Non-free drivers (Re: Invitation to ubuntu developers)

[Alexandre Strube]

2006/11/30, Tim Schmidt <timschmidt at gmail.com>:

> Meeting new machines is my job, and I haven't met one yet that
> couldn't be convinced to work with a Free driver, at least well enough
> to install and hit the net.


Mine too. And I did. More than once :-)

> For example, I installed Ubuntu on a new machine the other day. Nice
> > spec, had an ATI card. I tried Dapper and the live CD came up with a
> > screen resolution of 640x480... this is on a 19" LCD monitor! Looked
> > awful. Edgy ran at 800x600. Still awful.
> > This was not a config problem, since after checking the config file
> > everything seemed fine. The problem was in the driver refusing to go
> > above 800x600 for that card.
>
> We're talking about Nvidia specifically, and a recent machine failing
> to do anything higher than 800x600 is a configuration problem.  Any
> machine made in the last 10 years, equipped with enough ram for the
> framebuffer, and an appropriate monitor, will do 1024x768 with the
> VESA driver.


No some can't. Specifically some VIA and ATI cards. For VIA I patched the
video driver myself more than once, and for ATI I had to use the binary one.


Sorry, but suggesting VESA is, well, simplistic. There are cards which get
SO slow with vesa (for instance via, when they even work) which we in the
factory consider it non-functional.


-- 
[]
Alexandre Strube
surak at ubuntu.com
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