Club 3d Graphics cards Linux compatible?


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Thread: Club 3d Graphics cards Linux compatible?

  1. #1
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    Club 3d Graphics cards Linux compatible?

    Anyone here using club 3D graphics cards with Linux? Are they recomendable? I'm considering a "Club 3D GeForce AGP 7600GS 256MB DVI+TV-Out". I got an XFS NV-GeForce 6200a based card that turned out to not work with Linux, so I want to be 100% sure about the next one and the company are taking their time answering my mail.

    Rock on.

  2. #2
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    How'd you find a GeForce that doesn't work with Linux? There are (closed-source, but working, at least for me) drivers from nvidia for all their cards now, and even the open-source "nv" driver ought to work fairly well with that chipset. (Even though "nv" only supports 2D.)

    But as for the club-3D card, I don't really know...

  3. #3
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    How should I know? I just know it utterly messed up the bootstability of my system, and they said their products officially wasn't supported under Linux. That's all I need to know.

  4. #4
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    Okay, this is a little over my head. I thought that a GeForce card used an nVidia chip, and if that's correct, you should be able to find a proprietary driver at nvidia.com. Most nvidia-based cards should work fine with Linux.

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by arioch
    and they said their products officially wasn't supported under Linux.
    That doesn't mean it doesn't work. All it means is they don't want to support it.

    (Obligatory link to http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/faq/inde...cking#linuxisp while I'm at it -- that addresses ISPs, but the exact same logic holds for hardware vendors. They probably don't have a clue if their product works with Linux or not, and they certainly don't want to "hold users' hands until their problems go away". But that doesn't mean it doesn't work. If you're having issues with nvidia's drivers, there are people here that know a fair bit about them, plus there's always the semi-official forum at nvnews.net.)

    Any nvidia chipset should be supported by nvidia's binary drivers, whether the card manufacturer is "club 3d" or "XFS" or "BFG" (mine).

  6. #6
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    I'm reviving this thread, because the problem persisits with a new card... I've bee running with an old GeForce mx400 in the meantime without any problems

    The new card is a PNY GeForce 6200 AGP8X. When I start the machine from cold, and I pick myself a linux in GRUB, it goes to a very dark grey screen, where it hangs indefinately instead of initiating the boot. If I then restart the machine on the chassisbutton, everything starts normally. Why? I've noticed that on the first boot, the details of the graphics card isn't displayed as the very first info on the screen (before the bios info screen) but on all subsequent boots, it is.

    Why this strange behaviour?

    Bye,

  7. #7
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    I've used several cards with the Gforce chip from many makers. And I've yet to have any problems with them. Just might be 'cockpit' trouble.

    Graphics cards with the Nividia chip is the only graphics cards I use. Very Linux friendly.

    Since AMD's purchase of ATI maybe one of these days... But for now, Nvidia is the only way to go for me.
    Thanks,
    Loopback48

    Debian fanboy. And only Debian.

    http://www.debiantutorials.org/

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by arioch
    When I start the machine from cold, and I pick myself a linux in GRUB,
    So you are getting grub then. That's good, at least...

    it goes to a very dark grey screen, where it hangs indefinately instead of initiating the boot.
    Are you using some random distro graphical bootup thingy? (E.g., I think Ubuntu turns this on with the "quiet" kernel command-line option. I'm pretty sure that descendants of Red Hat use the "rhgb" option.) Also, are you using a framebuffer console? The card may be having problems with the way the kernel tries to change video modes; if you leave it in text mode, it may get farther. (Or it may not. But it's worth a try. )

    I've noticed that on the first boot, the details of the graphics card isn't displayed as the very first info on the screen (before the bios info screen) but on all subsequent boots, it is.
    It may be that the information is getting sent to your screen, but for whatever reason (because it was powered down, for instance) your screen isn't displaying it. My LCD panel takes a few seconds to come out of any kind of low-power state (including the one that it's in when I first turn it on if my video card isn't sending it anything), so your display may be doing something similar.

    It's also possible that the video BIOS isn't working at all on a cold boot, but that seems a bit ... odd.

    Does it make any difference if you change the timing of turning on your computer versus turning on your display? (Try turning the other one on first, for instance, or try shortening or lengthening the time between the button pushes.)

  9. #9
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    For weird problems like this, I always have to throw in that you should have "Plug and Play OS" or "PnP OS" set to OFF in the BIOS.
    Need help in realtime? Visit us at #linuxnewbie on irc.libera.chat

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  10. #10
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    Thanx for responding.

    1) I am using nothing out of the ordinary with the boot process. I just installed the livecd, as it is.

    2) It makes no difference with more time passing between turning on the monitor and the machine.

    Your points taken into the broad perspective: Why wasn't this an issue with the temporary, older card used between the two newer ones?

    I'm using the new mepis 7.0 release...

  11. #11
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    I just remembered there's an issue with older cards not being supported with the latest nvidia drivers. With some cards you have to use the "legacy" drivers.
    http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree8...ppendix-a.html
    Need help in realtime? Visit us at #linuxnewbie on irc.libera.chat

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  12. #12
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    Mine is a GeForce 6 6200. Shouldn't be any issues there...

  13. #13
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    Quote Originally Posted by arioch
    1) I am using nothing out of the ordinary with the boot process. I just installed the livecd, as it is.
    OK... but I'm guessing that did try to use some random graphical bootup thingy. (I don't know for sure, since I've never used Mepis.) But see if you can disable that -- the less you tax the video card at bootup, the farther you may end up getting. Or at least, you might end up getting to a point where you can look around at the system.

    It makes no difference with more time passing between turning on the monitor and the machine.
    How about less time? How about turning on the computer first? Maybe you've tried it already, I'm not sure.

    The reason I bring this up is, when I power on my LCD, if it doesn't get a signal within a few-second window of turning on, it goes into the sleep state that it takes a few seconds to come out of.

    Why wasn't this an issue with the temporary, older card used between the two newer ones?
    No idea, but power saving timings and stuff like that depend a lot on the video card (and also both the power supply and the monitor). Perhaps both the newer cards had a longer delay, or both of them didn't want to work with the framebuffer console.

    Or, perhaps your motherboard is driving them strangely when you ask your motherboard to turn on framebuffer mode? There were lots of issues in the early days of AGP with various motherboard chipsets doing very ugly things with AGP cards. (However, I think if it's something like this, then there would be some kind of known issue with your motherboard. Still, it's possible; have you checked for any kind of BIOS update?)

  14. #14
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    I just learned that mepis 7.0 contains something new called "splashy" that runs at boot time. It causes wierd pixel-anomalies at the top of the screen on the desktop. After removing splashy, I've also had two successfull "cold-boots".

    Let's see if this thing doesn't just work now...

    Amazing what a little "de-bloating" can do for you..

    Thanx for the responses so far, much appreciated.

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