David Webb wrote:
> Also are there drivers for the
> VIA CX700M2 graphics chip which is a key component. The total price comes
> out around £500 (without a blueray writer) which is a bit on the high side.
> Brief summaries:
>
> John Wesley, Hardware + Mythbuntu: £425
> processor: Via C7
> memory: 1 Gb
> Hard Drive: 1.5 Tb
> Optical drive: None
> Graphics: VIA UniChromeTM Pro II 3D/2D AGP
My experience with Via graphics under Linux is pretty poor. I have an HP
Mininote 2133 which uses a Via Chrome 9 HC graphics chip:
http://blog.adamsweet.org/?p=326
There are essentially 3 drivers, 2 from Via themselves, one of which is
open source, the other is proprietary and then there is the 3rd party
open source OpenChrome driver which is default in Ubuntu and I would
imagine most other distributions.
http://www.openchrome.org/
I can't say that the OpenChrome drivers for the 2 chips perform the same
since I've not used any other Chrome chips, but video playback is choppy
at best on the Chrome9 (though no doubt it is more of a cut down
graphics chip), however a Dell Mini 9 using the whatever graphics chip
was stock on that generation (Intel GMA 950?) of Atom motherboards was
fine until you full-screened the video. Comparing apples and oranges of
course. Discussion of Via drivers:
http://www.openchrome.org/trac/wiki/About
In particular applications which require MPEG2 and MPEG4 acceleration
must run as root with the Via drivers and they're full of security
holes. I'm told by another Wolves LUG member, that in general Via
drivers are generally horrific and not much better in terms of
functionality than the OpenChrome ones. And of course Via lag several
months behind distribution releases and only support targeted
distributions (Ubuntu, SLED). Currently the last Ubuntu release was in
December for 8.10.
Of course I did email them to explain that they should participate in
kernel development cycles or at least synchronise with distribution
release cycles and they ignored me. I really like the Mininote, but the
graphics drivers are a real let down.
Without some research beforehand, I'd be very reluctant to use any Via
graphics chips in what is essentially a video specific application. I'd
be interested to hear others' experience of Via Chrome graphics chips if
I'm wrong.
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