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(!) Installing RedHat 7.0 and a driver for the Chipset Cirrus CL-GD5436

Answer By Wilf

Hello and Good'ay,
Installing RedHat 7.0 was nothing special though programmes seem to run a bit faster than under RedHat 6.0... but:
Althoug RH 7.0 does recognize the graphics chipset Cirrus CL-GD5436 (on a Compaq Deskpro 2000) it does not provide the correct driver as RH 6.0 does (though after a long and despairing search I found the information that the driver was no longer included in "XF86_SVGA-3.3.6-33.rpm" shipped with RH 7.0). The mouse pointer under X (I use WindowMaker) was displayed as a barrecode found on products, windows overlapped and were redrawn in a rather chaotical and randomly manner. Other Window Managers (KDE or GNOME) did not display it any better.
Falling back to RH 6.0 or coping with this particular problem? I did both, but used some (perhaps not necessary force) to install RH 7.0 all the same.
I first installed RH 7.0 and configured graphics display with default values. After installing and BEFORE calling up a graphical display with "startx" I force-installed the driver from RH 6.0 with:
rpm -i XF86_SVGA-3.3.3.1-49.rpm --force
and -much to my delight and would ya believe it, matey?- all possible mode of graphical displays (640x480, 800x600 and 1024x768, all 16bits colour) now work as expected: very good indeed!
In the event that this procedure could have been done otherwise, I'd appreciate a comment.
Yours Linuxely,
Wilf
P.S. I take it that section "2 cent tips" rather means "2 US ¢ Tips" or are you talking EURO ¢? Mind you, it's just a thought ... ;-)
(!) [Heather] Well, the usage comes from an idiom for "putting in our two cents worth" -- cheerfully offered advice, not always wanted, sometimes useful. So, if you have a local idiom that expresses the same concept but uses a different chunk of change, then you know the exchange rate ;P Our friends in the UK can surely use Tuppence Tips.
Forcing the old series rpm into place in this fashion is just the right thing here. You should be safely able to apply X parts from 6.2 ... XFree86-3.3.6-20.i386.rpm ... as an upgrade (-U) to the 3.3.3 you successfully installed, if you like.

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