ATI AGP card and Xorg

[John DeStefano]

Robert Storey wrote:
> One thing you could try is editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf and substituting
> "vesa" for "ati". It's not an ideal solution, but the vesa driver often
> works when nothing else will. You might want to take a look at
> /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc/README.ati, and list all video drivers in
> /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/drivers/.
> 
> regards,
> Robert
> 
Thanks Robert... but I did try 'vesa' before posting (2nd & 3rd paras
from bottom of my post below).  I'm sure either 'raden' or 'ati' are
the way to go, I just can't seem to get either one to work.  I also
read through the entire README.ati, and found it a bit of a
frustrating read when trying to look for answers on 'radeon' drivers
for my card... not much relevent info there for the end-user.

> On Thu, 16 Sep 2004 11:10:44 -0400
> John DeStefano <john.destefano at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Trying to take my mind off my server exploit issue...
> >
> > I'm trying to configure an ATI Radeon 9000 64mb AGP video card with
> > Xorg on a FreeBSD5.3beta2 workstation. No matter which config option I
> > choose ('Xorg -configure', 'xorgcfg -textmode', xorgconfig), when I
> > test the generated .conf file, the screen locks up with a bunch of
> > colors and horizontal lines (green on top, blue everywhere else). The
> > mouse cursor moves, but none of the Ctrl+Alt key combos work, and I
> > can't escape the X session or access another virtual console. The
> > "Device" section generated from 'Xorg -configure' is:
> > Section "Device"
> > Identifier "Card0"
> > Driver "ati"
> > VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc"
> > BoardName "Radeon RV250 If [Radeon 9000]"
> > BusID "PCI:3:0:0"
> >
> > Here's any related output I can think of from 'pciconf -lv':
> > agp0 at pci0:0:0: class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x01e010de rev=0xa2
> >
> > hdr=0x00
> > vendor = 'NVIDIA Corporation'
> > device = 'nForce2 AGP Controller'
> > class = bridge
> > subclass = HOST-PCI
> > .
> > .
> > .
> > none9 at pci3:0:0: class=0x030000 card=0x20021002 chip=0x49661002
> > rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
> > vendor = 'ATI Technologies Inc.'
> > device = 'RV250 Radeon 9000/9000 Pro'
> > class = display
> > subclass = VGA
> > none10 at pci3:0:1: class=0x038000 card=0x20031002 chip=0x496e1002
> > rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
> > vendor = 'ATI Technologies Inc.'
> > device = 'RV250 Radeon 9000/9000 Pro - Secondary'
> > class = display
> >
> > I thought it might be an AGP/kernel issue, but when I try 'kldload
> > agp' I get back "File exists", and when I do 'kldstat -n agp' or
> > 'kldunload' I get "No such file".
> >
> > I tried someone else's bare-bones "radeon" conf file, and I got the
> > same problem as always on test: blue/green garbled screen, mouse
> > moves, can't escape out of locked-up X. I then replaced the "radeon"
> > Driver entry with "vesa" in the config. When I tested this, it showed
> > a different garbled screen (grey this time) for a few seconds, then
> > clicked to a "normal" X-Windows screen, but with a black hourglass
> > outline on the sides. I was able to Ctl+Alt+Backspace out of this as
> > normal, and the console didn't report any warnings or errors.
> >
> > I then moved this config file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf and ran 'startx'.
> > It started fine and looked as described above, with an hourglass
> > outline. When I exited X, there were some errors on the console that
> > were probably just from exiting out of X, and this one:
> > xauth: (argv):1: bad display name "my.hostname.com:0" in "remove"
> > command
> >
> > Any ideas on how to get this card working properly?  BTW: I began
> > using FreeBSD5.3beta2 on this machine for its NDIS support for my
> > onboard NIC.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > ~John

Please carbon copy the OP when replying to the list.

Thanks,
~John