Let's attempt (and fail) to make ATI Catalyst X1X00 e.g X1600/X1800/X1900 cards work in 98/ME \ VOGONS

Let's attempt (and fail) to make ATI Catalyst X1X00 e.g X1600/X1800/X1900 cards work in 98/ME

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First post, by Hanamichi

Posted on 2022-01-22, 17:28

Hanamichi Offline

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I've been wanting to attempt this for a while or someone smarter hopefully do it for me 😁
Got a bit of time at work today so get the ball rolling..

Some people mention a mythical ATI Catalyst 6.5 Beta that has ME drivers ... well here it is below...and of course it's intended for 2000/XP.. end the myth:
https://www.guru3d.com/files-get/ati-ca ... ta),4.html

Now the last genuine ATI Catalyst for ME/98 is 6.2 Here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20070914013227/ht … onaiw-98me.html

A few options I can think to get this to work in a hacky way:

1. Edit the inf of Catalyst 6.2 to include new cards from a newer driver inf
- Copy and edit the PCI VEN strings
- Merge reg settings from 6.5 for newer cores?

2. Copy accross all the 2K drivers from Catalyst 6.5 and fool the Catalyst 6.2 installer into using them

3. Hack the Catalyst 6.5 installer to work on 98/ME OS
- this site maybe of use: https://tylerapplebaum.github.io/setupinxhacking.html

(1) seems the easiest

Regarding the key inf files for install I noticed:

Registry Settings

In Catalyst 6.2
R6_Common_AddReg - is where most of the key settings are for registry entries and is universal across most cards we care about.
I notice between R481 X850 and R420 X800 there is one difference to the install:
R481 uses "R481_AddReg" - mainly seems to do with the DVI TDMS settings.

In Catalyst 6.5 the format changes... most of the key registry settings are combined into a specific core settings list:
ati2mtag_R520_SoftwareDeviceSettings
ati2mtag_R580_SoftwareDeviceSettings
etc.

Perhaps a merging of the 6.5 and 6.2 reg settings is needed for these newer cards.

Device IDs

A quick hack to add the VEN DEV and SUBSYS ids for X1X00 cards to also install as a R481..
E.g. "Radeon X1900 Series" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7249

I edited : C7_30314.INF within the 6.2 catalyst directory.
I have attached but had to rename the file to upload. So set it back to being .inf if testing.
Standard stuff so I guess plenty attempted this already.

Looks like this:

1"RADEON X850 Series    " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4B4B
2"RADEON X850 Series - Secondary" = R480_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5D6D
3"RADEON X850 Series - Secondary " = R480_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5D72
4"RADEON X850 Series - Secondary  " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4B6C
5"RADEON X850 Series - Secondary   " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4B6B
6"RADEON X850 Series - Secondary    " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4B69
7"RADEON/MOBILITY 9200" = M9Plus_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_5C61
8
9;-----------------------------------------------
10; Hanamichi Edit Below
11;-----------------------------------------------
12
13"Radeon X1800 CrossFire Edition" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7109
14"Radeon X1800 CrossFire Edition Secondary" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7129
15"Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7249
16"Radeon X1900 CrossFire Edition Secondary" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7269
17"Radeon X1900 GT" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_724B
18"Radeon X1900 GT Secondary" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_726B
19"Radeon X1900 Series" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7249
20"Radeon X1900 Series Secondary" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002
21"All-in-Wonder X1800XL" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7109
22"All-in-Wonder X1800XL " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7109
23"All-in-Wonder X1800XL Secondary" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7129
24"All-in-Wonder X1800XL Secondary " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7129
25"All-in-Wonder X1900" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7249
26"All-in-Wonder X1900 " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7249
27"All-in-Wonder X1900 Secondary" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7269
28"All-in-Wonder X1900 Secondary " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7269
29"Radeon X1300 Series" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7142
30"Radeon X1300 Series " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7146
31"Radeon X1300 Series  " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7140
32"Radeon X1300 Series Secondary" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7166
33"Radeon X1300 Series Secondary " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7162
34"Radeon X1300 Series Secondary  " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7160
35"RADEON X1600 Series" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_71C0
36"RADEON X1600 Series " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_71C2
37"RADEON X1600 Series Secondary" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_71E2
38"RADEON X1600 Series Secondary " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_71E0
39"Radeon X1800 GTO" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_710A
40"Radeon X1800 GTO Secondary" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_712A
41"Radeon X1800 Series" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7100
42"Radeon X1800 Series " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7109
43"Radeon X1800 Series Secondary" = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7120
44"Radeon X1800 Series Secondary " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7129
45"Radeon X1900 GT " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_724B
46"Radeon X1900 GT Secondary " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_726B
47"Radeon X1900 Series " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7249
48"Radeon X1900 Series Secondary " = R481_ENU, PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_7269
49
50;-----------------------------------------------
51; Hanamichi Edit Above
52;-----------------------------------------------
53

If anyone wants to try the edit, feel free.. I need to setup my X1900 rig, might take a week.
It's probably going to fail don't get your hopes up and please contribute with better ideas.

Usual use at your own risk of various unforseen hazards; smoke, fire, unexpected FPS boost etc.

Cheers

Attachments

Filename

C7_30314.INF.rename.ini

File size

52.57 KiB

Downloads

32 downloads

File comment

INF file for X850 series with added cards

File license

Fair use/fair dealing exception

Reply 1 of 6, by The Serpent Rider

Posted on 2022-01-23, 11:37

The Serpent Rider Offline

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Or someone can make new driver from scratch by using Linux open ATi drivers as draft.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 2 of 6, by BitWrangler

Posted on 2022-01-23, 16:26

BitWrangler Offline

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Might need this at some point, had x1300 and x1600 at one time, though they're not showing their faces right now. I coulda sworn I had a box for pre-unified shader PCIe cards.

Unicorn herding operations are proceeding, but all the totes of hens teeth and barrels of rocking horse poop give them plenty of hiding spots.

Reply 3 of 6, by mockingbird

Posted on 2022-01-23, 17:00

mockingbird Offline

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This won't work.

The X1000 generation is a new design, and the old driver won't know how to talk to the chip.

That makes options 1 and 3 (which are essentially the same...) a no go.

And option two has never worked for anyone. NT drivers don't work on 9x, and vice versa.

(Decommissioned:)

Reply 4 of 6, by libv

Posted on 2022-01-26, 19:25

libv Offline

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The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-01-23, 11:37:

Or someone can make new driver from scratch by using Linux open ATi drivers as draft.

Having written the actual open source driver for R5xx and above, and having spent a lot of quality time with win98SE, and its DDK recently, i can wholeheartedly say: NO!

I should first get my flashrom patches, which adds flashing support for all affordable pci-e devices, up to date and get them committed. If there's anything i should do with R5xx, then it is bring it up natively on coreboot.

Last edited by libv on 2022-01-26, 19:38. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 5 of 6, by libv

Posted on 2022-01-26, 19:38

libv Offline

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mockingbird wrote on 2022-01-23, 17:00:

The X1000 generation is a new design, and the old driver won't know how to talk to the chip.

Indeed, the display engine was developed from scratch, and beautifully designed, sadly it got buggered when ATI decided to save on development costs by having the BIOS people and driver people be the exact same team. The 2D and 3D engines were continued from the R3xx, and this 3D engine is still a fixed pipeline design.

mockingbird wrote on 2022-01-23, 17:00:

And option two has never worked for anyone. NT drivers don't work on 9x, and vice versa.

Fun and games with VXDs and their insane calling conventions, and their arcane APIs. You would not wish this stuff on your worst enemy.

Reply 6 of 6, by The Serpent Rider

Posted on 2022-01-27, 02:42

The Serpent Rider Offline

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The 2D and 3D engines were continued from the R3xx, and this 3D engine is still a fixed pipeline design.

Which overall was normal for DX9 hardware and could be worse (cough cough G70).

ATI decided to save on development costs by having the BIOS people and driver people be the exact same team

Not sure about that being so bad. R520/580 had hidden deep voltage tweaking for different rails "on-the-fly", plus RAM timing editor, which was bananas for that time period.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

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