Nomad Graphics Memory

[wombat]

Just bought my shiny new Nomad (NNB-359) and spent an evening trying to install linux on it. The root of my problems seems to be that the Xwindows driver for the intel 915GM chipset assumes that the full 64MB of graphics memory is available, but the Nomad's bios reports that only 16MB is allocated to graphic. There are remarkably few options in the bios (set time / date and boot order and that's about it) so I'm assuming that there are some 'hidden' bios options to set things like graphics memory size.Anyone know how to get to these options?

[Coops]

There is no options hidden. Intel graphics cores operate something called DVMT

Basically the unit has 16mb allocated to the Frame Buffer for shared graphics and a setting of 64MB DVMT. This allows the OS if supported driver is avaliable to automatically take extra memory up to the 64mb DVMT total should the required application need the memory. When the memory is no longer required it is released back to the system. Not all intel based graphics systems can have the amount of memory used altered as this has been set for specfic or design. If these memory values were allowed to be altered they would be presented in the BIOS.

This is a defination from the intel site on DVMT

Many graphic-intensive applications (especially games) require a minimum amount of video memory in order to operate correctly (or even to run at all). So how much video memory does an Intel® chipset-based system with "integrated graphics" have? The answer: it depends.

The amount of video memory is dependent upon the amount of pre-allocated memory set for your system plus something called Dynamic Video Memory Technology (DVMT). DVMT, as its name implies, dynamically allocates system memory for use as video memory to ensure the most efficient use of available resources for maximum 2D/3D graphics performance.

The amount of video memory allocated depends upon the amount requested by the operating system. When the memory is no longer required, it is returned to the operating system for use by other applications or system functions. DVMT allocates memory based on system needs. Some newer systems have an option in the system BIOS to adjust the amount of memory available for DVMT. Memory can be allocated up to the maximum limit set by the graphics driver. The maximum limit of video memory allocated by DVMT depends on your specific Intel chipset and the version of the graphics driver installed.