Mason Loring Bliss wrote:

> Hi, all.
>
> A friend of mine got a new box the other day, and noted that it has on-
> board SiS graphics. It's an i386 box - AMD K6-2/250, etc. He's got 1.4 on
> it now, and is willing to run -current if needed. The box has a SiS 5595
> chipset. XFree docs say nothing about this chipset, but it *almost* works.
>
> The server starts and seems fully functional, albeit in 320x200x8 mode.
>
> To wit:
>
> XFree86 Version 3.3.3.1 / X Window System
> (protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6300)
> Release Date: January 4 1999
> [...]
>       sis5597, sis5598, sis6326, tvga8200lx, tvga8800cs, tvga8900b,
> [...]
> (--) SVGA: PCI: SiS Unknown chipset (0x6306) rev 162, Memory @ 0xfc800000, 0xfc100000, I/O @ 0x9000
> (--) SVGA: chipset:  generic
> (--) SVGA: videoram: 64k
> (--) SVGA: clocks:  25.18
> (**) SVGA: Using 8 bpp, Depth 8, Color weight: 666
> (--) SVGA: Using builtin driver modes
> (--) SVGA: Builtin Mode: 320x200
> (--) SVGA: Virtual resolution set to 320x204
> (--) SVGA: SpeedUp code selection modified because virtualX != 1024
> [...]
>
> So, the chipset can support XFree86, but it only sees 64K of video RAM. It
> starts up, but in 320x200 mode, probably as a consequence of the video RAM
> problem. (320x200 in eight bit mode is all that would fit into 64K of RAM,
> so it makes some sense that way...)
>
> The BIOS on this box allows the user to choose 2, 4, or 8 megs of video RAM,
> which is evidently snagged from main RAM. We've told XF86Config that there's
> different amounts of RAM, but this is seemingly ignored.
>
> Can someone give me ideas as to how I could perhaps short-circuit the process
> of determining the available video RAM? I'm going to try to dig around in the
> X source to see if there's maybe a status word somewhere the server checks to
> see how much video RAM is available, as it would make sense for that word to
> be in a different location, perhaps...
>
> Thanks in advance. :) I'd much rather help my friend get this chipset going
> than have him have to snag still more hardware.
>
> PS: The box is an HP Pavilion 44??.
>
> --
>     Mason Loring Bliss   mason@acheron.middleboro.ma.us   They also surf who
> awake ? sleep : dream;   http://acheron.ne.mediaone.net   only stand on waves.

Mason

    The only thing I would double check is make sure there is no "#" in front of where VideoRam is
mentioned in your XF86Config so instead of autodetecting ram its forced. for example:
#VideoRam    4096
VideoRam      4096   < use this
This is located in the "Screen section" of your config file.

If that does not help you will probably need to write your own server or use a different server.

Good Luck :-)

Dave