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Re: [LUG] Install Screen Res

 

Terry Hill wrote:
Nvidia cards lie about the refresh rate they are using, i seem to recall.

I noticed this before i swapped the Nvidia 5200FX in this machine for
a ATI Radeon 6800SE: the refresh rate in the Gnome screen res applet
was completely different to what the NVidia-settings applet said.

Have you trid interrupting the ubuntu install at the grub prompt (hit
any key when it says 'Automatic boot in x seconds' and choosing
compatibility mode there? It was the only way I could install Mint on
my laptop. It then uses the VESA driver and a standard 800x600 res
instead of trying to guess what the monitor can handle (NVidias on
linux also seem very bad at reading EDID data in my experience)

I mentioned this in my first post at the top - yes I tried many things
to get the install underway, including compatability mode.

It turns out there seems to be a problem specific to Karmic in
conjunction with my specific card.

A question springs to mind though:

In the future, as I have to replace parts in my machines, I'd like to
go for manufacturers that are "pro linux" - eg that support linux by
providing drivers and tech support for linux systems.  Are there any
manufacturers that satisfy this requirement?  I'm talking about
graphics cards, comms gear, printers, scanners etc - eg where it
counts.  Also, I'm not looking for a list of old hardware that lists
compatability with this or that version of linux.  I'm thinking about
who the "good guys" are - if indeed - they exist.
Well as far as graphics go, I'd say probably Intel are about the best for out of the box compatibility on newer stuff. ATI have released a whole load of documentation to the community although as far as I understand it, the newest cards aren't supported that well at the moment unless you use the proprietary driver and on some of the older cards, the proprietary drivers won't work. NVidia on the other hand don't really do much to help the community, but they do have drivers for pretty much all their cards going back to the TNT2.

Bit hit and miss really. Saying that, I have an ATI Radeon X800 which IIRC is reasonably well supported with FLOSS drivers, although you'd probably be looking at eBay for a card like that now.

Rob


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