Graphics WERE working, then I had to fix things...
 

OK, I need help. I am running RH9 on my Toshiba A10, and today I am ready to throw the whole thing out the window...

The unit was working well, except that the CD burner was not working. So, I re-configured and re-compiled the kernel (2.4.22). After a few attempts, this did the trick. However, somehow in the process I seem to have lost a certain amount graphics. In particular, things like games and screensavers don't 'flow' anymore, it's now a matter of 'frame-PAUSE-frame-PAUSE-...".

No problem, keep fiddling with the kernel, right? Well, that brings me to the real strange problem.

I was smart enought to not disturb the old 2.4.20-20.9 kernel, and I figured I could just run a diff of the two and (slowly) find the problem. However, when I boot on the old kernel, the new cave-graphics come with it! How is this even possible?!?!? What could I have done to my computer?!?!?

So, if anybody has any idea what went wrong (I'm stumped), and any suggestions for actions to take, I would be eternally greatful!

Thanks in advance.

-t-

The kernels RedHat ship with their distributions are not plain vanilla kernel.org kernels. They are patched and customized quite a bit (or at least they have been over the last five years or so). Two patches that can greatly improve performance are the preempt and lowlatency patches. I find they help quite a lot, mostly with audio and graphics. Try applying the patches to the vanilla 2.4.22 kernel, configure it as you wish (make sure you activate the patches) and try again.

Also check that the framebuffer options are correct for your machine.

Håkan

Well, i was going to do that, except that doesn't take into account how things fail under the 'old' kernel, i.e., if it was (is) a matter of using a patched rehat kernel vs. the plain-jane one from kernel.org, shoudn't things still work when I boot with the 2.4.20-20.9 kernel? If not, some insight as to why would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Thanks

-t-

PS how might I adjust the framebuffer options outside the kernel?

Problem solved.

Curious as to how you solved it. I was just thinking that it might be that u need to recompile the video driver modules... or something to that effect.... how'd you fix it?

Well, for some reason my XF86config file got re-written at the time of the kernel re-compile. How, I'm not sure. However, I did notice that this happened immediately, as I lost my 1024x768 screen.

So, edited the file to allow for that. After much fighting with the damn copmuter, I noticed that it also removed the line:

Load "dri"

from the module section. Again, how this happened is a mystery to me, as the kernel re-compile should not have done this. Oh well, put it back voila--3D accelerated graphics are back.

So, I now can listen to CD's, burn CD's (command line only, still a small bug left here...), and view DVD's on my laptop. Actually, everything works just fine except the softmodem, but that is to be expected.

Not bad for using a distro that is (allegedly) terrible for laptops!

Cheers!

-t-