Drivers question

ne0_2k · Apprentice Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 243

Hi ,

i'm new to gentoo and i want to try and install it on my older computer.
i have a "voodoo 2" video card and i wanted to ask if there are drivers that support the card and if there is something special i need to do while installing.

thanks

davidgurvich · Veteran Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1063

There is support in the kernel and xorg for voodoo3, but I am uncertain what contortions are necessary for voodoo2.

ne0_2k · Apprentice Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 243

if i can see during the loading of the livecd untill i get the root prompt does that mean it recognizes it ?

davidgurvich · Veteran Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1063

I don't believe the livecd has X. However, it does have support for most modules, so if you do an lsmod to see what is loaded that may help.

cyrillic · Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2005 6:59 pm Post subject:

As far as I know, the voodoo1 and voodoo2 chips are 3D accelerators only. Your other video card will be used for all 2D graphics and for the text console.

ne0_2k · Apprentice Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 243

Hi ,

first thanks for the replies.
the card is not just an accelerator its a standalone card plus 3d accelerator.
I previously had Ubuntu installed while using the onboard video card (which got messed up) and when i tried to load ubuntu with the Voodoo 2 card i see fine until its supposed to show the login screen and then i only see a black screen with a cursor on the top left corner.
i'm worried after finishing installing gentoo that the same will happen once i install gnome.

cyrillic · Posted: Mon Nov 28, 2005 2:58 pm Post subject:

sundialsvc4 · Guru Joined: 10 Nov 2005 Posts: 436

And... y'know... video cards don't have to be that expensive... Unless you are in the "g4m3rZ ruL3Z!" society ..

.. it might be simplest to replace the card with a slightly newer one if you encounter too many problems with the one that you have.

The LiveCD will, I believe, load a video driver even though it doesn't use video by default. lsmod, and the kernel log, will tell you what it found ... and/or how it struggled valiantly but failed in the attempt.

ne0_2k · Apprentice Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 243

ok gnome does work with the video card. i would like to know though what driver it is using. is there a way to access like a windows "device manager" to see what drivers are being used for my devices ?

davidgurvich · Veteran Joined: 23 Apr 2004 Posts: 1063

The only drivers that are used for hardware are either compiled into the kernel or loaded as external modules. You can use lsmod to see what modules are loaded.

For the X-server the situation is slightly different. The X package contains many generic video drivers which work quite well for 2D. However, for full 3d accel. you may have to install proprietary drivers. Frequently, there can be difficulties there.

cyrillic · Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2005 1:00 am Post subject:

ne0_2k · Apprentice Joined: 26 Nov 2005 Posts: 243