Cheap Hardware is So Fun

[az]

It's called a divorce, and can save your life/sanity.

But she's better than Ubuntu! Anyway, it's fun to solder back the bits she knocked off while cleaning ("my corner")...

[supenguin]

It's called a divorce, and can save your life/sanity.

Here's the solution my wife and I came up with. She's a graphic designer/artist and had her art stuff here and there all over the house. I had a bunch of computer stuff. We designated a room "her room" and another room "my room". When we're cleaning, any of her stuff goes in her room, any of my stuff goes in my room. Other than that we don't mess with each other's stuff. That solved a ton of problems.

We had also got into high level discussions about me spending too much on computer stuff, and her spending too much on stuff for the house. Solution to that: a budget. Actually, more like we each get an allowance to spend on whatever we want. No questions asked. She can use her money on paint or whatever, and I can use mine for that 17 inch monitor I bought. That has worked out great so far.

[N'Jal]

Ok i bet i can beat most stories, since all the parts were free , everything seems to work apart from the graphics card, gnome don't support it. I even went as far as trying to install gentoo so i could compile the card in but alas after an all day install gentoo didn't recognize the card. So this PC once we get another free card will be running hoary.

CPU, PII Im sure
RAM: At least 300 MB SD though
Hard drive: 2 X 8GB
Video card: Something known as an S3, but that wont be there for long
DVD-ROM
300W PSU

So it's not a bad little PC considering it's totally free to build, the plan is to install Ubuntu and then sell the desktop with a free copy of hoary on CD (since we can't charge for ubuntu). Selby will soon have a spurt of Linux desktops for sale.

[jdong]

(since we can't charge for ubuntu)

Says who?

If you take the time to bring it up-to-date, do some tweaks, etc etc etc, I think that deserves at least an extra $20 worth of value for the OS.

[WildTangent]

Video card: Something known as an S3, but that wont be there for long

i have one of those from my first computer (1997) and it still works great. i still use it to this day in my windows computer for my third monitor. i aquired a similar one (same manufacturer, different model) from around the same time period, it works great as well, ive tested both of them with Ubuntu, and a couple other distros so i dont see how gnome doesnt support it

-Wild

[aragorn2909]

A buddy of mine needed something after his seperation, so I threw together an old amd k/6 500, 128 ram, 5 gb hd. (K)Ubuntu up and running (sort of) nicely. But seriously, it serves its purpose

[N'Jal]

Um can you help me with that graphics card then?

It's an S3 Vision 968 PCI card, there is an AGP slot but i belive i have diabled it. Might have to check that then, if you can help me PM me please.

[AgenT]

Um can you help me with that graphics card then?

It's an S3 Vision 968 PCI card, there is an AGP slot but i belive i have diabled it. Might have to check that then, if you can help me PM me please.

Just so you know, the key to getting it to work is not GNOME, but instead you have to make sure that:
1) the hardware itself works (it's not broken)
2) it's okay with the kernel (kernel modules, etc.)
3) x.org is configured properly to use it

GNOME (and other DE's) have nothing to say about what card you use (although they do provide some configuration utilities that edit X config files). If xorg will work, GNOME will too since it uses your X system (xorg).

And just so you know, searching google came up with confirmation that your card works. Also, "S3 Vision 968" is the chip, not the card. Maybe your card is a "Diamond Stealth"?

Some quick searching around brought up these links. Check them out as they may be helpful:
Link1
Link2
Link3

Although to tell you the truth, you are more or less wasting your time trying to get it working. You are better off just researching what video cards work with Linux and buying one (used or otherwise). Look for older ones. There are plenty of places that sell cards from $10-30 that work great. If you want a NVIDIA, buy an old GeForce2 or 3 (works great!). GF2 goes for about $10. Same goes for sound cards. Try eBay.

[az]

Um can you help me with that graphics card then?

It's an S3 Vision 968 PCI card, there is an AGP slot but i belive i have diabled it. Might have to check that then, if you can help me PM me please.

I have two of those, and I just help another guy in another thread about the S3

On low-end cards with little memory, you must use a low color depth.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

and set the color depth to 15-bit. They cannot handle more than that, but ubuntu does not know that...

[WildTangent]

cant help you mate, both mine are PCI, like i said, theyre old (circa 1996-97)

-Wild