From: ellis@nova.gmi.edu (Stew Ellis) Subject: Re: Diamond, X11, and dos Date: Sun, 7 Feb 1993 17:22:09 GMT
labdg@emory.edu (Diego) writes:
>Hi folks!
> I'm (pretty obviously) a linux newbie and I'm having a few odd
> problems I could use some help with.
> I installed the latest TAMU package on my Gateway 486/33 and
> managed, without TOO much trouble, to get the system running
> along side os/2 2.x and booting correctly from the os/2 boot
> manager. I've also got X running at 640x480x256 and, of
> course, mono.
> Now for the problem! I cannot get my Diamond Speedstar Plus
> 4.23 w/ 1meg card to do anything other than vga ;-( I know
> folks say it cannot be done, thought others say it can.... and
> I've tried vesa values in the Xconfig file as well as values
> derived from the modegen databases. Anyways, the system is
> running on a Gateway Crystal Scan 1024NI 14" monitor, and I've
> also tried combinations of values from the list of
> user-supplied configurations with no success.
> Now for my idea. I know that under both os/2 and dos the
> monitor and card won't sync until the dos program vmode is run.
> I'd like to run this at boot time from linux if possible, but
> don't know how to go about this. Is there a dos emulator for
> linux that will read and EXECUTE this program (the build in dos
> file system will let me copy and move & etc. the file, but not
> execute ;-( )
> -Thanks for any info!
> -Diego Gallina (labdg@unix.cc.emory.edu)
You say you are a newbie, so I will be gentle. IF you read this group for a
few days, no more than a week usually (although many netiquette advisors
suggest that you read a group for a couple of weeks before posting any
questions that are not of an emergency nature) you would have read a
discussion of the workarounds, including patches you could make to the
source code. IF you had spent two weeks you would have even seen a detailed
philosophical discussion of why the newer Diamond cards are not supported.
You should direct all your irritation and hatemail at Diamond, because they
have threatened to sue anyone to whom they release the programming specs who
would subsequently release the information to others. Obviously you cannot
have a source-code release of Linux and Xfree that would not violate this.
Although there are workarounds that you are free to use if you want, I and
many others do not want any official accommodation of Diamond's policy to
become part of of Linux. I have also made another related post today.