# Some important video problems (S3)



## Vladimir1922 (Oct 15, 2012)

Hi there. 
I am struggling with the installation of FreeBSD 9 on a very old laptop (Thinkpad T22). It has a s3 videocard, which is not supported in FreeBSD, so I tried to use the vesa driver. The problem is that after switching to a virtual console, it will freeze the computer (this happened in Linux too, so my bet is for a problem in xorg), the new thing is that after the first "freeze", it won't work anymore, unless I reinstall xorg. As this was annoying, I decided for a non-X install, using the framebuffer (like browsing the web using links -g). However, when jumping to "framebuffer", I have tha same problem: A black screen, and a totally frozen system. As far  as my limited knowledge tell me, I am using Vesa, not exactly any S3 driver, so how this is happening? Is there any chance of using at least Framebuffer or Svga (svga won' t freeze, but is not working neither)

Thanks in advance


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## SirDice (Oct 15, 2012)

Try x11-drivers/xf86-video-s3 or x11-drivers/xf86-video-s3virge.


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## Vladimir1922 (Oct 15, 2012)

Well, that is important :\ I didn't found drivers for the S3, and had read on an old post that the support was broken. I may find the same freezing problem if I go to a console, and no fix to the framebuffer thingie, but if I can at least watch videos and pictures, I'll be happy. 

I am going to cheat and use pkgpg, and post the results


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## Vladimir1922 (Oct 15, 2012)

SirDice said:
			
		

> Try x11-drivers/xf86-video-s3 or x11-drivers/xf86-video-s3virge.



It worked!... halfway

It still freezes the computer when switching to a virtual console. Actually this is a problem, because when I do "poweroff", or press the power button, it kills X, and goes to the console... So it will freeze the poor laptop, and I have to "force" shutdown it by keeping the power button pressed, which I don't think is very good. At least I have to read every time I boot a "system not correctly unmounted" warning. I think this is xorg fault, more than FreeBSD, as Linux with different kernels did the same to me.


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## freethread (Oct 15, 2012)

Try to set both console and xorg color depth at 16bit or at least the same value. At some high video resolutions the 24/32 color depth cannot be set, not enough video ram, maybe.


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## Vladimir1922 (Oct 15, 2012)

freethread said:
			
		

> Try to set both console and xorg color depth at 16bit or at least the same value. At some high video resolutions the 24/32 color depth cannot be set, not enough video ram, maybe.



Thank you for the answer. I already tried to set both at 16 bits, I tred also with 8, but it won't accept anything less, and it crashes the same. I also tried to desactivate the VESA module, but there is the same result... My video card has 8mb of RAM

As an alternative, there is some way i can fix it, or at least shut down my computer without hanging it? (like some way of umounting the root filesistem, which i recon will hang it too, but would be less risky)


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