Hi,

I'm using RH 9.0 on a time m series laptop, i think (ok...its bad!), my gfx card is on board S3 Savage Pro DDR KN266. RH autoprobes the card as s3 KN133...which seems to work but flickers. Have tried the Savage Pro 4 and Savage Generic drivers and using xvidtune but i'm still experiencing flickering

I do not have any info on the h/vsync values of my screen but it is a 15.1in TFT capable of 1400x1050, unfortunately time provides very little information!

I'm using the generic laptop display panel driver and have tried all resolutions.

I hope someone can help this is starting to become a desperate issue.

Thanks.

I am having the same problem too...this card ----> S3 pro savage DDR is the worst piece of shit ever! The fuckin screen flickers in RH because of no hardware accelaration. I have to run in low res and its ugly.

For those of you havin the KM266 chipset (another piece of dog shit)..here's something to save ur energies....

The following distro's just failed:
1)Suse8.2--->kernel panic
2)debian3.0--->kernal panic

Redhat9--> has to be installed with "linux text" option..takes in vesa driver &looks ugly...No sound card detection ( Via AC97)

Slackware9--> installs without properly but without lilo..have to boot with boot cd..takes vesa driver but graphics not as ugly as RH..no hardware acc as usual...no sound card detection as well.


If some noble soul has successfully installed linux on KM266 crap(found none so far) please let me know..here are the details by the way:
1)S3 ProSavageDDR (86c420) Video Adapter
S3 SuperSavageDDR 3D Accelerator

2)Monitor Properties
Monitor Name IBM G78
Monitor ID IBM19E3
Model IBM G78
Manufacture Date Week 41 / 2000
Serial Number 55-B4805
Max. Visible Display Size 32 cm x 24 cm (15.7")
Picture Aspect Ratio 4:3
Horizontal Frequency 30 - 85 kHz
Vertical Frequency 50 - 160 Hz
Maximum Resolution 1280 x 1024
Gamma 2.26
DPMS Mode Support Standby, Suspend, Active-Off

Supported Video Modes
640 x 480 160 Hz
800 x 600 130 Hz
1024 x 768 105 Hz
1152 x 864 90 Hz
1280 x 1024 75 Hz

3)VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio Controller PCI

4)PCI Devices
Bus 0, Device 10, Function 0 Lucent WinModem
Bus 0, Device 11, Function 0 Realtek RTL8139 Fast Ethernet Adapter
Bus 1, Device 0, Function 0 S3 ProSavageDDR (86c420) Video Adapter
Bus 0, Device 17, Function 5 VIA AC'97 Enhanced Audio Controller
Bus 0, Device 16, Function 3 VIA USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller
Bus 0, Device 17, Function 0 VIA VT8233A/VT8235 PCI-ISA Bridge
Bus 0, Device 17, Function 1 VIA VT82C571 IDE Controller
Bus 0, Device 0, Function 0 VIA VT8375 ProSavageDDR KM266 Chipset - System Controller
Bus 0, Device 16, Function 0 VIA VT83C572 PCI-USB Controller
Bus 0, Device 16, Function 1 VIA VT83C572 PCI-USB Controller
Bus 0, Device 16, Function 2 VIA VT83C572 PCI-USB Controller
Bus 0, Device 1, Function 0 VIA VT8633 Apollo Pro266 Chipset - AGP Controller

Try boxing in your screens H and V values, go ahead and give it something really small like 30-60 and 50-90, maybe work outward until you get something functional. Xfree 4.x isn't like those before it and typically its hard to smoke a flatscreen anyway, they'll just not display when the values are out of range.

madslashdotter,

Good info, but could you remember that this site is a bit on the PG-13 side of things, we have a +13 site agreement, not a +18 one and there are quite a few kiddies roaming around... heck, some of them with a 1000 posts.

Cheers,

Finegan

Update::

Looks like there's no support for the S3 ProSavage DDR KM266 in xfree86 4.3 afterall

http://www.xfree86.org/4.3.0/Status29.html#29

Whats funny is Lindows comes preinstalled on computers having this chip( Microtel) selling on walmart. I guess there should be some way to run accelarated graphics without resorting to the vesa driver.

I guess I would rather purchase a decent nvidia card than go thru that mess.

There is...because I'm now using it!

Try using the probos generic savage driver latest version and place the option "UseBios" "Off" in XFree86 config..and for anyone else having problems with 1400x1050 screens on laptops i used 1600x1200 generic laptop display with a resolution of 1400x1050 and everything instantly worked.

*smiles*

ps mandrake 9 also works and autoprobes the card perfectly.

and ps - sorry for the lack of info when i first posted I think that I'll be thinking first next time. It took me 5 days to get this far ..lol Thats what I call persistence...

I also found that setting the:

Options "Use Bios" "Off"

works in the sense that my laptop screen doesn't flicker anymore. This just disables you from having the option of running the s3switch program, which simply means, that you cannot connect a external monitor, projector or anything! You're stuck with you laptop screen, which is a real pain in the a.. if you want to make a presentation!

We simply need a new improved version of XFree with support for the Savage DDR card (and maybe probo... needs to write a new driver).

If anybody out there has a working S3 card on his laptop without being forced to use "UseBios" "Off" then please let us know!

Anders

I read on another board for development of XFree86 that the reason the Savage video board flickers is that for some reason the laptop LCD is being read as an external monitor. Also I read that setting an option UseBios Off causes performance problems...

Personally I will deal with the performance problems rather than the annoying flicker. I felt like I was watching a movie filmed in the 20's.

Hi Box
Hope this is not too late for you.
The best solution is on www.probo.com/timr/savage40.html
There is a section on that page named "downloads"
There are 3 files you have to replace according to the instructions.
My mother board has prosavageDDR KM266 i'm using RH 9.
I took the prosavage_drv.o from xf43sav-27t.tgz
and the other 2 files from xf42savt.tgz
everything works fine withe 1024x768 24b bit color.

some problem here...i installed the probo stuff, but which driver i have to choose now? there is no for km 266....

thx for the UseBios tip, works wunderful now!!

Use the vesa driver. Does fedora have the problem too. Thats a pity coz I was planning to install it.

No it doesn't - I'm happily using Fedora Core 2 with no problems now