Hendricks David W. wrote:
That's a graphics chip, correct? Unfortunately, we're still working on initializing VGA BIOSes (Particularly on GeForce cards).
Come to find out, it is a graphics chip (I don't know hardware very well, so please bear with me :-) )
I also know very little in the way of LinuxBIOS and how it works. It is disheartening to hear GeForce cards aren't supported as of yet.
However, there are some boards which have VGA working in LinuxBIOS, like the VIA EPIA mini-itx board with an integrated graphics controller.
I believe our resellers sell some PC's with this installed, so that is good to hear.
I haven't tried booting KDE with it yet, but I imagine the BIOS and kernel could load at least as fast as KDE itself.
As for your Intel 82845G/GL, could you please post lspci output?
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL [Brookdale-G] Chipset Host Bridge (rev 03) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82845G/GL [Brookdale-G] Chipset AGP Bridge (rev 03) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #1) (rev 02) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #2) (rev 02) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB (Hub #3) (rev 02) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB USB EHCI Controller (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801BA/CA/DB PCI Bridge (rev 82) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DB ISA Bridge (LPC) (rev 02) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DB ICH4 IDE (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB SMBus (rev 02) 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB AC'97 Audio (rev 02) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV11 [GeForce2 MX/MX 400] (rev b2) 02:0d.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
As I recall, the 82845 is on the i845 chipset,
How would I verify this?
uses the 82801DB PCI controller and the e7501 (ICH4) memory controller hub.
You know your hardware don't you? :-)
Eric Beiderman got that chipset, or at least a very similar one, working with the Supermicro X5DPR in the freebios1 tree (I don't think it's in freebios2 yet). I can't say you'll get VGA output without some serious hacking around, but you should at least be able to boot it, get some serial output, and SSH in if all goes well and your kernel boots.
:-( Looks like I'll just have to track down a box with the VIA EPIA mini-itx board you referred to.
By the way, and I hate to get off-topic, how is Micheal doing in Europe? I've read about the lawsuits on The Register, but they don't seem to have a very positive outlook :(
Unfortunately, I'm not permitted to discuss that, but you can read about them as they happen on ChoicePC.com.
Many thanks for the prompt and helpful reply.
-Brian