• Welcome to OS2World OLD-STATIC-BACKUP Forum.
 

News:

This is an old OS2World backup forum for reference only. IT IS READ ONLY!!!

If you need help with OS/2 - eComStation visit http://www.os2world.com/forum

Main Menu

Gateway Solo 1450 Oh no :(

Started by Saijin_Naib, 2007.11.22, 09:16:50

Previous topic - Next topic

Saijin_Naib

Hello All, I am back home for break and of course am at the sister's laptop with the intent to get rid of my bootleg copy of XP (I had a real copy for it but I lost it before I went to china, had to get SOMETHING there :C ) and put eCS on this baby. Shes getting a macbook (blegh) and no longer wants this oudated, broken power-jack having, broken screen (flops closed/open, flickers, turns off at random) lappy any more. Its fair game for me now :) Hey, beats my Compaq Presario 1240 which is my eCS lappy right now lol!

To the point:
Gateway, in all their infinite glory, released a bios update that I stupidly downloaded and flashed. It made the VESA bios report only 832kb of VRAM to the display driver, limiting me to video modes that only require 1mb to display. So, I can get native (1024x768) resolution and refresh (60hz) but not bit-depth. Bit-depth right now is limited to 8bpp, or 256 color. NOT usuable for me. I have tried both SNAP and Panorama, but both get the improper VRAM from the BIOS, and there is NO way to set it. In windows, its not a problem. The Intel driver simply ignores the number and allocates RAM on the fly. The intel driver for OS/2 simply does not work. I cant even get to the desktop. Balls.

I have researched online and found mostly xFree86 or Fedora Core forum posts related to this, saying download this older BIOS and flash it, then be on your way. I have done that, ad nauseum, but to no effect!
I am running the "working" BIOS right now, but no 24bpp lovings from SNAP or Panorama.

I have network working (RC3 detected right away) and USB, PCMCIA but no sound. This uses the ESS Allegro chipset. Is there a driver for this? Does Uniaud support it?

For PCMCIA cards, I have a Microsoft MN-720 Wireless Adapter. It apparently uses the Broadcom 43xx chipset. How can I get this working so I can have wireless and Hardwire?

In short, I would love to salvage this for my eCS mobile, but if it cant give me sound or proper video, to the trash-heap it must go :(

Thanks guys!

El Vato

Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2007.11.22, 09:16:50
[...]Gateway, in all their infinite glory, released a bios update that I stupidly downloaded and flashed. It made the VESA bios report only 832kb of VRAM to the display driver,
There are some options/parameters in SNAP, check the documentation that comes with the driver.

Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2007.11.22, 09:16:50
[...]
but no sound. This uses the ESS Allegro chipset. Is there a driver for this? Does Uniaud support it?

You may want to visit http://www.esstech.com/techsupp/drivers.shtm#pci and check if your sound card driver matches what is available for PCI sound cards.  If you find a matching driver for your PCI sound card (be careful not to install an ISA alternative), download it into a temporary directory and use your preferred manner to decompress its contents at that location. 

IMPORTANT: before installing any driver with a utility, make sure to make a backup copy of your OS/2 CONFIG.SYS AND label it appropriately (i.e., document your work).  Some days/weeks/months down the road, you may find that you made a change that is preventing a certain other device not to work.

General Instructions to Install MultiMedia Drivers (i.e., not only this specific driver).

Open a command prompt (if not already opened) and change directory to the location where you decompressed the ZIPed file, and type:

MINSTALL

and follow the GUI instructions.
http://www.chingonazo.com/minstall.JPG

Reboot your system and sound should be active.  If not, perform the following procedure:

In your OS/2-eCS select SYSTEM => HARDWARE MANAGER => PROPERTIES => NEXT SYSTEM RESTART ONLY => FULL HARDWARE DETECTION.  That will force OS/2-eCS to detect hardware (that it had not detected/activated before due to the absence of appropriate drivers).

Quote from: Saijin_Naib on 2007.11.22, 09:16:50
For PCMCIA cards, I have a Microsoft MN-720 Wireless Adapter. It apparently uses the Broadcom 43xx chipset. How can I get this working so I can have wireless and Hardwire?
Make an effort to find out --as exact as possible-- the actual hardware in question and then visit the appropriate Broadcom web site.  Post your findings subsequently --if you will.
[...]
Go and have dinner with your sister first --you have a lot of work ahead of you.

BigWarpGuy

ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/wlan/
Here is the site for the wlan software.

There are Broadcom drivers at the Netlabs site; IIRC. I am not sure how up to date they are.
ftp://ftp.netlabs.org/pub/genmac/
There is a Genmac Broadcom driver in this group.

I have a Broadcom card in my Thinkpad T23 but have yet to get it to work. I am checking more drivers to see if it will work with it. I have installed the Genmac Broadcom driver but I am not sure which of the ones listed for Broadcom would work (if any).

Saijin_Naib

#3
Ive tried every .NIF driver that had the word broadcom in it from the GenMAC package, as well as the one that is included with eCS (Broadcom 44xx). None of them work :\

Uniaud (havnt tried rc4) yields no sound, and Scitech does not set a higher bit-depth, no matter what parameters I try.
The driver reports the only modes as 640x480 (8,16,32), 800x600 (8,16,32), 1024x768 (8 ). I dont know how to get around this. Linux (seems to) ignore it, as well as Windows.

Saijin_Naib

#4
GenGRADD fails to boot.
IBM GRAD (830m) fails to boot.
SNAP fails to set native (1024x768x64m)
Panorama fails to set native (1024x768x64m)
Uniaud RC4 reports ESS Allegro 1988 on IRQ 5, no sound

An interesting experience so far. My BIOS states that it has reserved 8MB of VRAM for use, but every driver says that only 832kb have been allocated. ???

Radek

You seem to get a victim of a buggy VESA bios. These buggy bioses are mentioned in the Panorama documentation. Manufacturers pay very little attention to VESA bioses: "Well, they should be there so that they shall but don't want us to lose our (precious) time with them. Anyway, winblows does not use them at all ..."  The result is VESA bios full of bugs, including bugs that should get caught by everyone who makes the most basic tests of the VESA bios code. It is possible that you have got such buggy bios, which reports nonsense instead of the amount of VESA video memory. Note that the BIOS itself can reserve sufficient VRAM, nevertheless, VESA bios (int 10h) can still report nonsense.
If it is the case then everything that uses VESA bios for getting the video memory will fail. SNAP VESA uses it. Panorama uses it as well. Sorry.
Your only chance is getting a bios, which is less buggy than your current one.

Saijin_Naib

I supposedly have that BIOS and have flashed it repeatedly, to no avail. The damn thing still reports the wrong ammount of VRAM. The message Im getting is that I am stuck with this, correct?

Saijin_Naib

Aight guys, thanks for the help thus far, but I called a quits on this issue after the 5th reflash of the BIOS with the "good" image. Gateway got me, and they got me good. I guess this lappy is relegated to Windows only from now on, which isnt so bad I suppose. Just woulda been cool to have an eCS lappy, especially a free one. I was all excited to get an e-ball vinyl/sticker and cover up the logo like all those mac-tards do with the retarded white apple logo. Only, mine would have been cool and unique, not the branding of a sheep.

I save eCS lappy for next time someone has a laptop they want to throw out, and I shall swoop in again and scavenge to my hearts content!

BigWarpGuy

Perhaps you can try again when version 2.0 is released to the general public?  ???  I am hoping to try 2.0 on my Gateway 200S.  8)

Does anyone know when 2.0 will be released to non-software subscribers?  ???

8)

Saijin_Naib

I will try again, but I dont see the point really. Panorama will still get the wrong VRAM ammount from my now buggered VESA BIOS and SNAP still wont support my chipset in anything but VESA mode, inheriting the same issue with the wrong VRAM ammount being reported. I really cant see a solution for this laptop and running eCS at anything other than 640x480x32bpp or 1024x768x8bpp