Amiga.org
The "Not Quite Amiga but still computer related category" => Amiga Emulation => Topic started by: shaf on April 23, 2012, 11:58:22 PM
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I've been using the Kern204nf2 Amithlon Kernel but have noticed my Nforce 5700 Card is not detected properly and treated as a standard vesa driver. Is there a better Kernel to use for Video card Support, or should I build a custom Kernel?
Specs.
ASUS Nforce2 A7N8X-E Deluxe Motherboard (SATA and Onboard Audio Disabled)
AMD XP2500 CPU
Creative SBlive Audio Card
ASUS v9570 (Nforce FX5700) AGP Video
1 GB RAM
P.S. I've also tried Garys Kernel (310kern) but It doesn't work.
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Damned good question considering I want to combine an Athlon 3000+ with an Nvidia FX5900XT to run Amithlon myself.
Any responses?
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Nvidia GeForce 5200.
Cheap and effective solution.
I use kernel 4 with a Intel 4 based mobo for the note.
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And that's one of the hangups with Amithlon..
I realize it's expected..
But we have people being told, "it works great on your old hardware."
And when someone says, "How do I get this card to work," the answer is virtually always "buy this old card instead."
I've got an AMD / Nividia 5700 based setup that I've considered using Amithlon on, but apparently I need a new "old" video card and a new "old" Ethernet card.
Yeah, I could do that..
But with the Amiga hardware I have now and the emulators working as well as they do, I invariably just end up sticking with Ubuntu on that machine...
It's the age old problem for OSes. To get traction, you need driver support.
But, you're aren't going to get driver support for a small OS...
I'd be tempted to tweak my own kernel (I'm fairly linux aware), but I have no idea if it's not too difficult or if you have to be a serious kernel hacker...
(Adding drivers to a kernel/initrd is easy.. But playing in the kernel can be much more complicated...)
desiv
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Hence the reason life is easier when the OS developer also develops the hardware to run their OS on.
With OS like Amithlon, AROS, or Haiku, I walk into it expecting to have to do research and build a machine that will cOmpliment the OS as perfectly as it can.
If this were classic Amiga and not Amithlon, I'd still have to buy new dedicated hardware.
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Am I reading you right X?
Shaf and I have to downgrade to a 5200 instead of using a 5700 or a 5900?
That stinks.
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I suppose, one of the things that might be nice would be (if possible) a guide on how to add a driver for this??
If we're talking just adding drivers to an initrd or something, I would think it might not be too difficult.
I'd be willing to play around with that... And I'm sure other Linux friendlies would also...
But writing new drivers is outside my scope. And as a software person, buying new "old" hardware isn't that interesting to me.. Unless it's for my actual Amigas.. ;-)
It was my understanding that using Linux for Amithlon was specifically to avoid the driver issue.
So I would assume there's a (not too difficult) way to update this to use more modern Linux drivers?
That would be interesting to me..
desiv
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I just popped another HDD into my Amithlon system and installed Ubuntu 11, I'll install GCC and try to build a new Kernel.
Does anyone have some instructions on Building an Amithlon Kernel there's nothing on the CD?
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Am I reading you right X?
Shaf and I have to downgrade to a 5200 instead of using a 5700 or a 5900?
That stinks.
I have no experience with the 57 or 59 my self, I can only speak for the 5200.
I'd say update to kernel 4, make sure you install boing bag 2, run the Amithlon update (select those packages carefully), and install the kernel 4 driver pack.
If things are still in VESA mode after all that, then yes you'll prolly want to downgrade...
Please get a second and third opinion though. I'm not the most knowledgable person on this subject.
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OK, found this page:
http://www.garycvl.f2s.com/amithlon.html
while looking for info on building a kernel, and right there on that page:
Support for more GeForce FX models (ie, 5700, 5100, etc)
So support looks to have been there for the 3 kernel...
P.S. I've also tried Garys Kernel (310kern) but It doesn't work.
[/COLOR]
Just noticed your P.S. and that you tried Gary's kernel. Interesting, it specifically mentions the 5700.. Maybe the 4 kernel?
Should be in the 4 kernel still----
Nvidia FX series such as the FX5200, 5600, 5700, etc…
Nvidia TNT2, GeForce 256, GeForce 2/2 MX, 3/3 Ti and 4 MX, 4 Ti.
Didn't actually see any kernel source to roll your own or instructions yet...
desiv
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OK, found this page:
http://www.garycvl.f2s.com/amithlon.html
while looking for info on building a kernel, and right there on that page:
NVidia GeForce 5900 NV35 Yes
Cool, thanks for the reference. At least I know I've got hardware support from kernel 3 up.
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With the encouragement from that reference, I decided to up the specs of the system I going to try to run Amithlon on.
Hopefully I'll be able to run Amithlon and AROS on the same system.
Motherboard Asrock AM2NF3-VSTA AM2+ Nforce3 250 based
Processor 2.7 GHz single core Athlon64
Memory 2GB DDR2 800.
Video card Nvidia FX5900XT 128MB
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Good luck, hope it all turns out well!
With the encouragement from that reference, I decided to up the specs of the system I going to try to run Amithlon on.
Hopefully I'll be able to run Amithlon and AROS on the same system.
Motherboard Asrock AM2NF3-VSTA AM2+ Nforce3 250 based
Processor 2.7 GHz single core Athlon64
Memory 2GB DDR2 800.
Video card Nvidia FX5900XT 128MB
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Good luck, hope it all turns out well!
Thanks, I'm probably going to need all the luck I can get with that goal.
But if it works I'll have the equivalent of a 2.7GHz OS3.9 system.
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Technically I have 5 spare machines but I need to find an i7 motherboard in Micro ATX which is supported (no extra PCI cards can be fitted) for a little project.
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From what I can see the Kern310 and Kernel4 builds are for Intel CPU's, there doesn't appear to be any newer Kernels built to support AMD processors.
The last Intel Processor I used was a Pentium II although a few days ago a neighbor threw out a 1.6 GHZ Pentium 4 system which I took to grab a spare IDE HDD for a test build system.
Is there a specific document explaining Xcat usage on the Amithlon Kernel the only commands that appear to work are Xcat /proc/version and xcat/proc/fb, Xcat /proc/modules complains about an old Linux kernel being 2.4.19 and doesn't complete so I can't use pciinsmod to add modules.
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Both kern310 and kernel4 support Intel as well as AMD processors. In linux kernel there is only minimal cpu architecture that was set to be able to execute the kernel, that was PentiumPro, 586 :-) Any newer cpu is supported. I tested kernel4 even on i7, used to work while developing on core2quad 6600, core2duo 8500. I also tested it on amd x2 5600+. Amd 2500, barton core, is definitely supported by kernel4 or by Gary's 310 or any previous kernel.
Regarding supported CPUs there isn't big difference among different kernel versions. Newer kernel has optimisation for some newer processors. Difference is in supported hardware, like chipsets and controllers, kernel4 supports all the new sata controllers. It is based on linux kernel 2.4.37.9, previous versions (not developed by me) on 2.4.19. To use linux drivers, the modules, kernel version should match the modules version (modules have to be compiled for the same kernel version) There will be no complains when you insert the module.