RadeonHD and A1XEG4

@ Raziel I will try that next time I get a spare moment. I am not a coder so I will check here. semi colon at the start of the line to comment out Yes?
@ Radov I did try the 66 MHz PCi socket just out of curiosity and it doesn't even show up in u-boot, no cursor, nothing.
I will persevere with this, I didn't give up when the cpu went and I certainly wont with this.
@ Hans what would the difference be between the pex 8111 and the 8112? is the latter just an upgraded chip but pin for pin replacement?

@Swisso

Quote:

That won't work. The A1-XE UBoot can't handle a PCI bridge behind a bridge. The 66 MHz PCI port is already behind a PCI-to-PCI bridge, so UBoot simply doesn't detect and initialise the graphics card behind the PCI-to-PCIe bridge when it's plugged into this port.

Quote:

I don't know if it's a pin-compatible replacement. However, it definitely is a better bridge chip.

Hans

@Swisso

Yes, ";" at the front of the line you want to comment out, there are also commented lines already in this file, you will get along

Be sure to also comment out the LAN line (not sure what it is) and check with both commented out in place and go from there

Good luck

@Raziel

I am planning to add a pci to pci bridge to my A1 (Just for the sake of it).

Is there any update or resolution on the issues in this thread?

I haven't had time to have another look at this problem yet , I may have a spare day next week, but at the moment I have too many other commitments. Have not given up on this though.

@busytech

I never tried a pci bridge myself on this hardware, but i doubt it will "solve" the hardware related problems i was describing. I guess i (and everyone else with that kind of flaky hardware) will be stuck with the "normal" Radeons. Sorry

Well, I have now tried my RadeonHD 5450 card and I am getting to the same spot as Swisso.

The kickstart modules load, and then the display stays on that screen with just a flashing cursor to indicate the display has not just frozen up.

I know putting in a RadeonHD to an A1 is not very practical, but I had the spare card doing nothing and purchased the PEX8111 bridge cheaply. The only other expense was the RadeonHD driver, and it is one small way I can support developers.

I will keep at it and hope for some progress.

@busytech

Try disabling DMA on your IDE drives, especially if you're using the onboard IDE port. You'll have to look up what settings in UBoot to adjust.

I used an A1-XE without the DMA fix for initial development of the Radeon HD driver. Not having the fix turned out to be a blessing given the trouble that it causes with graphics cards.

A1-XEs with the DMA fix have the same difficulties using graphics cards (in PCI slots) that micro-A1s have. I know that some people have successfully used Radeon HD cards with these boards, but I can't say exactly what needs to be done. From memory, disabling USB & putting all IDE drives in PIO mode (so no DMA) were the main actions. If that doesn't work, then try disabling networking (e.g., comment out the addnetinterfaces in the startup-sequence), and other devices too.

The people who figured out how to get it working did so a long time ago. The chances are that they've forgotten exactly what they did.

Hans

@Hans

I am using s sii680 card and have deactivated the internal ide ports, but I will try PIO mode on the sii680.

I am actually thinking of looking for a Sam460 or maybe a X1000 and then selling on the A1-XE.