nVidia GeForce FX 5200

[rab <rab nauticom net>]

I had an older nVidia Vanta video display card that used the nv driver. 
This was the second one - they keep failing (shadow horizontal lines 
when windows are open with text or icons). So I bought an nVidia GeForce 
FX 5200 card at BestBuy for $99 and downloaded the nVidia nvidia driver 
per the earlier discussion in this list. I switched to text mode, 
shutdown, installed the new card in the AGP slot, rebooted, ran the 
installation software (it only took a few seconds) and was able to do 
startx even without changing the XF86Config file. I then went back in to 
this file and added the "load "glx"" in the module section, changed from 
nv to nvidia, and so forth following the directions. The card works, the 
shadow lines are gone.

But I'm wondering if I'm getting all the features of this card. For 
example, how can I tell it's using the 128 mb of memory on the card? 
Everything seems to be installed (checking per the directions). As shown 
below, I haven't actually change the name of the card in the XF86Config 
file. I don't think it makes a difference as long as the correct driver 
is specified. What concerns me is that the probe available in the 
"display" from System Settings returns "vesa" and not "nvidia".

Is there anything else I should be doing?

A related question is how I can add a display that allows for a simple 
VGA 648 x 480 (60/72 Hz progressive) and SVGA 800 x 600 (60 Hz) screens 
that my RCA multimedia progressive scan TV can use (it has two VGA 
inputs, one for an HDTV tuner and the other for a PC). Apparently the 
VGA and SVGA currently output are too high a frequency. I think the 
horizonal sync need to be at 30, not near 45.

Rick B.

> /sbin/lspci
...
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation: Unknown device 
0322 (rev a1)

> cat /etc/X11/XF86Config
...
Section "Module"
       Load  "glx"
#       Load  "GLcore"
       Load  "dbe"
#       Load  "dri"
       Load  "extmod"
       Load  "glx"
       Load  "record"
       Load  "v4l"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
       Identifier  "Keyboard0"
       Driver      "keyboard"
       Option      "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
       Identifier  "Mouse0"
       Driver      "mouse"
       Option      "Device" "/dev/mouse"
       Option      "Protocol" "PS/2"
       Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "off"
       Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
       Identifier   "Generic Monitor that can do 1280x1024 @ 76 Hz"
       VendorName   "Unknown"
       ModelName    "Sony GDM-17SE2T"
       HorizSync    30.0 - 85.0
       VertRefresh  48.0 - 150.0
EndSection

Section "Device"
       Identifier  "nVidia Corporation|Vanta [NV6]"
       Driver      "nvidia"
       BoardName   "NVIDIA GeForce FX (generic)"
       VideoRam    131072
EndSection

Section "Screen"
       Identifier "Screen0"
       Device     "nVidia Corporation|Vanta [NV6]"
       Monitor    "Generic Monitor that can do 1280x1024 @ 76 Hz"
       DefaultDepth     24
       SubSection "Display"
               Depth     32
               Modes    "640x480" "800x600" "1280x1024"
       EndSubSection
       SubSection "Display"
               Depth     24
               Modes    "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" 
"800x600" "640x480"
       EndSubSection
       SubSection "Display"
               Depth     16
               Modes    "800x600" "640x480"
       EndSubSection
       SubSection "Display"
               Depth     8
               Modes    "800x600" "640x480"
       EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
EndSection