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[linrad] Re: Linrad and Fedora Core 3 : the formula



Hi, Conrad, et al!

Conrad asked for a bit of a summary of what to do to make things work, so here it is:

Here is the formula I used to get svgalib working, except that the mouse is still not working.  But I even have Linrad coming up with a 1024 x 768 pixel screen.

1.  I used the 1st 3 disks [only] of the Fedora Core 3 iso's, obtained via http://fedora.redhat.com/download/

2.  The kernel version I am using is:  2.6.9-1.667smp .  I had a later version that worked, but then I updated to 2.6.10.1.741_FC3 and tried to do an insmod with svgalib_helper.ko I got an error stating there was something unknown in the module and so I went back to this version.

3.  Fedora took only about 30 minutes to install and didn't ask a lot of questions.  I used a custom configuration so that I could select NASM, etc for installation [it is not installed by default].  I seledted gnome as my X-WIndows environment.

4.  I installed svgalib-1.9.19 per Leif's instructions.  

5.  After it installed, I put svgalib_helper.ko into the directory
/usr/src/svgalib/svgalib-1.9.19/kernel/svgalib_helper

6.  Then I ran Leif's script 'svga' after removing the 'make' line, by typing 'svga start' from the directory where 'svga' lives.

7. Then I checked to see that svga and svga1-4 were present in /dev/ and when I confirmed that they were, I typed
cp -a /dev/svga* /etc/udev/devices

8.  Then I slightly modified Leif's Makefile.ext by removing the :svgalib line and ran it by typing ./Makefile.ext from the proper directory, where both it and Leif's svga script live.  This causes the insmod to be done everytime Linux boots, and removes the module svgalib_helper.ko when Linrad shuts down.

Having done all that, svgalib should be ready to go from Fedora Core 3 each time it boots up.

10.  With my hardware I had to set the VESA driver, and I have maximum resolution 1024 x 768.

12.  THE MOUSE DOESN"T WORK YET WITH SVGALIB.

13.  When starting Linrad for the first time, two questions are asked that relate to memory and sleep, I think.  I have to answer the first one 'n' or Linrad locks up.  THis is not the default answer.  I answered the second question to be the default, whatever that is.

14.  With the standard alsa drivers, svgalib sees only 2 devices, the two halves of the Delta44.  Both of them are reported by svgalib [within Linrad] to get up to 192K sample rate, which is incorrect.  Once I get the kernel default sound issue straightened out this should change.  Jeffrey Pawlan reported something like this with Mandrake, I think.

15.  When installing OSS, I had a choice of REGPARM or NO REGPARM flavors of OSS.  I first chose the latter, not knowing how to figure out which one I had.  My system did not like that. The OSS install log told me I picked the wrong one, and when I rebooted after that I found that I didn't have a visible installation anymore,  so I had some reinstalling to do.  All is again well for the moment ;)

16.  This time I left the attachments attached on purpose, as they will be used if you follow the instructions above.

Have a great weekend, and

73,

Roger
W3SZ






5.  OSS is not yet installed as I need to remove the default sound module for it to install and I haven't figured out how to do that yet, and have it stay gone on reboot.



> Hi Roger,
> 
> > Unfortunately, I still have the problem after rebooting.
> > 
> OK. I know now it is because the /dev/svga files are missing.
> 
> The solution I adapted was to run the svga file.
> 
> I put copies and links as in Makefile.ext which might
> be part of the next Linrad version. (Unless Matan 
> releases a new version that makes it superfluous)
> 
> Afterwords I got the following from Matan:
> 
> > I use FC3, and don't have this problem. FC3 uses udev, which creates 
> > the devices automatically when the modules is inserted. 
> > Do you run modprobe svgalib_helper, or trust kmod to load the module? 
> > udev does not support this method, since the devices are not there 
> > before the module is loaded.
> >
> > Anyway, since udev creates the /dev/ directory every boot, if you want a 
> > permanent device that udev does not create for some reason, run
> > 
> > cp -a /dev/svga* /etc/udev/devices
> >
> > Since udev (or fedora startup scripts) copy devices from there to /dev 
> > on boot.
> 
> Maybe using modprobe rather than insmod makes something automatically?
> 
> I tried svgalib-1.9.19 on several old distributions and it does not
> work. I have sent error messages to Matan, maybe he can fix it easily.
> I think it is valuable to keep backwards compatibility and make
> Linrad easy to use on elderly computers. None of the modern distributions
> runs directly on my old Pentium although it is fully adequate for 
> Linrad with 5 kHz bandwidth. Maybe if I recompile the kernels for it
> on another computer.....
> 
> The old svgalib-1.4.3 can still be used (of course) but its VESA driver
> is so hopelessly slow.
> 
> Roger, I guess you are no longer interested in Fedora Core 3 judging 
> all the posts on the list about other alternatives, but I try to ensure
> Linrad will work under any distribution.......
> 
> 73
> 
>   Leif / SM5BSZ
> 
> 

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