On Sun, Nov 03, 2002 at 01:37:12PM -0700, Jonathon Jongsma wrote:
> You may remember me asking last week about a graphics problem
> with X-windows.  I have a dell dimension 2300 with an intel 845
> chipset (integrated video).  I was using mandrake, but tried
> red hat 8 to see if that worked any better.  it did work
> slightly better.  I can now get into X with an 800x600
> resolution @ 256 colors.  This isn't acceptable of course, so i
> did some research on the internet.  According to several
> message boards (and intel's website [1]) the solution is to go
> into the bios under Advanced > Video Configuration > Frame
> Buffer Size and change it to 8mb since it defaults to 1mb.
> Then supposedly it will work as it's supposed to.  My problem
> is that there is no 'video configuration' under the advance
> section of the bios settings.  So apparently i can't change the
> frame buffer size without a bios update.  So what are my other
> options?  

You should be able to get your i845 to get a better mode than
8 bit 800x600.  I've got mine running at 16 bit 1280x1024. Could
you send your /etc/X11/XF86Config or (XF86Config-4) file to the
list so that we can take a look at it?  I guess if your version
really defaults to 1MB, you might be stuck, but it is worth a
look anyway.
 
> As i've said several times already, i'm not a hardware expert,
> and i haven't been able to find the right answers on the
> internet.  My question is this:  if i've got integrated video
> on the motherboard, can I still go out and buy an alternate
> video card and use that instead?  Or am I stuck with the i845?
> And if I can use a different video card, how do I tell it to
> use the new card instead of the integrated  video controller?
> do I need to?
 
Yes, you can buy an alternate video card.  Red Hat or Mandrake
might detect it automatically, I am not sure.

-- 
Jim Crumley                  |Twin Cities Linux Users Group Mailing List (TCLUG)
crumley at fields.space.umn.edu |Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota 
Ruthless Debian Zealot       |http://www.mn-linux.org/ 
Never laugh at live dragons  |Dmitry's free,Jon's next? http://faircopyright.org