[vox-tech] Can't get RedHat Enterprise AS to Install (XFree 4.3.0 doesn't support Radeon 9800)

[Mike Simons]

On Fri, Feb 27, 2004 at 07:18:38PM -0800, Jim Lowman wrote:
> I've been attempting to install RH AS 3 on my Dell 8200 after having 
> done some significant upgrades:
[...]
> -- installed an ATI Radeon 9800 XT Pro video card
> 
> I suspect that the 9800 is the problem, since the archives show that 
> usually the bleeding-edge graphics cards aren't supported by Linux.  
[...]
> Linux install barely gets off the ground before I get a black screen.
[...]
> Any idea how long it takes before video cards like the 9800 XT Pro get 
> supported?  I bought that for the "dream machine" that I'm building.
> 
> Any other advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you have a valid license for RHAS 3.0 then you are paying Redhat a lot
of money to support you, and so you should ask them when they plan to add
support for that Video Card into their release RHAS 3.0 release.

RHAS is not designed for desktop use, by even mentioning a video card
it's clear you plan to use the system as a desktop, so I advise using 
some other distribution.

RHAS 3.0 comes with XFree86 4.3.0, which does not support the Radeon
9800.  It's unlikely Redhat will change the X server from one major
version to another in one of there quarterly updates to RHAS 3.  So 
you will probably have to wait a year for RHAS 4 to come out.

Xfree86 4.4.0 does have support for the Radeon 9800 video card...
however it seems that XFree86 recently (Jan 29) decided to change the 
license on the X server to be GPL incompatible.  Depending on how
the various distributions deal with with this it may take a while for
that card to work in most distros.

http://xfree86.org/legal/licenses.html
===
What about GPL-compatibility?

The 1.1 license is not GPL-compatible. To avoid new issues with
application programs that may be licensed under the GPL, the 1.1 licence
is not being applied to client side libraries.
===

  Later,
    Mike