Jump to content

Via Epia MII


Guest harcrow
 Share

Recommended Posts

Guest harcrow

Hello -

 

I have a via epia MII machine with the CLE266 unichrome graphics driver. My goal with this machine was to install linux, boot it from the compact flash, and use it as a media pc. I started with a DSL linux distribution and had to flash my bios in order to get the CF boot to work, but I have done that and that all is fine. The next problem is getting the correct drivers for the via graphics card that I have. I cannot seem to get the source from VIA and to download what I need and get it compiled is somewhat problematic. I have it working, but the graphics are horrible. VIA does provide some pre-built drivers but not for the distribution and version that I am running. So, that leads me here. I need a smaller linux distribution that can boot from a CF card ( ~200 MB ) and can provide support for my graphics card. I did download and burn a liveCD of the Jordaan version and that looks promising. Does anyone here have any experience running this on VIA hardware or boot from a CF card?

 

Thanks

Harry

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Welcome aboard. :)

 

I do have a laptop with the same graphics card and honestly - it sucks. :wall: The only distros that worked quite well with it were Mandriva 2007.0, 2007.1, 2008.0 and Knoppix. All other distros (SUSE, Fedora, DSL, Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS) that I tested were rather problematic. I haven't found a working small linux distro for this laptop yet (Maybe Puppy-linux?). If you find one that works out of the box with the CLE266, let me know.

 

PS: I was more than once tempted to throw that laptop out of the window because of its sucking hardware....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I actually have a desktop with the same basic system.

 

I have NEVER been able to get ANY recent (since 2006) distro of MDV working, nor any of its conversions (MCNL, PCLINUXOS<PENDRIVELINUX etc.)

 

HOWEVER I do have it up and running very nicely with WOLVIX!

 

http://www.wolvix.org/

 

both their cub and hunter version work well. I'm using it as a CAR - PC pasically a really BIG MP3 player.

 

Try it, but I will tell you their download links blow, it took me 3 or 4 attempts to get a good download.

 

J

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The best driver (usually) for VIA chipsets is openchrome. I try quite hard to keep an up to date and well working version of openchrome in the distro. I would recommend 2008 Spring or 2009. If you install 2008 Spring, also install the updated x11-driver-video-openchrome from /main/backports , it should work better in almost all circumstances. The Mandriva tools should automatically use the openchrome driver for the device.

 

As far as I'm aware, Mandriva and Fedora are rather better than most other distros for VIA graphics. Mandriva because I try and keep it up to date and working, and Fedora because one of the developers of the openchrome driver does the Fedora packaging for it. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would recommend 2008 Spring or 2009.

I agree with you that this is the way to do it, if you have the HDD space.

 

However the OP said, “I need a smaller linux distribution that can boot from a CF card ( ~200 MB ) and can provide support for my graphics cardâ€.

 

I don't believe that Mandriva 2008.1 or 2009 will fit in ~200 MB. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi,

I've tried a number of small distros and found that although they try to be small, being small makes it more difficult to have a broad range of support. Epia boards (I've owned about 50 in my life) do have some quirky aspects and normally need to have specially compiled drivers such as openchrome, 3D, XvMC, etc.

 

You could try iMediaLinux from mini-box.com. They do have some free versions as well as a more capable version that they allow access to if you've bought something from them. They have a number of 256MB CF images that can be used exactly like you are wanting. I personally have had this distro working on an Alix 3c3 embedded PC that has a Geode LX 500MHz CPU and 256MB RAM. I've installed it on the 256MB CF as well as an 8GB CF Micro-drive. Works great and have enough applications and support to be useful.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I did remember that there was a special distro just for Epia boards not that long ago called EPIOS. There aren't many live links available but it is still possible to find the ISO for the OS around. You could use this as a starting point and reduce it to the size you need.

 

I recognize that you are looking for CLE266 support and you should be able to find it in EPIOS. The problem with special distros like this are that once hardware advances past the point at which the distro was designed for, the distro will get bigger due to adding support for new devices.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

Ah yes, Geexbox...how could I have forgotten. I've used this before and even got to the point with it that I added FM radio support to the distro which is still part of the baseline.

 

There have been major improvements to Geexbox with recently versions looking really, really slick!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...