Fire GL4 - Xserver problem

[Dodger57]

Based on my very limited knowledge as a Linux rookie ... ATI is no longer pumping out drivers for my Fire GL4 card with any Xserver version after 4.1.x. I recently downloaded Debian 3.1 - and it appears to be using Xserver 4.3.0.1. For this reason I'm stuck in VGA mode and not having a great deal of fun with my "linux experience" I'm afraid.

Seems that the older Fire GL4 is causing similar issues with what ever distro I choose to trial. Some (like Fedora and OpenSuse) won't even get far into the installation before crapping out... :\

Question: So that I can continue to learn/use Linux is there a way to download/install/use an older version of xserver? I just can't afford to buy another quality video card at the moment....

Thanks for any thoughts on this.

Dodge

[Zelmo]

Lots of old releases on the xfree86.org downloads page. I'm guessing you'll have to compile them yourself.

It looks like the oldstable repository (aka Woody) has XFree 4.1.0, so you can add that repository long enough to install what you need. That may be easier, if it works out.

[Dodger57]

Thanks but I'm in way over my head with compiling and what-not. I just wanted a shot at Linux workstation to try it out ... it didn't work out. I have to say that I'm not impressed with the hardware support aspect of it.

Dodge

[Zelmo]

Yeah, that's historically been one of the big problems. You could complain to the hardware manufacturers for only supporting one operating system. Most of the time it's up to very talented C programmers to write drivers when the manufacturers fail to do so, and that usually means not having a driver right when the hardware comes out (or in some cases, because of very tightly guarded intellectual property, not having a driver for a long time while coders go through a lot of trial and error to find out how a piece of hardware works). This situation puts Linux and other free operating systems at a real disadvantage compared to something like Windows, where Microsoft doesn't need to write drivers because the manufacturers are more than willing to write their own Windows drivers. Considering that, it's impressive how well Linux does work.