On Tue, 2004-07-27 at 15:16, jon salenger wrote: > I'd just continue if I wasn't > starting to get burnout/run out of ideas.
There's got to be a better way, especially considering that this is Mac hardware. There simply haven't been that many different kinds of hardware in recent years. In spite of having totally stock and matching Apple parts, I cling to a mysterious mode line I found via Google! How about this. We collect working config files, ship them all, and let the user pick? Slackware 1.x had this advanced technology a decade ago, with about 30 config files. It can be partially automated, such that at least 99% of the users get _something_ running. Suppose the files are named by this scheme: card-monitor-opt Where "card" is a PCI ID, "monitor" is a name related to whatever Apple used, and "opt" indicates a tradeoff for resolution, color depth, or 3d. So I have 1002:5046-22inCinemaADB-ResColor for this. The PCI ID is automatically detected. The monitor might be too, especially if this is a laptop. Otherwise, just offer a choice of VGA and Apple desplays: Plain VGA (tweak it later if you want) 15" whatever they called it with DVI 17" whatever they called it with DVI 22" Apple Cinema Display with DVI 15" whatever they called it with ADB 17" whatever they called it with ADB 22" Apple Cinema Display with ADB 20" Apple Cinema Display with DVI 21" Apple Cinema Display with DVI 23" Apple Cinema Display HD with DVI 30" Apple Cinema Display HD with DVI Then, out of these choices... low-res, millions of colors, no 3d low-res, thousands of colors, no 3d high-res, millions of colors, no 3d high-res, thousands of colors, no 3d low-res, millions of colors, 3d low-res, thousands of colors, 3d high-res, millions of colors, 3d high-res, thousands of colors, 3d 1. eliminate unavailable res/color/3d choices 2. eliminate obviously inferior res/color/3d choices 3. if more than one choice remains, ask the user