[K12OSN] settings in lts.conf to support ATI Mach64 for X server

[Petre Scheie]

Good point: even if I can get X to work with the onboard Mach64 video, the performance 
will likely be crummy; I don't know how much video RAM it has, either.  I don't expect 
to actually deploy this client; rather, I want to keep it around just to show people 
that even a lowly 486 can make a decent if not stellar client.  But I hadn't thought of 
just throwing a different video card into it.  If I use something not-to-obscure, it 
*would* be automatically detected, and would be snappier than the onboard.  I'll try 
that.  I think I have an Xpert98 lying around.

Fortunately, this machine has a PS/2 mouse port, so I don't have to fool around with 
serial ports (although I've already got that stuff in my lts.conf file for another 
client that does use a serial mouse).

Terrell Prudé wrote:
> Funny you should ask this....
> 
> Actually, last month I had a thin client with an original ATI Mach64 
> video board, vintage 1996!  It is my friend's Pentium-120 that used to 
> run Windows NT 3.51.  I tried it out with a K12LTSP 4.2.1 server, and 
> yes indeed, those Mach64 cards are autodetected seamlessly.  But they're 
> a little slow by today's standards.  This isn't a problem if you're 
> doing OpenOffice.org, email, and Web surfing.  But when you fire up 
> TuxType, you'll see it. 
> 
> The successor to that chip, the ATI 3D Rage Pro (Xpert at Work, Xpert at Play, 
> Xpert98), uses the same X11 driver and is way quicker.  It's pretty easy 
> to find used 3D Rage Pro PCI boards on the cheap; another good 
> alternative is the S3 Trio64 or newer chipset.  I dropped a spare 
> Trio64V+ board in my friend's computer, and TuxType started running at 
> normal speed.  After network bandwidth, I've discovered that video 
> chipset oomph is the major performance factor on the thin client, not 
> the CPU.
> 
> Now, what I *did* run into with this old box is a mouse issue.  This old 
> box doesn't have a PS/2 mouse port; it uses serial mice.  The mouse was 
> physically on COM1.  Thus, I had to make an entry for this box's MAC 
> address in lts.conf so that it would always use /dev/ttyS0 for that guy 
> instead of /dev/psaux, like all my other thin clients do.  Once I did 
> that, the ol' P-120 dinosaur made a great LTSP client.
> 
> --TP
> 
> On Sun, 2005-09-25 at 16:44 -0500, Petre Scheie wrote:
> 
>>I have a potential thin client with an on-board ATI Mach64 chipset for 
>>video.  It's an old 486, but has PCI slots, so the Universal Boot Floppy 
>>is able to recognize the ethernet card.  But I can't figure out what X 
>>server to set for it in lts.conf.  I've tried setting X = ati (for XFree 
>>4) and virtually all the XFree 3 drivers, but I mostly get "no screens 
>>found" errors.  What driver (presumably XFree 3) do I need to install to 
>>make this work?  What package do I need to have yum pull down?  BTW, 
>>this is for k12ltsp ver 4.4.1.
>>
>>Petre
>>
>>_______________________________________________
>>K12OSN mailing list
>>K12OSN at redhat.com <mailto:K12OSN at redhat.com>
>>https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
>>For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>
>>
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> _______________________________________________
> K12OSN mailing list
> K12OSN at redhat.com
> https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/k12osn
> For more info see <http://www.k12os.org>