My notebook has a VIA VN896 video card and it have brought me a lot of problems. First of all, I can't run a Live CD more recent than Feisty, the X session simply doesn't start. OK, I have to use the alternate CD to install the system, not really a problem. For Gutsy, I had to install the system with 800x600 resolution, or again the graphical session didn't initiate. There is an open source video driver for Linux called OpenChrome, created to support 2D application for many VIA cards, because VIA itself didn't support Linux at all!! Hopefully this is going to change, VIA announced a web portal for Linux and released a driver for some video cards. After installing the driver came the battle against xorg.conf file in order to configure my driver. After a few tries and a few system reinstalls I got my system working. Terrible...
But today I reinstalled Hardy (was having some freezes with newer kernels) and for my surprise after installing the system with the alternate CD (didn't tried the Live CD, might have worked) my display worked fine with the default Vesa driver. 1280x800 resolution running nice... Then when I was searching for the OpenChrome driver to install it I found a script that automates all the process, really cool! And it worked nice and smooth, really easy to use!!
First of all download the script in the original Ubuntu Forums topic HERE. Then type:
$ sudo sh /where_you_put_the_file/openchrome_stable.sh
Answer the questions on screen. After the process is finished type to test:
$ grep openchrome /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(II) LoadModule: "openchrome"
To test 3D rendering (didn't work for me, I think it is because of my card) type:
$ glxinfo | grep render
direct rendering: Yes
OpenGL renderer string: Mesa DRI UniChrome 20060710 x86/MMX/SSE2
The author of the script says 3D rendering might cause instability on some systems.
UbuntuForums topic
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