Via Technologies - ArchWiki

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The proprietary VIA drivers are no longer available as they are considered unstable and insecure.

## Installation

To get the OpenChrome driver, install the xf86-video-openchrome package.

The `xorg.conf` driver name is `openchrome`.

## Troubleshooting

To enable any of the following options to fix issues, first create a new file `10-openchrome.conf` in `/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/`:

    Section "Device"
        Identifier "My Device Name"
        Driver "openchrome"
    EndSection

### Artifacts

If your X Server shows artifacts and fails to redraw some windows, try disabling the `EnableAGPDMA` option:

    Option     "EnableAGPDMA"               "false"

If your machine freeze at startup (GDM) or after login (SLiM), try adding the XAA option `XaaNoImageWriteRect`. Note that this only applies if you are using the XAA acceleration method (configured by the `AccelMethod` option). Since 0.2.906, the default acceleration method is EXA.

    Option "XaaNoImageWriteRect"

If you experience significant CPU usage and low UI framerate, try adding:

    Option "AccelMethod" "XAA"

### Black screen when booting from LiveCD

If you experience a black screen when booting from Live-CD, add `modprobe.blacklist=viafb` on the kernel command line.

Note: The `nomodeset` option will probably not work here.

After installing the system you will need to blacklist the `viafb` module.

### DPMS problems

If you experience problems with DPMS not turning off laptop's backlight, try adding:

    Option "VBEModes" "true"

to the device section of `xorg.conf`.

### Hangup on exit

If your computer crashes when closing X, you may try not using the vesa driver for the kernel console. Just delete the vga-related parameters from the kernel command line.

## See also

- OpenChrome-project
- Unichrome-project

Categories:

- Graphics
- X server