Hello, Any...
Herein I will round-out this story.
For a long time now I have used Mageia-5-Mate (32-bit)
quite successfully. It has managed everything I have thrown at it, and does it with dexterity at the GUI level (which is where I work from). It drove my old monitor (and now the replacement) AND my olde SiS-6326 graphics card with ease.
I try out distros. [WHO using Linux doesn't? ...Or, for all the pedantic, smarty-bum LinUsers (mostly all, I suspect) - WHO using Linux
hasn't?".]
Around the time of my #1 post above I was intent on setting-up Korora because it was derived from the Fedora/Redhat stable, which I didn't have installed. As well, I had previously tried Antix-MX (a Debian/ spin-off) but, now, wanted to try Antix-15 (which offers NO systemd).
So, this time, when I encountered the abovementioned graphics-card problems (AGAIN) it was with Korora-23, but also with Antix-15.
At that time I had sought advice in the Antix Forum, but failed to understand the significance an early reply post to me (ie "the solution"), but instead changed course (mid-stream) to Korora to see if that distro could get hi-res. However, there was NO driver package. In the Fedora Forum (for Korora) I was given a 3-part solution
: option-
1 failed (ie use an old driver supplied); option-
2 compiling (irked me, not the suggestion, the "compiling"); and option-
3 was to get down and dirty in CLI, and hand-build something. So since I seemed
destined to work at CLI I decided to try it out on Antix
first.
[Remember now, an Antix Forum Member had
already given me the solution (in Antix) - which I missed.]
So, without knowing the Antix Forum solution, the first thing I tried was something I had noted in the ArchLinux Forum from some time ago -
REMOVE the "VGA=xxx" arg from the kernel line in Grub, then possibly include other args (afterwards). To be honest, I don't think the other args were critical here. Removing the "VGA=xxx" stops the booting-system (kernel?) from kicking "VGA" into action from boot up. I think removing/preventing that allows the
4 built-in graphics modes to be used (ie "enabled"). [I am happy to be corrected on that.] Anyway, having removed that, I immediately ended up with a pretty-good hi-res solution -
and the 4 built-in modes.
To be honest, I tweaked so many things at the time, I can't tell you exactly what I did next (possibly added an ARG something-or-other), and I got an even
better resolution (although it presented a strange "glitch" too, which I don't need to discuss here).
Given that I was ignorant of the Antix post with the solution (because
I was ignorant?), I set about mucking around within "xorg.conf" to get something a bit more "permanent" setup for X. That was a quite a challenge for me [Newbie]. I read manuals and tips, and tips-&-tricks, and manual tricks, and on and on.
However, while I was looking inside the Modules directory (you will know about
that directory,
I didn't) I found a module called "...sisimedia...". Now, I've seen a "...sisimedia..." driver mentioned elsewhere before, but I'm pretty sure it's referenced with much more modern graphics cards. So I never thought it was a possible solution for my card. Furthermore, to me,
sisimedia doesn't sound like
sis, and it doesn't sound like anything to do with "xf86-video-sis" - THE SiS-6326 driver referred to in the "man" pages (which, months ago, had been pointed out to me by someone in the Mageia Forum).
Next I looked in Synaptic package manager and there was an
installed package called "xf86-video-sis-antix". Yet there was no "...sis...." driver sitting in the Modules directory. Puzzling? I think I put 2 & 1.5 together and figured to try out the "sisimedia" driver as THE graphics driver... ....and... - "Viola!",
perfect hi-res graphics!
Then for a more-permanent configuration I decided to include the fix in the massive xorg.conf file I had created
AND IT WORKED!
Then I decided to remove some of the odd tweaks and spurious rubbish from xorg.conf. Turns out I really only needed a simple reference to "sisimedia" as the graphics driver and it would have been done.
When I crowed about my fix back in Antix Forum, the early post (ie the early identical/better solution) was pointed out to me by an upset Forum Member (and I don't blame him), although he was "pleasant" about it (ie pleasant while being upset). Here is the solutio post. Note SamK's solution (Fri Apr 22, 2016 9:42 am), particularly the "sisimdedia" driver reference inside the xorg.conf snippet.
http://antix.freeforums.org/install-...tor-t6339.html
He was absolutely right, and it was so simple. I should have read more deeply into his post (but at the time I was a Newbie, and a "GUI Newbie" at that [ie a "GNu-bie"; pronounced "GuN.ubee"; copyright waived].
Now, after all the mucking around within xorg.conf, and much tweak-trial-booting, I can now claim "Pnewbie" status
[ie "Post-Newbie"; silent "n"; copyright waived
].
Of course, I'll have to try
different stuff on Korora-23 because that has NO existing/current driver. (Umm, I think?) I will have to look at Shadow_7's tip in post 05-07-2016, 08:47 AM...
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...do-4175579001/
which refers to the same SiS graphics-card problem (but, at that time, attacked from another direction - dead monitor)
Korora can wait. I'm exhausted!
Regards,
aka boombaby
