NeoMagic MagicGraph/MagicMedia graphics driver for (open)BeOS



Installation:


NOTE PLEASE:
You use this software at your own risk! Although I don't expect it to damage your PC, videocard or Monitor, I cannot guarantee this!



OK, now that's said let's get to it ;-)

In contrary to what I have said before you don't need to de-install official Be drivers for this driver to work correctly. This driver will install in the user part of the BeOS, so not in the system part where the official drivers are.
BeOS first checks (during boot) if there are 'user-addons' that should be loaded for a device. If not, it loads it's own drivers (if any). You can select which driver should be loaded by hitting the spacebar as soon as the BeOS 'icons' screen appears. If you select disable user addons the system will load it's own drivers. If you don't do anything, the system will load the (open)BeOS NeoMagic MagicGraph/MagicMedia graphics driver.

Note: This might turn out to be handy if you run into trouble upon testing the driver, or if you are 'tweaking' the nm.settings file...


actual INSTALLATION:

Doubleclick on the install.sh file and follow the instructions. You have to reboot in order to load the driver. Make sure you read the Settings information below before you do that...


alternate INSTALLATION method:

Unzip the zip file that contains the driver to the root folder. Now reboot and you should be using the new driver.


DE-INSTALLATION:

Currently there's no uninstall script included. Just do it manually:

Delete the nm.accelerant file in home/config/add-ons/accelerants/
Delete the nm.driver file in home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/bin/
Delete the nm.settings file in home/config/settings/kernel/drivers/
Delete the nm.driver shortcut in home/config/add-ons/kernel/drivers/dev/graphics/ which pointed to the file nm.driver.

You have to reboot in order to apply the original configuration.


Settings:


Please read this information carefully *before* installing and using the (open)BeOS NeoMagic MagicGraph/MagicMedia graphics driver. It might spare you some trouble afterwards..

The driver uses a file named nm.settings to determine how to use your card. After installation this file will be located at home/config/settings/kernel/drivers/. How you should setup this file depends on what you want to do with the driver. While it has a 'failsave' default configuration, you might be able to do better than that... Anyway, read the nifty details below.

Note: The driver only reads this file during it's initialisation. This means that you have to reboot in order to let changes take effect.



nm.settings driver configuration:





Rudolf.

(Page last updated on June 12, 2004)