[SGVLUG] New kernel 2.6.21 supports my video card

[David Lawyer]

A few weeks ago I read about the 6.21 kernel and installed it on my
Pentium I, 100 MHz.  It's claimed that it now correctly supports the
old S3 video cards like mine (c. 1994).  The module is s3fb (fb =
frame buffer) but it doesn't set itself up to load and I suppose I
should type its name in /etc/modules.

With this, can I use multimedia (movies)?  I can't seem to get my
sound card to work (except on the default irq5 which is no good since
my modem uses irq5 and both modem and sound cards are ISA that don't
share irqs).  I set the jumpers on the sound card to irq=2 but the
driver module resets the irq to 5.  I've filed a bug report and
someone responded and is working on it and asked me for more info on
the problem.

So this is an example of how Linux does, to some degree, support old
hardware, but to use this old hardware one needs to know about irqs,
configuration files, and file bug reports, etc.  I doubt if most
people know the symptoms of an interrupt conflict where the software
doesn't sense the conflict.  Even without interrupts, devices still
work but in a very degraded manner.  For sound, I hear only a word or
two and then it stops => interrupt conflict.

So it's poor people that should be using this old hardware that they
can now get for free I suppose.  But these people are not likely to
know how to get it working.  Is there any solution to this dilemma.
Perhaps. Better documentation.  But who's willing to do it?

			David Lawyer