problems with the ATI Rage 128 Pro Ultra Tf

[rexmo]

---

I too am having the same problems with the ATI Rage 128 Pro Ultra Tf. This is an AGP card. I am attempting Ubuntu 8,1 Ibex install on HP Vectra vl420.
Cannot get above 800x600 resolution. Have tried VESA, ATI, and r128 drivers.
Perhaps there is an option that would force the card?

I will post the output of these two commands mentioned by Caspar within 6 hours.

Thank you in advance!

[D-cat]

Wow, I actually had one of those "portables" once!

Hmm, unfortunately I don't know what that "same" problem is, since I don't know where this came from.

First set your driver back to "r128" since this is the correct FOS driver for the ATI Rage 128, the restart X (You can just log out then back in again). This driver has hi-res support but I don't believe 3D. ATI considers the Rage 128 a legacy device, which they have no intention of supporting under Linux.

Please tell me your Monitor's make and model, and post your xorg.conf. I'll seek out specs and suggest an addition.

[rexmo]

xorg.conf (fresh reinstall)

##################################begin
# xorg.conf (X.Org X Window System server configuration file)
#
# This file was generated by dexconf, the Debian X Configuration tool, using
# values from the debconf database.
#
# Edit this file with caution, and see the xorg.conf manual page.
# (Type "man xorg.conf" at the shell prompt.)
#
# This file is automatically updated on xserver-xorg package upgrades *only*
# if it has not been modified since the last upgrade of the xserver-xorg
# package.
#
# Note that some configuration settings that could be done previously
# in this file, now are automatically configured by the server and settings
# here are ignored.
#
# If you have edited this file but would like it to be automatically updated
# again, run the following command:
# sudo dpkg-reconfigure -phigh xserver-xorg

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Configured Monitor"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
EndSection


##########################end
the monitor is a dell 3770

I can provide the ouptut for the video card momentarily

Thanks!!

[rexmo]

sudo lspci | grep VGA

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage 128 Pro Ultra TF

[D-cat]

Limp home safe mode, that thing is totally minimalist generic. I'll see if I can do better. Try making the following additions (in bold, a little hard to see dep. on default fixed font):

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "r128"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Monitor "Configured Monitor"
Device "Configured Video Device"
DefaultDepth 16
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      15
    Modes      "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      16
    Modes      "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      24
    Modes      "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
  EndSubSection
  SubSection "Display"
    Depth      8
    Modes      "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x768" "1024x768" "1280x600" "1024x600" "800x600" "768x576" "640x480"
EndSection

I couldn't find specs for your monitor, so I listed a fairly wide range. I don't know if it's enough yet to do it this way, but I think it'll work. Good luck!

If it doesn't work:
Try sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg in a terminal/console, and try to manually answer as many question as you can relating to your card and monitor; don't just select the auto-detect options since they seem to do nothing for your configuration.

In all cases, you'll need to restart the X server (log out and back in) for changes to take effect.

[rexmo]

Wow! You're great. Since the monitor seems to be a noname I have dumped it in favor of a NEC Accuthink LCD5v k158N. Do you think you could help out with this? Maybe you could help explain to me how one goes about getting these settings? I plan on posting these to ubuntu forums and would give you the credit. Many users over there are haveing problems with ATI Rage 128 and this would be a BIG help. I am reinstalling ubuntu AGAIN and hope I can get this thing working. Iam helping a friend with this thing. People who switch over from Windows get kinda ticked when Ubuntu can't support as good a video output as GNU/Linux and I'd like her to have a good experience. We don't want to alienate anyone!

Thank you VERY VERY much!

[D-cat]

The settings I used were fairly generic. If your monitor supports different modes, just add those modes into the list where the others are.

Some monitors may complain that the frequencies are out of range on a mode you know is good. These require a separate modes section to define the frequency range for each resolution. If you want to do that by hand, you'll need to read up on X configurations and have the technical specs for the monitor.

What may help in that situation is if you boot a live CD from a distro that uses different detection techniques (like SuSE), and copy that generated xorg.conf over to Ubuntu, I have had some sucess with that.

[rexmo]

Sorry in my previoous post I meant that we don't want to alienate anyone that is migrating from WINDOWS !!

And using another distro to detect settings is a VERY good idea. I'll definitely try that.

Thank you for your help!!!