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Old 13th November 2013
xxERICxx xxERICxx is offline
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Default compatible video cards?

Greetings, Folks.

This is my first post, not only at this forum but also on the subject of OpenBSD.


Quote:
Originally Posted by LeFrettchen View Post
Maybe you could find a radeon video card...

I think your motherboard has some free PCI slots, so something like this :

And this video card is fully supported by OpenBSD

As an OpenBSD (and BSD in general) newcomer, I find this topic to be more elusive than others. Is there perhaps a known database of what video cards (or other hardware) work and which do not? It seems even Radeons have their limitations.

I could be a bit green, but I am having a difficult time trying to get my Radeon HD 4890 (1GB) card working with Gnome 3. When I install gnome 3 with pkg_add it fails to start and after installing a live cd with Gnome 3, it loads using the software rendering.

My point is, how do you know what is "fully supported" ?
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Old 13th November 2013
shep shep is offline
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@xxERICxx
This is drifting off topic but to answer your question you will need to post more information.

OpenBSD Developers put a great deal of effort into keeping documentation current. Because of this, the version of OpenBSD you run is important to post. I would review /usr/local/share/doc/pkg-readmes/gnome. The gnome meta package README-main for current suggests that you could be having several issues like user permission for drm, dbus, memory limits for OpenGl, etc. This readme has undergone several revisions on the way from 5.3 -> 5.4 -> current.

In general you will be well served by reading all of the pkg-readme's.

Last edited by shep; 13th November 2013 at 05:53 PM. Reason: 1)Added recommendation to read all the "readme's" 2) Off topic drift
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Old 13th November 2013
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xxERICxx View Post
My point is, how do you know what is "fully supported" ?
Welcome!

OpenBSD is the smallest of the Unix-like projects, so you will find that there are a number of rough edges which may or may not exist in other similar projects. However, the caliber of development at times exceeds what is found in other similar projects.

One of the shortcomings of this particular project is finding reliable information. The project developers take quality documentation seriously, and thus put significant time into the correctness of the manpages and officially sanctioned FAQ. Newcomers are highly encouraged to study this document carefully.

As for your question about supported hardware, the very best source is to mine the project's mailing lists -- particularly misc@. Many of the project developers & regulars here prefer the http://marc.info reader. The interface is simple & fast. Other mailing list aggregation sites can be found at the following:

http://www.openbsd.org/mail.html

For both political & historical reasons in the OpenBSD world, avoid nVidia at all costs. Studying the mailing list archives will state this again & again.
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Old 13th November 2013
xxERICxx xxERICxx is offline
Real Name: Eric
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Quote:
Originally Posted by shep View Post
@xxERICxx
This is drifting off topic but to answer your question you will need to post more information.

OpenBSD Developers put a great deal of effort into keeping documentation current. Because of this, the version of OpenBSD you run is important to post. I would review /usr/local/share/doc/pkg-readmes/gnome. The gnome meta package (url removed) for current suggests that you could be having several issues like user permission for drm, dbus, memory limits for OpenGl, etc. This readme has undergone several revision on the way from 5.3 -> 5.4 -> current.

In general you will be well served by reading all of the pkg-readme's.

I sincerely apologize for off topic material... however I just wanted to offer a response.

I appreciate all of the hard work that is put into the documentation... in fact I have several files on my desktop for referencing (several times I may add) - currently reading pkg-readmes/gnome, pkg-readmes/dbus & avahi. I have read the initial mail, the afterboot man page (three times and took notes)... every piece of official documentation I could find on X11 both within the OS and OpenBSD's faq pages (which I love). and I have read and took notes on lots of man pages as I move along....

Trying to get it on with OpenBSD is turning me into a serious man page junky. For this reason alone I will not give up easily and will stick with it.

Also I am a subscriber to misc@, www@, and x11@... but I am in observation mode... currently reading the newest edition of Absolute OpenBSD and to be honest, the author has put it in my mind that until I am much more well versed, I should refrain from posting in the mailing lists...

Anyway, sorry for off topic... surly as things move on if I can't get gnome to compile etc, I will maker my own post... after other channels have been exhausted :-)

@ocicat - Thanks for the welcoming :-)
I actually first tried OpenBSD with an nvidia gt430, so I learned super quick that wasn't going to work out... I happened to have an ATI (xfx) 1GB card on deck, so I am using that... running OpenBSD with xfce at the moment - I like to use the desktop while I learn a new system..

Anyway, thanks Gents... back to on topic :-)


Cheers.
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Old 13th November 2013
ocicat ocicat is offline
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This thread has been split from its parent:

http://www.daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=8095

We ask members to stay on topic as established in the initial post of each thread. This helps:
  • others (who may not be as proficient in English...) follow the discussion's development.
  • searching for specific information.
We find that most members spend time at this site searching the archives. Staying on topic helps simplify future searches by others.

Last edited by ocicat; 14th November 2013 at 12:52 AM. Reason: clarity
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Old 13th November 2013
ocicat ocicat is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by xxERICxx View Post
Also I am a subscriber to misc@, www@, and x11@... but I am in observation mode... currently reading the newest edition of Absolute OpenBSD and to be honest, the author has put it in my mind that until I am much more well versed, I should refrain from posting in the mailing lists...
Michael is giving sage advice. The intent of the project's mailing lists is to serve as forums for the developers to discuss issues with each other as well as the community as long as discussion is at the development level, or after significant research has been done. The project's mailing lists does not entitle the public to ask anything they choose -- especially if no research or forethought has been put into the question(s). The purpose of the mailing lists is to benefit the developers, not the community.

Newbie questions have been asked repeatedly on the mailing lists. The developers have seen these over & over again considering them to be nothing more than wasted time. Some developers along with some members of the community have no problem telling posters of ill-conceived or poorly researched questions that they are lazy, did not take time to understand the manpages or other documentation provided by the project, or are just generally clueless. People that repeatedly post poor questions on the mailing lists end up being ignored altogether. Don't post to the project mailing list until the problem has been thoroughly researched & understood.

People who consider this to be an unfriendly behavior do not understand software development. For those who persist in calling this unappealing, consider:
  • Does Linus Torvalds answer beginner questions which have not been researched?
  • If he did, how much work would he get done which really needed to be completed?
Newbie questions are better targetted to either:
  • this site.
  • openbsd-newbies at sfobug.org which is an independent mailing list originally started by a ports maintainer who now is a project developer.
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Old 13th November 2013
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LeFrettchen LeFrettchen is offline
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Hi and bienvenue xxERICxx

Quote:
Originally Posted by xxERICxx View Post
Is there perhaps a known database of what video cards (or other hardware) work and which do not?
ocicat is right : OpenBSD has a great FAQ and man's page.
A pure jewel.

For OpenBSD, the man's page is the best database.
A quick search with the radeon keyword, for example, and you can see that your Radeon HD 4890 is supported...


Quote:
Originally Posted by xxERICxx View Post
When I install gnome 3 with pkg_add it fails to start
And I also think shep is right : seems the trouble is not your video card, but Gnome.
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Last edited by LeFrettchen; 13th November 2013 at 10:42 PM. Reason: Unfinished message & wrong click : save changes instead of preview...
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Old 14th November 2013
daemonfowl daemonfowl is offline
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Quote:
And I also think shep is right : seems the trouble is not your video card, but Gnome.
Very probable .. on Acer Aspire , the last time I had a fully functional gnome was with OpenBSD 5.2 .. with 5.3 it was a half-success ,ie. not all features were available .. (xxERICxx , have you started dbus daemon before launching gnome ?)
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Old 14th November 2013
daemonfowl daemonfowl is offline
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Quote:
regulars here prefer the http://marc.info reader. The interface is simple & fast
Thanks to Perl :-)

Quote:
People who consider this to be an unfriendly behavior do not understand software development. For those who persist in calling this unappealing, consider:

Does Linus Torvalds answer beginner questions which have not been researched?
If he did, how much work would he get done which really needed to be completed?

Newbie questions are better targetted to either:

this site.
openbsd-newbies
As true as puffy !
daemonforums.org , Thanks again for offering us such a nice place !
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Old 14th November 2013
xxERICxx xxERICxx is offline
Real Name: Eric
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Quote:
Michael is giving sage advice. The intent of the project's mailing lists is to serve as forums for the developers to discuss issues with each other as well as the community as long as discussion is at the development level, or after significant research has been done. The project's mailing lists does not entitle the public to ask anything they choose -- especially if no research or forethought has been put into the question(s). The purpose of the mailing lists is to benefit the developers, not the community.
- Understood, and I certainly wasn't contesting that if that is what it seems like. This is why I joined Daemon Forums. :-)

I also definitely understand the irritation that stems from users asking questions before reading the documentation... I used to work for a well known audio plugin developer and saw tech support questions all of the time that were easily answered by reading the site faq or manual.

As far as Gnome goes, it isn't really a matter that I am going to pursue.... I have an iMac and a Mac Pro for all of the desktop stuff anyway... I just like to put a desktop on OpenBSD to mill around on it while I learn the system better. XFCE fits the bill quite nicely. I am much more interested in OpenBSD as a webserver ... i have a few websites that I attend to and my goal is to move them to an OpenBSD vps.

Of course this was a decision made after several months of testing out different distros of Linux etc.... it came down to RH/CentOS or OpenBSD. After using OpenBSD for a month, it was hard to return to CentOS - it wasn't as nicely laid out as OpenBSD... plus what really put the nail in that coffin was the documentation... top notch.

I am certainly no stranger to the OpenBSD documentation... the faq, the man pages in the OS AND on the OpenBSD site etc...

Thank you all.
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