ATI drivers on Fedora 10?

[acstech]

Anyone know how to do this? I've tried searching google for it and noting of any substance comes up.

The motherboard is a Biostar A740G-M2+ with integrated video. The integrated video is an ATI Radeon 2100.

Here are the issues:
1. Install CD won't boot. It wont make it to the graphical installer, and it won't go to the text mode install either. Hitting esc on the countdown and typing "linux text" doesn't work.

2. After using an Nvidia card to get the stupid thing installed, there is no xorg.conf that I can edit to change it to use the vesa driver so I might be able to boot with the integrated video, so I might attempt to install the proprietary ATI driver! WTF??!!

Fortunately the board was cheap enough, and so was the Sempron I'm using with it. I got it for the sole purpose of evaluating the AMD / ATI platform on various operating systems. So far, it's not looking good under Linux. The Windows 7 Beta works ok though.

Any ideas?

[Wizard]

Re: ATI drivers on Fedora 10?

1. Biostar is not best of board engineering in regard and their bios. I see bit of issues with others esp on linux not just this board brand.

2. See if the bios is up to date.

Otherwise, pick one level up like 790G instead of 740 based on decent board like Asus etc.

Cheers, Wizard

[acstech]

Re: ATI drivers on Fedora 10?

I do not consider Asus to be decent.

Do you have any proof that Biostar's bios is flawed in some way? They've always worked well for me. In fact, it's always Asus that has had strange issues for me.

Oh well, I guess it's back to Nvidia chipsets. Never had a problem with them on Biostar boards under Linux.

[jpdoe]

Re: ATI drivers on Fedora 10?

That kind of problems are usually solved using kernel boot options.
Make a google search with the terms
kernel boot options
if you're not familiar with them

But since there's a huge amount of them, first take a look at these pages

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=nomodeset
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=487268

They seem to say the
nomodeset
boot option is the way to go

[Wizard]

Re: ATI drivers on Fedora 10?

Hmm.

Which boards are *considered* best? Intel, Asus, Foxconn, so on?

Cheers, Wizard

[acstech]

Re: ATI drivers on Fedora 10?

Ok it worked under Ubuntu 9 (prerelease). Haven't tried messing with things, but it's sitting on the Ubuntu desktop and working properly there.

Which boards are *considered* the best? Depends on who you ask. If you ask the Asus shills on the internet, well, you know what answer they'll give. As for me, I've had so many bad experiences with Asus that I won't touch them with a 29 1/2 foot pole. Shall I explain them?

Here's my thoughts on boards:
1. Asus: Junk. Possible inadequate cooling (M2N-E), insufficient bios options (C90P laptop, M2N), faulty chipset fans (several boards including A8N-E), faulty BIOS (C90P laptop), inadequate fan control (all boards I've worked with), instability (A8N-E), poor overclocking on less than top end boards. overpriced. I have more.
2. Gigabyte: Generally ok, with the exception of one DOA micro-ATX Nvidia 7025 based board. Inadequate fan control, otherwise ok.
3. Intel desktop boards: Generally ok, stable at stock clock speeds. Possibly overpriced depending on which one you look at. Not AMD compatible.
4. Biostar: Generally ok, low end non T-series boards have slightly limited fan control options and just "ok" overclocking. Most stable boards I've worked with. Fan control on T-series boards is without equal. All boards have decent caps on CPU VRM, with T-series having solid caps on VRM output. T-power have solid caps everywhere. One drawback is OST caps on non-critical positions on T-series boards. Doesn't limit overclocking or cause a problem in reasonably cooled computers though.

Dont' know about Foxconn. Always considered them a lowest bidder budget brand. Maybe they're worth a look. But the Biostar has been working well for me for the last 4 or so years in the computers I sell. Haven't had to replace one yet. Can't say that about Asus.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: ATI drivers on Fedora 10?

How about a 29 3/4 foot pole?

[acstech]

Re: ATI drivers on Fedora 10?

Typo. It was supposed to be 39 1/2 foot pole.

[NxB]

Re: ATI drivers on Fedora 10?

Foxconn had a different ACPI table for linux, one which would cause serious problems. Cross them off the list for linux or anything. MSI and ECS have been good for me. I've lost some boards from every manufacturer so there is no *BEST*.

Linux stopped "using" the xorg.conf for a while now. Graphics have been configured by X some other way. My xorg.conf has like nothing in it. Linux mint works for me, as do ubuntu flavors, recent releases completely out of the box. I've had trouble with downloading and installing them manually. Package manager has always worked for me, better than windows drivers even (no smartgart). I wish I could say the same for sound.