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From: hen...@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Harald Henkel)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.help
Subject: I'm disappointed
Date: 4 Jul 1994 07:49:09 GMT
Organization: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
Lines: 69
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <2v8etl$5he@hpsystem1.informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
NNTP-Posting-Host: hphalle2b.informatik.tu-muenchen.de
Originator: hen...@hphalle2b.informatik.tu-muenchen.de
Hi everybody.
I bought the "Deutsche Linux Distribution" (DLD) 2 CD Linux pack and installed it
on my 486/33 with 24 MB RAM on my 2. SCSI HD (400 MB, 300 free).
It took quite a time to chose the right packets by hand, but otherwise I would
have installed too much what I don't need at all - I thought.
But in fact, till now I can"t use anything.
Perhaps Linux (my kernal version is 1.1.12) is a good and fast OS (I don't know),
but the X Window System delivered with it (XFree 2.1.1) surely is not.
Though there are files (modeDB.txt) in where are example values listed for my
video card (Sigma Legend II, once one the fastest ET4000 boards) and my monitor
(NEC 4FG, not the downgrade 4FGe) I haven't been successful in setting up a mode
with 1024x768x256.
I don't have any trouble with that under DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows NT.
Under Windows it the card runs with 76Hz causing a black "shadow" over the top 10
pixel lines because the monitor supports only 75Hz.
On NT card runs with 70 Hz (I think) and no shadow.
On Linux/X I got some configurations where the picture on the monitor was stable
but flickerd too much (I guess it was interlaced, though I haven't set up an
intertlaced mode).
For most values, e.g. those mentioned in modeDB.txt I don't get even that, but
snow on the screen (you can recognise that there is something on the screen
though).
If I try to switch back to one of the other resolutions (800x600 and 640x480)
or quit X into text mode thesnow stays.
Why is it so difficult to set this up properly.
Some of the applications (e.g. games) require the 1024x768.
But that leads me to the next point.
Linux/X is damn slow, at least compared to Windows3.1/WindowsNT3.1 on the same
machine.
I guess it's X's fault, not Linux's (the perfmon, whatever it's called says it
doesn't use the swap space (25MB partition) at all (which seem to be correct,
because I don't realize any HD activity, once an app is loaded -
but for me an OS without a GUI would be uninteresting.
For now I am very, very disappointed with that Linux/X system.
I spent 149 DM for the 2 CDs (about 90$).
I would fairly appreciate it, if someone could help me with my video
configuration or tell me what to do to get the system faster (snappier)
(other than buying a 100 MHz Dual-Pentium board and a 128 Bit video accellerator).
Otherwise I'd throw those CDs in the waste basket, and format the 300 MB to NTFS.
Thanks for any reply,
Harald Henkel,
student of computer science at Technische Universitaet Muenchen (Germany).
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.help
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From: iii...@uk.ac.swan.pyr (Alan Cox)
Subject: Re: I'm disappointed
Message-ID: <1994Jul4.164222.15493@uk.ac.swan.pyr>
Organization: Swansea University College
References: <2v8etl$5he@hpsystem1.informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
Date: Mon, 4 Jul 1994 16:42:22 GMT
Lines: 38
In article <2v8etl$...@hpsystem1.informatik.tu-muenchen.de>
hen...@Informatik.TU-Muenchen.DE (Harald Henkel) writes:
>Perhaps Linux (my kernal version is 1.1.12) is a good and fast OS (I don't know),
>but the X Window System delivered with it (XFree 2.1.1) surely is not.
>
>Though there are files (modeDB.txt) in where are example values listed for my
>video card (Sigma Legend II, once one the fastest ET4000 boards) and my monitor
>(NEC 4FG, not the downgrade 4FGe) I haven't been successful in setting up a mode
>with 1024x768x256.
It took me 3 minutes to set up my trident cards, and about 5 an ET4000 card
I've had no problems with this at all. I can't comment on the rest of the set
up for other cards but Xfree86 on an 8Mb machine is _FAST_.
>On Linux/X I got some configurations where the picture on the monitor was stable
>but flickerd too much (I guess it was interlaced, though I haven't set up an
>intertlaced mode).
This sounds like the modeDB entries were not suitable for your card. Fairly
unusual but you can calculate a new set (see the README files)
>If I try to switch back to one of the other resolutions (800x600 and 640x480)
>or quit X into text mode thesnow stays.
That sounds like the card is incompatible with Xfree86
>Linux/X is damn slow, at least compared to Windows3.1/WindowsNT3.1 on the same
>machine.
Then something is very very wrong or you don't have 8Mb or more memory.
>
>I would fairly appreciate it, if someone could help me with my video
>configuration or tell me what to do to get the system faster (snappier)
>(other than buying a 100 MHz Dual-Pentium board and a 128 Bit video accellerator).
Well even a trident card is fine, any decent video card is about the same as
windows, a few seem faster. You do need 8Mb for X though.
Alan