Tweaking XFree for 2D cards by hand ?

[Vincent Trouilliez]

> On Wed, Jan 26, 2005 at 02:09:52AM +0100, Vincent Trouilliez wrote:
> > I would like to try switching from the on-board 3D Nvidia video chip, to
> > an old, PCI, Matrox Millenum card, which I guess had no 3D functions
> > whatsoever given it's era ?
> 
> It does have 3D functions, 

Oh yes, you are right. I have just dug out the card and manuals, and it
does mention OpenGL support !! :o)

> but they are eclipsed by your onboard's. 

What do you mean ? Once I have disable the on-board Nvidia chip in the
BIOS, how could it interact with the Matrox card ?? I am confused.
That said, it does raise a problem. I am not sur eI can disable the
on-board ! I think it switches automatically between on-board or AGP !
so if I put a PCI card, it will just think "oh, there is no AGP card, so
I will use the on-board chip instead !".
But maybe it's not really a problem ? If I configure X to use the
Matrox, it will just ignore the on-board eventhough it's enabled ?
Anyway, I will give it a try, see what happens.

> You will be using the "mga" driver, 

Ah, thanks for the info.

> which does support the Millenium 1. 

Ooops, it appears I have a Millenium II, not 1, do I need to load a
different driver then ? "mga2" or something ? (just a shot in the dark
here ! ;-P )

> > I will have to remove the nvidia driver ("nvidia-glx" package), but
> > then, there are a bunch of modules loaded in XF86Config-4, I assume some
> > of them must be removed when not using a 3D card (?), or is it safe to
> > leave them all loaded even if they are not used ?
> 
> It is safe to leave them (to allow them to load); they'll use up a
> negligible amount of memory. 

Okay will leave them then, especially as the card does support OpenGL !

Thanks a lot for the info,

Vince