*BSD News Article 8481


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From: pmartin@eniac.san.uc.edu (Paul Martin)
Subject: Re: [386BSD] Xfree and Diamond Speedstar 24X
Message-ID: <ByMEIx.E0s@ucunix.san.uc.edu>
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References: <ByM04L.1v0@ucunix.san.uc.edu> <JTSILLA.92Dec1233950@damon.ccs.northeastern.edu>
Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1992 07:08:56 GMT
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In article <JTSILLA.92Dec1233950@damon.ccs.northeastern.edu> jtsilla@damon.ccs.northeastern.edu (James Tsillas) writes:
>
>Paul, the problem is that Xfree86 does not support any Diamond card
>designed after the Diamond Speedstar+. This is due to an unusual policy
>(among SVGA vendors) of Diamond to keep from submitting technical
>details on programming the clock synthesizer without a non-disclosure
>agreement. Since XFree86 is distributed in source form this won't work.
>Until Diamond changes it's policies XFree86 will ignore their products
>and concentrate on other vendor's products for which the source can be
>distributed without any question.

Before I chose the VGA board I did, I read the README file which was
included with the Xfree86 binaries.  The following is from that document:



                         README for XFree86 1.1
                         ----------------------

FEATURES
--------
....
    4) Support for the newer ET4000-based SVGAs which have high clocks and
       reported incorrect clock values with the standard version.  This
       support is automatic and does not require any Xconfig options.
       Note that the Diamond SpeedStar 24 (as opposed to the 24X) is an
                                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
       ET4000 board that is NOT compatible with XFree86.



I took this to imply that the ET-4000 chipset used in the 24x card is
supported.  Why mention the 24X here if it is not?   Why not say 
somewhere in all of the README files that Diamond uses some different
clocking scheme, therefore none of their cards are supported.  Thank you
David Dawes for helping me select the right card to use with xfree86.
Might I suggest that this document be changed to reflect reality? 
-- 
+-----------------[Paul Martin @ eniac on the SAN here at UC]-----------------+
| Internet: pmartin@eniac.san.uc.edu    | "Yes I am serious,                  |
|                                       |  and don't call me Shirley"         |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+