Joey's ATI Rage 128 Guide
Created on December 27th, 1999.

Please note that as of XFree86 3.3.6, ATI-RAGE 128 cards are supported. This guide is obsolete if you are using XFree86 3.3.6 or higher.

Setting up an ATI Rage 128 based card is pretty simple. First you need to install the FBDev X server.

Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 (potato)
For Debian GNU/Linux 2.2 users (I haven't tested this on 2.1), once connected to the net, simply type:

[root@localhost]# apt-get update
Hit ftp://ftp.debian.org unstable/main Packages
Hit ftp://ftp.debian.org unstable/main Release
Hit ftp://ftp.debian.org unstable/contrib Packages
Hit ftp://ftp.debian.org unstable/contrib Release
Hit ftp://ftp.debian.org unstable/non-free Packages
Hit ftp://ftp.debian.org unstable/non-free Release
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done

This will update the package listing. Next run apt-get install xserver-fbdev and select Y to the "Do you want to make FBDev the default instead? (y/n) [n]" Question.

[root@localhost]# apt-get install xserver-fbdev
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  xserver-fbdev
0 packages upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B/826kB of archives. After unpacking 1951kB will be used.
Selecting previously deselected package xserver-fbdev.
(Reading database ... 19848 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking xserver-fbdev (from .../xserver-fbdev_3.3.5-2_i386.deb) ...
Setting up xserver-fbdev (3.3.5-2) ...
Current default X server /usr/bin/X11/XF86_SVGA found.
Do you want to make FBDev the default instead? (y/n) [n] Y

The FBDev X server is now the default.

Red Hat Linux 6.0
Red Hat Linux 6.0 users need to install XFree86-FBDev-3.3.3.1-49.i386.rpm You can find this either on ftp://rufus.w3.org/linux/redhat/redhat-6.0/i386/RedHat/RPMS/ or on your Red Hat Linux 6.0 CDROM in the RedHat/RPMS directory.

Red Hat Linux 6.1
Red Hat Linux 6.1 users need to install XFree86-FBDev-3.3.5-3.i386.rpm from either ftp://rufus.w3.org/linux/redhat/redhat-6.1/i386/RedHat/RPMS or from your Red Hat Linux 6.0 CDROM in the RedHat/RPMS directory.

Red Hat Framebuffer Installation

Once you have located or downloaded the right file, install it by running the following command:

[root@localhost]# rpm -Uvh XFree86-FBDev*.rpm

XFree86-FBDev         ################################

For other distributions, see your Updates section of the distributions FTP site or visit XFree86.org

Framebuffer Device

Check to see if you have the Framebuffer device in /dev. Do this by running:

[root@localhost]# ls -l /dev/fb0

crw-rw-r--    1 root     root      29,   0 Dec 27 10:02 /dev/fb0

If you have it, you will see something like the above. Skip to the next section. If you don't have it, you will have to create it by running the following command:

[root@localhost]# mknod /dev/fb0 c 29 0

Setting up Lilo

After all of that is done, you will have to edit lilo.conf which is located in the /etc directory. Your lilo.conf file will look something like this:

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.13
        label=Debian
        root=/dev/hda8
        read-only
other=/dev/hda1
        label=win
        table=/dev/hda

You will want to add the line vga=0x317 under the read-only section for the linux kernel. The 0x317 is the mode number for 16bpp at 1024x768 resolution. Depending on your setup, the mode number will vary. For more modes numbers and detailed information, see the Framebuffer-HOWTO. Back to the topic, your lilo.conf, once edited will look something like this:

boot=/dev/hda
map=/boot/map
install=/boot/boot.b
prompt
timeout=50
image=/boot/vmlinuz-2.2.13
        label=Debian
        root=/dev/hda8
        read-only
	vga=0x317
other=/dev/hda1
        label=win
        table=/dev/hda

Once that is done, make sure you save it and run the following command to make the changes take place.

[root@localhost]# /sbin/lilo -v

Now you must reboot your system for the changes to lilo to take effect. Once your system boots up and you log in as root, you must execute the following commands.

Configuring X

The next step is to configure X so you will be able to use the FBDev server. Open up /etc/X11/XF86Config and find the section that has all the "Section "Screen" entries. Add the following:

Section "Screen"
   Driver          "FBDev"
   Device          "My Video Card"
   Monitor         "My Monitor"
   SubSection "Display"
      Depth        16
      Modes        "default"
   EndSubSection
EndSection

Once that is done, save and exit the file.

Red Hat Linux users

For Red Hat Linux users, do the following:

[root@localhost]# rm /etc/X11/X

[root@localhost]# ln -s /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_FBDev /etc/X11/X

Debian GNU/Linux users

For Debian GNU/Linux Users, when you installed the xserver-fbdev, it asked you if you would like to make it the default server. If you choose yes like we said then you don't have to do anything here. If for some reason you choose no, go into /etc/X11 and first back up the Xserver file by running "cp Xserver Xserver-backup". Next open up the Xserver file with an editor and in that file, you need to change the first line. It might look something like this:

/usr/bin/X11/XF86_SVGA

/usr/bin/X11/XF86_FBDev

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