Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum

Main => Monitor/Video Forum => Topic started by: Zapper on October 10, 2003, 12:30:43 am

Title: Linux on a U3100?
Post by: Zapper on October 10, 2003, 12:30:43 am

Has anyone had success running Linux on a Wells-Gardner U3100? I tried SuSE with one once but couldn't get it working. My brother keeps bugging me to try Red Hat and XMAME.

Title: Re:Linux on a U3100?
Post by: JoeB on October 10, 2003, 10:17:31 am

When it comes to arcade monitors, the important thing is not the OS/software, but rather the actual video card.

The video card is the thing that converts the digital input (PC draw-to-screen comands) to analog output (cable going to your PC monitor or in this case Arcade monitor)

So you need to make sure you use a video card that can output 15kHZ and has linux drivers.

Title: Re:Linux on a U3100?
Post by: Zapper on October 10, 2003, 06:29:18 pm

Here's a link to the U3100 info, this model supports VGA/SVGA. Windows 98 runs on it at 640x480 and 800x600 without a problem. My attempt with Linux displayed just fine while booting but when the gui loads it turned into a mess.

Wells-Gardner U3100 (http://www.wellsgardner.com/wellsgardner31/finditem.cfm?itemid=687)

Title: Re:Linux on a U3100?
Post by: IceCold on October 11, 2003, 04:45:36 pm

Quote from: Zapper on October 10, 2003, 06:29:18 pm

Here's a link to the U3100 info, this model supports VGA/SVGA. Windows 98 runs on it at 640x480 and 800x600 without a problem. My attempt with Linux displayed just fine while booting but when the gui loads it turned into a mess.

Wells-Gardner U3100 (http://www.wellsgardner.com/wellsgardner31/finditem.cfm?itemid=687)

My guess would be the gui is trying to run at too high of a resolution, but I really don't know.  Sorry I can't help you.

Title: Re:Linux on a U3100?
Post by: OSCAR on October 11, 2003, 04:56:28 pm

Did you try booting SuSE without starting X, runlevel 2/3 I think?  If it runs fine in non-gui mode, then you should be able to run the SaX2 configuration utility to test X resolutions/graphical modes to figure out if the default resolution is too high like IceCold mentioned.  I think "ctrl" + "alt" + num pad "+" changes the resolution to the next one in your XF86Config file, but I'm not 100% positive.  I'm getting rusty with this stuff since I put SuSE on my Dell laptop.  It installed so perfectly that I didn't have to screw around with things to make them work right (unusual, I know!).

Title: Re:Linux on a U3100?
Post by: Zapper on October 11, 2003, 10:38:45 pm

Thanks for the info. I tried Red Hat 9 and it fixed the problem, monitor settings were much easier than in SuSE (at least for a Linux noob like myself). Now I'll give XMAME a try.