Fujitsu Siemens Amilo A7640W

[Sarah1]

Hello. I tried to install Fedora Core 4 on an Amilo A7640W but after pressing enter on the splash screen, it would say loading vmlinuz and loading initrd.img, and then reboot and go back to the splash screen. So the installation doesn't continue - nothing happens beyond loading initrd.img. I tried all sorts of boot options such as linux acpi=off, linux noprobe, linux nofb, etc. None of them worked.

Fedora Core 3 does not have this problem, and neither does SUSE 9.3 Professional, Knoppix, Linspire 4.5 LiveCD, Damn Small Linux, Symphony...

If anybody has any suggestions on how to proceed, I would be grateful.

Thank you for your time.

P.S: Laptop Specs:
Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo A7640W:
AMD Athlon64 3200+
512MB RAM
Graphics: 128 Mb shared
15"XGA Screen

[fsck]

Is this that weird issue where, if you put garbage in the first time "boot:" comes up, it gives and error and then if you hit enter on the second boot: prompt everything works?

[Sarah1]

Your solution worked, thanks!

[fsck]

No problem, this is one of those "easy when you know it" ones.

[thraldur]

Hi, I'm Sarah's brother and we're setting up Fedora Core 4 on her laptop (details above). So far we've managed to install Fedora (thanks fsck) and set up networking - I'm typing this from the laptop. However, we can't seem to get direct rendering working and I'm pretty sure the graphics card is capable of it.

Its an SiS intergrated graphics card. According to the manual its a 128MB shared card. This is what the Hardware Browser says (image link).

glxinfo output:

name of display: :0.0
display: :0  screen: 0
direct rendering: No
server glx vendor string: SGI
server glx version string: 1.2
server glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating,
    GLX_EXT_import_context, GLX_OML_swap_method, GLX_SGI_make_current_read,
    GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
client glx vendor string: SGI
client glx version string: 1.4
client glx extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_MESA_allocate_memory,
    GLX_MESA_swap_control, GLX_MESA_swap_frame_usage, GLX_OML_swap_method,
    GLX_OML_sync_control, GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGI_swap_control,
    GLX_SGI_video_sync, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig,
    GLX_SGIX_pbuffer, GLX_SGIX_visual_select_group
GLX extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, GLX_EXT_import_context,
    GLX_EXT_visual_info, GLX_EXT_visual_rating, GLX_OML_swap_method,
    GLX_SGI_make_current_read, GLX_SGIS_multisample, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
OpenGL vendor string: Mesa project: www.mesa3d.org
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa GLX Indirect
OpenGL version string: 1.2 (1.5 Mesa 6.2.1)
OpenGL extensions:
    GL_ARB_depth_texture, GL_ARB_imaging, GL_ARB_multitexture,
    GL_ARB_point_parameters, GL_ARB_point_sprite, GL_ARB_shadow,
    GL_ARB_shadow_ambient, GL_ARB_texture_border_clamp,
    GL_ARB_texture_cube_map, GL_ARB_texture_env_add,
    GL_ARB_texture_env_combine, GL_ARB_texture_env_crossbar,
    GL_ARB_texture_env_dot3, GL_ARB_texture_mirrored_repeat,
    GL_ARB_transpose_matrix, GL_ARB_window_pos, GL_EXT_abgr, GL_EXT_bgra,
    GL_EXT_blend_color, GL_EXT_blend_func_separate, GL_EXT_blend_logic_op,
    GL_EXT_blend_minmax, GL_EXT_blend_subtract, GL_EXT_clip_volume_hint,
    GL_EXT_copy_texture, GL_EXT_draw_range_elements, GL_EXT_fog_coord,
    GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays, GL_EXT_packed_pixels, GL_EXT_point_parameters,
    GL_EXT_polygon_offset, GL_EXT_rescale_normal, GL_EXT_secondary_color,
    GL_EXT_separate_specular_color, GL_EXT_shadow_funcs,
    GL_EXT_stencil_two_side, GL_EXT_stencil_wrap, GL_EXT_subtexture,
    GL_EXT_texture, GL_EXT_texture3D, GL_EXT_texture_edge_clamp,
    GL_EXT_texture_env_add, GL_EXT_texture_env_combine,
    GL_EXT_texture_env_dot3, GL_EXT_texture_lod_bias, GL_EXT_texture_object,
    GL_EXT_texture_rectangle, GL_EXT_vertex_array, GL_APPLE_packed_pixels,
    GL_ATI_texture_env_combine3, GL_ATI_texture_mirror_once,
    GL_ATIX_texture_env_combine3, GL_IBM_texture_mirrored_repeat,
    GL_INGR_blend_func_separate, GL_MESA_pack_invert, GL_MESA_ycbcr_texture,
    GL_NV_blend_square, GL_NV_point_sprite, GL_NV_texgen_reflection,
    GL_NV_texture_rectangle, GL_SGIS_generate_mipmap,
    GL_SGIS_texture_border_clamp, GL_SGIS_texture_edge_clamp,
    GL_SGIS_texture_lod, GL_SGIX_depth_texture, GL_SGIX_shadow,
    GL_SGIX_shadow_ambient, GL_SUN_multi_draw_arrays
glu version: 1.3
glu extensions:
    GLU_EXT_nurbs_tessellator, GLU_EXT_object_space_tess

   visual  x  bf lv rg d st colorbuffer ax dp st accumbuffer  ms  cav
 id dep cl sp sz l  ci b ro  r  g  b  a bf th cl  r  g  b  a ns b eat
----------------------------------------------------------------------
0x22 24 tc  0 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  0  0 16  0  0  0  0  0  0 0 None
0x23 24 tc  0 24  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  0  0 16  8 16 16 16  0  0 0 None
0x24 24 tc  0 32  0 r  y  .  8  8  8  8  0 16  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 None
0x25 24 tc  0 32  0 r  .  .  8  8  8  8  0 16  8 16 16 16 16  0 0 None

We'd be grateful for any assistence.

[fsck]

I don't know how up to date it is, but this might help.

[thraldur]

Thanks for the link fsck. I tried both binary and source installations, but neither worked - I still get direct rendering: no, so those drivers don't work for me.

[thraldur]

I just noticed something in the faq - apparently, there is no hardware accelerated 3d support for the SiS661/741, which is the one in the laptop (I think).

Q: Do the drivers support my brand-new "SiS Real256" or "Mirage" graphics chipset?
A: There is no "Real256E" graphics chipset. "Real256E" is a code name for the 3D engine of the SiS661/741. The 760 3D engine is called "Ultra256" or "Mirage 2". Hence, the driver supports these chipsets as regards all 2D and video features. As I stated a couple of times, there is no hardware accelerated 3D support for these chipsets.

Does anyone know if 3D will be available for this chipset anytime soon? Otherwise we may just replace it with something else, if thats possible.