, maybe give this a try and see if it resolves the problems you are
having.

Now, on another note, do you have the external 3.5" drive working?  I can
get it to work sometimes, if I boot with the drive attached and a good
disk installed in it, then manually load the modules and manually mount
the drive.  if I try to automate it at all, or attach the drive after boot
I get "freezes", errors and all kinds of nasty happenings.

Any way, good luck with the i1200, I find it a nice machine but I don't
have to use it full time as I have a desktop for normal "home" use.

On Wed, 14 Feb 2001, Christian Schneider wrote:

> Dear list,
> 
> after an orgy of apt-gets and other nightmares I finally installed
> XFree4.0.2 on my ThinkPad i1200 hoping that I could get a decent windowing
> system what with the new drivers for that chipset.
> 
> It works but only kind of. I get drawing errors after moving windows or
> just scrolling in them. That kind of looks nice but I suppose I couldn't
> get any work done.
> 
> Has anyone experienced similar problems and if so how did they solve them
> (if they did at all).
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Christian
> -- 
> 
> Christian Schneider

------------------------------------------------
  Doug Mitton - Brockville, Ontario, Canada
                'City of the Thousand Islands'
  Amateur Radio: VE3DMZ        (ve3dmz@rac.ca)
           http://www3.sympatico.ca/dmitton/     
------------------------------------------------


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