olivetti p100 with onboard ATI Mach64

olivetti p100 with onboard ATI Mach64

[Andrew Langdon-Davies]

Hello,
I have two machines as described above and both give me exactly the same 
problem. Soon after booting from a Linux floppy the screen goes blank. 
In the case of Tomsrtbt this happens just after the screen for choosing 
a video mode.
 The manual describes the video controller as:
-Component ATI Mach64-CT with 1 MB or 2 MB of video memory, integrated 
on the motherboard, and the DPMS, DDC 1 features
-Board IN2052 with video connector output.
Is there a solution to this?
TIA
Andrew



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Re: olivetti p100 with onboard ATI Mach64

[Ray Olszewski]

See below.

At 07:50 PM 4/30/2003 +0200, Andrew Langdon-Davies wrote:
>Hello,
>I have two machines as described above and both give me exactly the same 
>problem. Soon after booting from a Linux floppy the screen goes blank. In 
>the case of Tomsrtbt this happens just after the screen for choosing a 
>video mode.
>The manual describes the video controller as:
>-Component ATI Mach64-CT with 1 MB or 2 MB of video memory, integrated on 
>the motherboard, and the DPMS, DDC 1 features
>-Board IN2052 with video connector output.
>Is there a solution to this?

I'm unfamiliar with your hardware, and I can't recall ever seeing a system 
that did not boot/init successfully to a console prompt. So I'm guessing 
here quite a bit.

You mention testing with tomsrtbt. As I recall, it uses a framebuffer 
device to let it set the video mode. You don't say what you have tested 
with other than tomsrtbt. So I don't know if you've tried any distro that 
does not default to using the framebuffer (in general, the small penguin 
picture on the boot screen indicates use of the framebuffer).

Offhand, I don't know whether any of the full-strength distros do not use 
the framebuffer by default, particularly in their installers (since you 
talk about testing with floppies). Offhand, I know that the router-oriented 
LEAF distros (leaf.sourceforge.net) do not use it, and probably other 
floppy-based distros (trinux? maybe) also omit this. So you might try one 
of them to see if this is your problem. If it is, you can easily compile a 
custom kernel that leaves out framebuffer support, assuming you are working 
toward a hard-disk install.



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Re: olivetti p100 with onboard ATI Mach64

[Andrew Langdon-Davies]

>
>
>>
>> I have two machines as described above and both give me exactly the 
>> same problem. Soon after booting from a Linux floppy the screen goes 
>> blank.
>
>
> You mention testing with tomsrtbt. As I recall, it uses a framebuffer 
> device to let it set the video mode.
> Offhand, I don't know whether any of the full-strength distros do not 
> use the framebuffer by default, particularly in their installers 
> (since you talk about testing with floppies). Offhand, I know that the 
> router-oriented LEAF distros (leaf.sourceforge.net) do not use it, and 
> probably other floppy-based distros (trinux? maybe) also omit this. So 
> you might try one of them to see if this is your problem. If it is, 
> you can easily compile a custom kernel that leaves out framebuffer 
> support, assuming you are working toward a hard-disk install.

Looks like you were right. Bering boots to a console prompt with no 
trouble. (It must be great to know so much). Next step is indeed to go 
for a hard-disk install, which means I can't put off learning to compile 
a kernel any longer. Presumably I can do this on another machine and 
then transfer it (?).
I was thinking of installing something like Peanut. What do you reckon? 
I can probably rustle up about 800 megas of disk space on two disks. The 
machine will not be used for anything more ambitious than 
text-processing, Internet, etc.
Andrew

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Re: olivetti p100 with onboard ATI Mach64

[Ray Olszewski]

See below.

At 11:21 AM 5/2/2003 +0200, Andrew Langdon-Davies wrote:
[...]
>>You mention testing with tomsrtbt. As I recall, it uses a framebuffer 
>>device to let it set the video mode.
>>Offhand, I don't know whether any of the full-strength distros do not use 
>>the framebuffer by default, particularly in their installers (since you 
>>talk about testing with floppies). Offhand, I know that the 
>>router-oriented LEAF distros (leaf.sourceforge.net) do not use it, and 
>>probably other floppy-based distros (trinux? maybe) also omit this. So 
>>you might try one of them to see if this is your problem. If it is, you 
>>can easily compile a custom kernel that leaves out framebuffer support, 
>>assuming you are working toward a hard-disk install.
>
>Looks like you were right. Bering boots to a console prompt with no 
>trouble. (It must be great to know so much).

I'm sure it would be, if I did. <sigh> It is easy to sound knowledgeable 
when you can pick and choose which questions you answer.

>  Next step is indeed to go for a hard-disk install, which means I can't 
> put off learning to compile a kernel any longer. Presumably I can do this 
> on another machine and then transfer it (?).

Yes.

>I was thinking of installing something like Peanut. What do you reckon? I 
>can probably rustle up about 800 megas of disk space on two disks. The 
>machine will not be used for anything more ambitious than text-processing, 
>Internet, etc.
>Andrew

I don't know what you intend "etc." to cover, so I don't know the range of 
your ambitions. But you say you will connect to the Internet, so I would 
encourage you to select from among the distributions that stay current with 
respect to security patches. Whether this includes Peanut or not I do not 
know, but you should look into that before you commit to it (or any distro, 
though you can count on the half-dozen or so "big names" all passing this 
test).


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