I have an SIS315 that is a 256bit AGP 4x VGA card with 64meg that I would like to use in my Linux box. I install it and cant seem to get it configured right. I just get an error message that there is a problem with my configuration and X wont start. I had to put back in my gforce 4meg card and everything is cool. Has anybody used this card successfully with either RedHat 7.3 or Mandrake 8.2?

I don't see your card in the list of supported in either XFree86-4.2 or XFree86-3.3.6 http://xfree86.org/4.2.0/Status30.html#30, is it a very new stuff?

Ya its a fairly new card. Probably 6mos old. I didnt see it in the red hat or mandrake hardware list but was wondering if anybody had used it sucessfully or if there was a driver out there I could install of something.

Go to http://www.winischhofer.net

Hey thanks for the link. I read over the SIS page but Im afraid that most of what was on there is above my head as far as what I would have to do to make it work.

All you need to do is recompile the kernel and put the drivers in the right places before that.
Thats for 3d acceleration.If you just want the thing to work - it should if you do xf86config and then configure all the stuff you got in there - like mouse and keyboard, bla,bla then you get to monitor and after that to graphics.
The grapics driver for sis is somewhere around 470 depending on the version of xfree.
If in doubt just try the 620 driver first. That gives you the newest driver.
You can try the others,too - I don't know that card.
If that doesn't get you anywhere pls. post the output of 'lspci -v'

like I said...over my head. I never even saw linux befire about a week ago and dont even know what compiling is. Im afraid all of my experience is windows and Im not any kind of programmer.

i have a sis 315 and it works fine with slackware9 and here is the device section of my XF86Config file cluck
.
.
.
Section "Device"
Identifier "** SiS (generic) [sis]"
Driver "sis"
#VideoRam 65536
# Option "no_accel"
# Option "fifo_moderate"
# Option "fifo_conserv"
# Option "fifo_aggressive"
# Option "no_BitBlt"
# Option "fast_vram"
# Option "pci_burst_on"
# Option "xaa_benchmark"
# Option "ext_eng_queue"
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection
.
.
.

3d acceleration won't work with the 315 series, the linux sis driver supports DRI only for the 300 series. (I have a laptop with a SiS650 video controller, which is 315 series).

You shouldn't need to recompile your kernel. First things first. Check in /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers to see if you have a file called sis_drv.o in there. If you do, then modify your /etc/X11/XF86config-4 file (you must do this as root) and set Driver to "sis" in the "Device" section. Then startx and you might find it works.

wow...this thread is over a year old. How did this come back up. I gave up on this card a year ago....but thanks

so...i know it's a really old thread, but..is dri ever going to be supported for the 315 series? i too have a laptop with an sis 650 chipset

There's always a chance, but personally I've given up hoping ever to be able to play tuxracer on my notebook.

Thomas Winischhofer doesn't do the SiS DRI stuff, Eric Anholt does. So he's the one to pester about it. http://people.freebsd.org/~anholt/

Well, I sent him a courteous email anyway. He can flame me back if he feels like it.

really you should pester the SiS people? themselves to release full documentation for their 315 series chips, here is thier contact site. begin your email with something nice like
"SiSsies, release full info for the 315 series NOW!" or "WE WANT 3D 4 315!!!"

http://www.sis.com/contact/webmaster.php