S3 Savage IX8
S3 Savage IX8 or IX8+This is a S3 video adapter The IX8 and IX8+ chips share the same PCI-ID Features
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Linux X.Org driver
This chip is supported by the 'savage' driver as part of the X.Org distribution
ThinkPad LCD
Display on the internal LCD works as long as you set the monitor settings correctly.
External VGA port
Works. Fn-F7 switches between LCD and CRT. To use both, use s3switch (on some models you need to run "s3switch lcd crt tv" even if you want only CRT and LCD, otherwise the CRT display is corrupted). You can also use ibm-acpi to control video output by echoing commands to /proc/acpi/ibm/video.
SVideo port
Works. Use the s3switch application to change display output in software.
Linux kernel Framebuffer driver
This chip will work with either the 'vesa' or 'savagefb' driver as part of any recent 2.4 or 2.6 kernel. Note: The savagefb appears to interfere with acpi sleep. (tested on 2.6 kernels up to 2.6.12) There are also some display problems with savagefb including limiting boot text to a 800x600 window centered in a 1024x768 display and problems with libdirectfb. For those reasons, vesa is recommended.
To get nice 1400x1050 (some models have such displays) resolution in console try adding: vga=0x33c video=vesa:ywrap,mtrr to your kernel parameters (in your bootloader config).
Dual Monitor tip
The chip supports using an external monitor plus the LCD as one big monitor. This can lead to a problem if X is configured for this, but the external monitor has been detached. This creates a ghost monitor that you cannot see, but can move the mouse onto and applications can open windows on.
Sometimes in this situation it's necessary to grab a window from the ghost monitor and drag it into view. This can be done by moving the mouse onto the ghost screen and then holding down the ALT key, which allows you to click-and-drag a window back into view. To see what is on the ghost monitor, a screen capture utility like Ksnapshot can help you. When it takes a screenshot of the entire screen, it will show the contents of the ghost screen, even though you can't see it directly.
