> Okay. Figure this one out. My family just got a new computer with a Diamond Viper V770 Ultra graphics card (Very nice - built on the NVidia RIVA TNT2 Ultra chipset), and I went about my typical business of installing my OS of choice (Linux). The trouble was, no matter what settings I use for the video mode (short of setting it to standard VGA), whenever I start X it defaults to 320x200x8. This is totally unacceptable - the card can do 2048x1536x32 (my monitor can't, but that's not the issue).
>
> So I sent an e-mail to Diamond's tech support desk asking them if there is an available resource to meake it run properly. Diamond, recently, has been very good about Linux compatibility - all of the cards up through the Viper 550 are supported by the distribution of Linux I'm running (Red Hat 6.0, modified). The response I got - almost a week after I sent the request - was "we do not offer end-user support for Linux." They can't even tell me if there will be drivers available soon? Egad.
>
> So, I guess I have to run in 640x480x8 (standard VGA) until I figure something out. Anyone have any ideas?


I'll assume you've already been to http://www.xfree86.org and seen, in the FAQ, the list of things to do when your video card is not supported by the free version of the X server:

1. Wait until it is supported.
2. Buy a commercial X server.
3. Try using the Mono or VGA16 servers.
4. Trade your card in for one that is supported.
5. Write a driver yourself or find someone you know who is willing and able to do it.

Well, let's see... For #1, you'll have to wait until October when XFree86 v4.0 comes out, and they MAY have support for Diamond Viper 770 chipsets by then. #3 and #4 would be your options of last resort. For #5, version XFree86-3.3.3.1 includes a NVIDIA driver in Open Source format, so with appropriate modifications users are able to compile their own driver (more on that right below).

For option #2, look up the Accelerated-X Server page at http://www.xig.com/. XiG reports being extremely impressed by the Riva TNT2 chipset. Fortunately, they mention that 32 bpp mode on TNT2 *can be* supported by XFree86, and the XiG page lists a contact (Brian Knox) where you could probably find out exactly how to implement the XFree driver for TNT2. In the meantime, you can download a temporary demo of version 5.0.2 Accelerated-X which will work using the appropriate patch (D5000.013) for the v770.

Hope that helps

Wolfspirit

TNT2 update support page is at
http://www.xig.com/Pages/SupportAXupdates.html#Anchor-D5020
underneath Customer Support. (I mention this because, like everything else in Linux support products, it takes a zillion clicks before you get to the place you want to go :)