Linux Compatibility: Averatec 3250

[phoronix]

This is an entry for Phoronix LCH. Feel free to comment on the Linux compatibility for the Averatec 3250 in this thread.

Averatec 3250



Description: 12.1" Screen (1024x768), DVD+RW, 802.11 b/g, 80gb, 512mb ram, 1658.723 MHz AMD Athlon XP-M 2200+
Hardware Notes: Via Northbridge Construction (Via VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 audio, Via Unichrome VT8378 KM400/KM400A video, Via Rhine II eth, VIA vt8235 IDE UDMA133 ), Ralink RT2500 WiFi, Synaptics Touchpad, DDR 200-Pin ram,

[RockDoctor]

Distro: Fedora 9 (Rawhide as of May Day, 2008)
Wireless:
using rt2500 driver (not the rt2x00 in the kernel)
Xorg:
Using fbdev driver with xorg-1.4.99.901
Neither the openchrome nor the vesa drivers work

[givemesugarr]

Originally Posted by RockDoctor

Distro: Fedora 9 (Rawhide as of May Day, 2008)
Wireless:
using rt2500 driver (not the rt2x00 in the kernel)
Xorg:
Using fbdev driver with xorg-1.4.99.901
Neither the openchrome nor the vesa drivers work

via xorg drivers are quite bad. you should use the vesa driver instead. they should work well. i've had one similar video chipset and it was really awful. so i've decided to have the pc returned after 2 days i've bought it. anyway with vesa it had worked very well.

[RockDoctor]

As I said, the vesa driver doesn't work for me in the current xorg. Once upon a time, both the vesa and via drivers did work. Such is progress. Anyway, I've had my Averatec 3250 for three years now, and overall, I'm quite pleased with it.

[BucketOfTruth]

Originally Posted by RockDoctor

Distro: Fedora 9 (Rawhide as of May Day, 2008)
Wireless:
using rt2500 driver (not the rt2x00 in the kernel)
Xorg:
Using fbdev driver with xorg-1.4.99.901
Neither the openchrome nor the vesa drivers work

I'm having some difficulty with the Fedora 9 (final release) installer (able to get text-mode installer, but still crashes, generally right after repartitioning). Were there any special boot-time parameters that you had to pass in order to pull this off?

Any pointers much appreciated...

[RockDoctor]

To be honest, I don't recall how I installed F9, but it's likely that it was an upgrade (possibly from F7 or F8, but more likely from a working older rawhide install). One trick that works reasonably well for me on the laptop is to clone an older minimal install then upgrade and add to it. On the other hand, most people dont keep three versions of Fedora, an Ubuntu version or two, and a several frugal installs of Puppy Linux along with the original WinXP on their laptops. I figure that way there will always be at least one wor.king (particularly X and wireless) Linux version at all times