[techtalk] Red Hat 7.0 and video cards

[Caitlyn Martin]

Hi, everyone,

>         I'd take 7.0 back and pick up 6.2 if it were me and I really
>         wanted redhat.  I know the guys at work who use redhat couldn't
>         get X to work with a couple different vid cards and as a result
>         7.0 isn't running on any computer at work.

I ran into the same problem with my Trident 3D Image 975 AGP card, which
again, is a common chipset.  The problem isn't Red Hat 7, though.  It's any
and *all* distributions that use XFree86 4.x.  The support is just not nearly
as good as in 3.3.x.  Mandrake 7.2, for example, will give you exactly the
same problem.  The only solution is to rip out X and install the 3.3.6 RPMs
from the previous version.  This will, of course, break anything that depends
on 4.0.1 or whatever.

>         The cards weren't
>         anything unusual and the person installing has used linux for
>         quite a while and knows his way around.  On the flip side having
>         to work at an installation can teach you a lot.

It can, but this kind of challenge isn't necessarily the best way to learn,
IMHO.  The X people really dropped the ball on this one.  Even MS is
backwards compatible with previous hardware.  Thankfully, there is a
workaround.

>         installations I've done I think maybe Mandrake was about the
>         easiest.

Mandrake has a really good installer, but Caldera OpenLinux is still easier
for the newbie, IMHO.  The thing is, Mandrake is the better distro and give
you a whole lot more in the package.  Nothing you can't add to Caldera later,
mind you, but still...  it's more work to get all the apps you might want
installed in Caldera.  For example, if you want Gnome, you'll need to
download and install it.

Happy New Year to everyone!

All the best,
Caity