[SOLVED] Voodoo, S3, Rage and other antique graphics card support in modern linux

Kitsep · 07-31-2019, 11:26 PM

I cannot find anything on the web about the current state of support for some of these older cards. I've got a lovely custom gaming computer for old 1995-2003 games, and I'm eyeing a Voodoo 3000 to add to my collection. My question is this: Does -any- modern linux distro still support graphics cards as old as these? And if not, is is realistically possible for a Linux fledgling like myself to recompile the old drivers to work with new distros? I really can't find anything on these cards past 2008 save for some vague anonymous post from 2011 claiming they would no longer be supported in any linux distro due to support being removed from Mesa.

I've got an S3 ViRGE and a Voodoo banshee already, but I do not know if they work and am a bit hesitant to put them in a system. The Voodoo 3000 is pricey, so I would really like to know if it will work before I buy it.

I'm not very skilled in Linux, but I'm willing to put in the effort to learn how and then attempt a recompile for a current version of Linux. Key word: attempt

I currently run 8 operating systems on 8 different SSDs that I swap between at my leisure. 5 are different versions of Windows, 1 is just straight DOS 6.22, and the other two OSs are Fedora WS 30 and Ubuntu 19.10

pan64 · 08-01-2019, 01:17 AM

probably: https://antixlinux.com/

DavidMcCann · 08-01-2019, 10:21 AM

I searched with duckduckgo. The first thing I found was your post but this looks promising:
https://sourceforge.net/directory/os...oodoo+graphics

Kitsep · 08-07-2019, 12:15 AM

I've got my answer. It would seem that no linux past 2.4 had true "support" for the cards, and the few holdouts stopped supporting them in 2010. Any "support" now is just svga passthrough, no hardware acceleration. The only way to get it working would be to write a driver myself, or to just go back to an era-appropriate distro

ondoho · 08-07-2019, 02:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kitsep

or to just go back to an era-appropriate distro

and why not?
Sounds like the best option for such a vintage setup.
Just don't do internet with it.

business_kid · 08-09-2019, 03:02 PM

From a few posts I've followed, it seems that some at least work with linux. I had a nvidia mx400 going on a 32bit legacy nvidia driver until ~2012 at least. Now working is a relative term. It's quite possible that Mesa has dropped them, but mesa has bigger fish to fry these days. Not many of them did very much that mesa can use. X hasn't dropped them Look at this package listing from a recent install cd

Code:

xf86-video-amdgpu-19.0.1-x86_64-1.txz		 xf86-video-mach64-6.9.6-x86_64-1.txz		  xf86-video-sis-20181217_22d3c79-x86_64-1.txz
xf86-video-apm-1.3.0-x86_64-1.txz		 xf86-video-mga-2.0.0-x86_64-1.txz		  xf86-video-sisusb-0.9.7-x86_64-3.txz
xf86-video-ark-0.7.5-x86_64-11.txz		 xf86-video-neomagic-1.3.0-x86_64-1.txz		  xf86-video-tdfx-1.5.0-x86_64-1.txz
xf86-video-ast-1.1.5-x86_64-5.txz		 xf86-video-nouveau-1.0.16-x86_64-1.txz		  xf86-video-tga-1.2.2-x86_64-11.txz
xf86-video-ati-19.0.1-x86_64-1.txz		 xf86-video-nv-2.1.21-x86_64-3.txz		  xf86-video-trident-1.3.8-x86_64-3.txz
xf86-video-chips-1.4.0-x86_64-1.txz		 xf86-video-openchrome-0.6.0-x86_64-3.txz	  xf86-video-tseng-1.2.5-x86_64-11.txz
xf86-video-cirrus-1.5.3-x86_64-5.txz		 xf86-video-r128-6.12.0-x86_64-1.txz		  xf86-video-v4l-0.3.0-x86_64-1.txz
xf86-video-dummy-0.3.8-x86_64-3.txz		 xf86-video-rendition-4.2.7-x86_64-1.txz	  xf86-video-vboxvideo-1.0.0-x86_64-3.txz
xf86-video-glint-1.2.9-x86_64-3.txz		 xf86-video-s3-0.6.5-x86_64-11.txz		  xf86-video-vesa-2.4.0-x86_64-3.txz
xf86-video-i128-1.4.0-x86_64-1.txz		 xf86-video-s3virge-1.11.0-x86_64-1.txz		  xf86-video-vmware-13.3.0-x86_64-2.txz
xf86-video-i740-1.4.0-x86_64-1.txz		 xf86-video-savage-20190128_8579718-x86_64-1.txz  xf86-video-voodoo-1.2.5-x86_64-12.txz
xf86-video-intel-20190301_6afed33b-x86_64-1.txz  xf86-video-siliconmotion-1.7.9-x86_64-3.txz

You'd think they'd talk to one another and unsupported drivers would be dropped. You'll have to try it, I think. If I had to go with one, I'd go for nvidia because they probably support their legacy drivers, whereas AMD do not, if my experience with a 2007 RS690 is anything to go by.