Savage

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Savage is a video chipset that was manufactured by S3 and VIA. This driver supports Savage, ProSavage and Twister chipsets.

Xorg driver

Installation

If you have Xorg installed you only need to install xf86-video-savage^AUR from the AUR.

Configuration

Create a configuration file in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ named 99-savage.conf (or a name you prefer) with the following content:

Section "Device"
        Identifier	"gfxcard"
        Driver		"savage"
# You will likely have to use NoAccel.  You can try EXA, but it's likely you will end up
# with a corrupted screen or a hard lockup.
        Option		"NoAccel" "True"
# Use ShadowFB instead of acceleration.  It's unlikely that acceleration will provide
# any benefits on this ancient chipset anyway.
        Option		"ShadowFB" "Enable"
# The following two options might or might not improve performance.  Remove the "#" to
# try using them:
#       Option		"NoPciBurst" "Enable"
#       Option		"FramebufferWC"
# If Xorg crashes on startup (hangs with black screen) you may try out the following 
# two lines (by removing the "#" before the line):
#       Option		"NoDDC"
# The 1024 in UseTiming is for a Notebook with a native resolution of 1024x768 pixel.
# If you have a native resolution of 800x600 pixel you should use "UseTiming800" instead.
#       Option		"UseTiming1024"
# EXA might or might not work.  It's likely that it will not, but if you want to try it,
# uncomment the following line and comment out the "NoAccel" option:
#       Option         "AccelMethod" "EXA"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
        Identifier	"Screen 0"
        Device		"gfxcard"
        Monitor		"Monitor 0"
# You can try setting DefaultDepth to 24, but many Savage cards only have 8MB of RAM
# and may not be able to achieve higher resolutions with 24-bit color.
        DefaultDepth	16
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
        Identifier	"Monitor 0"
        Option		"DPMS" "Disable"
EndSection

This decade-old chipset has little support and is likely better off without acceleration. I included a few commented-out options which might improve speed, but this configuration is likely to work as-is with any supported Savage chip. It was tested using a Savage/IX.

Framebuffer handling

Unfortunately, there is no framebuffer driver for the Savage chipset. Your best bet is to set the framebuffer video mode by the vga kernel parameter. For example, put vga = 0x314 at the end of your parameters for an 800x600 framebuffer, or vga = 0x317 for a 1024x768 framebuffer.