Diff. between distr. (acc. graphics)

From: Jonathan (jonjo002_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 06/15/04


Date: 14 Jun 2004 17:55:42 -0700

Hello!

I'm trying to get accelerated graphics on an Acer Aspire 1353LC
portable, running Debian sarge with XF86 version 4.3. The graphics on
this laptop is Via's S3 Unichrome.

from lspci:
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378
[S3 UniChrome] Integrated Video (rev 01)

Now, there is some driver support for Linux at
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=296#km400
The root of my problems is that there is only support for Red Hat,
SuSE, Mandrake and Fedora Core. If there had been Debian support I
guess it would just be to download, install and voila so to speak.
However, even without explicit Debian support, Linux is still Linux is
still Linux, so I should be able to use these drivers anyway, right?

When running the "vinstall" install script (that comes with the
drivers found at http://downloads.viaarena.com/drivers/video/KN_KM400/km400xf40039.zip),
this is the output:

 -------- install start --------
install S3G KM400 driver
Which CPU do you use ?
1. AMD K 7/8
 
cp: cannot stat `///via_v4l_drv.o': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `///videodev.o': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `///via_drv.o': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `///via.o': No such file or directory
cp: cannot stat `///via_dri.so': No such file or directory
sed: can't read /etc/rc.d/rc.local: No such file or directory
cp: cannot create regular file `/etc/rc.d/rc.local': No such file or
directory
sed: can't read /etc/rc.d/rc.local: No such file or directory
cp: cannot create regular file `/etc/rc.d/rc.local': No such file or
directory
modprobe: Can't locate module via_v4l_drv
 -------- vinstall end --------

After looking at what vinstall does, I saw that the reason for the
"///" is that the script tries to guess what distribution and version
I'm running by simply looking at the kernel version (it assumes I'm
running one of the four supported distr. mentioned above). Excerpts
from the vinstall script:

    KERNELVERSION=`uname -r`
...
    case "$KERNELVERSION" in
       2.4.2-2)
       OS=RedHat
       VER=7.1
       ;;
       2.4.7-10)
       OS=RedHat
       VER=7.2
       ;;
...
       2.4.20-8)
       OS=RedHat
       VER=9.0
       ;;
...
       2.4.21-0.13mdk)
       OS=Mandrake
       VER=9.1
       ;;
...
       2.4.19-4GB)
       OS=SuSE
       VER=8.1
       AUT OLOADFILE=/etc/init.d/boot.local
       OLDAUTOLOADFILE=/etc/init.d/boot.local.bak
       ;;

and then later it does

    cp $OS/$VER/$CPUTYPE/via_v4l_drv.o $VIDEODRIVERDIR/

Since OS and VER variables not being filled in, I get the "///" and
hence the cp installation errors.

So, I need to know what I should fill the OS and VER variables with.
Running "uname -r" on my machine returns "2.4.25-1-386", and the
latest kernel version supported is the 2.4.21-0.13mdk (Mandrake 9.1,
see above). But I don't know if my Debian sarge (installed with the
110 MB net-install Debian installer beta 4) is more similar to
Mandrake 9.1 than it is to for example SuSE 8.1.
I also need to know what to do about the other installation error
caused by the fact that "/etc/rc.d/rc.local" doesn't exist (see
installation output above).

If someone has tried doing this before, I'd be grateful for sharing
experiences. However, a Linux pro will probably know exactly what to
do after just looking at the vinstall script file. It's not a very
long script, so hopefully it shouldn't take long time ;)

Thanks in advance

//Jonathan (sorry for the somewhat long posting)



Relevant Pages

  • Re: Linux hardware support...
    ... DVD writing support is available software-wise with some ... It just works with Debian Sarge and 2.6.0 kernel. ... install gphoto2 and gtkam for GUI operations. ... distro if you want the bulk of the hardware supported. ...
    (comp.os.linux.hardware)
  • Re: printer problems migrating from Netware 6.5 to 2003
    ... It doesn't install the printer for users. ... If we use group policy to deploy a printer, let us say, we deploy a logon ... It is true that the script will be running every time the ... Microsoft Online Partner Support ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.migration)
  • REPOST Installing inf files
    ... and neither is the Help And Support ... After some Googling, I tried to install the relevant .inf files, ... however this wouldn't run as I got 'Can't find script engine ... the Windows Update page doesn't work, nor can I access page 2 of threads on ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Diff. between distr. (acc. graphics)
    ... The root of my problems is that there is only support for Red Hat, ... If there had been Debian support I ... guess it would just be to download, install and voila so to speak. ... When running the "vinstall" install script (that comes with the ...
    (comp.os.linux.portable)
  • RE: [msh] Some msh setup questions
    ... > setup of Monad and have a bunch of questions I'm going to want to ask! ... When you install monad an Examples directory will be created ... Profile.msh is a script. ... > Is there, is there going to be, support for Msh on Itanium. ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.server.scripting)