Can't Find SuperProbe

[Peahippo]

I have Slackware 9.0 using Linux kernel 2.4.20. I can't find the SuperProbe program ("

find / -name SuperProbe

" came up negative) that will help identify my video chip characteristics (which I can see so far is an S3 Trio64V+ 1024KB).

Surfing on this topic awhile has brought out the idea that SuperProbe isn't in SW 9.0. The Slackware site package browser certainly can't find it in 8.1 or later distros. (This is rather unfortunate since the Slackware book accompanying the distro clearly references SuperProbe.)

A note on some other chat page referenced xfree86 4.0.1, and that's where I looked. I surfed to xfree86.org and browsed that package ... aaaaand SuperProbe was listed as being inside 4.0.1's Xbin.tgz. Yay! ... but after downloading the ~4MB Xbin.tgz and running an unzipper to extract the files, all I got for my trouble was an ~11MB xbin file.

It could be that SuperProbe is now buried inside the currently-beta versions of the "detect" series of programs, particularly from Mandrake.

I can't seem to find SuperProbe's source code, either.

Help! SuperProbe allegedly will be able to tell me about my video system's RAMDAC and clocking, and I'd like to hand XF86Config all the ammo it needs to get my X configuration right. Yes, this is anal, but I need to know a lot more than Joe Average Linux User if I'm to support Linux.

 

[AP81]

Good luck getting SuperProbe to work...Or XF86Setup for that matter. It isn't worth the hassle.

There isn't that much useful info SuperProbe will give you. If you have all your details of your card, just type:

xf86config

and follow the prompts. If you screw it up, you can continually keep running it until you get it right, or you can cancel when you get to the last step before writing the new XF86Config file.

The important things you really need for setting up your XF86Config in Slackware are:

1. Video Card Chipset
2. Video Card RAM
3. Monitor H-Sync *
4. Monitor V-Sync *

(If you are unsure about your monitor, look at the back, as the H-Sync and V-Sync are usually listed there, otherwise visit the manufacturer's website)

And that's about it. It seems to me you have the info you need, so just run the xf86config utility to get X up and running properly.

 

[Peahippo]

By the way, I finally got a GUI (Window Maker) running in X, hence I do believe I've joined the world of Linux users. There's still a long way to go, however ... I'm typing this on a Win98 system. I must setup PPP and then get Mozilla running.

The SuperProbe issue was disturbing. The Slackware HTML book led me to believe that an S3 video system requires some specified RAMDAC setting, which SuperProbe would have detected. But more than that, using information during the bootup (S3 Trio64V+ 86C765 1024K), I ran through several specific video board options in xf86config's board database: 444, 419 and finally 22. The last one was the generic "S3" X server. The other two gave me generic "vga" ("UNSUPPORTED&quot settings that produced only 1/2 of my X graphic screen, at very low resolution. The S3 server is the one that presented me with various graphic modes and produced the 800x600 resolution that I commonly use with Windows.

Other than that irritation, and finding the sync rates on a 1992 monitor, it is simple enough to run

xf86config

and then

xwmconfig

to get your X server running.