I have two machines with Silicon Motion Lynx video cards in them, and since the jump to xorg-server 1.5.3, neither one has been able to use its proper XF86 video driver. If I wanted the new xorg-server, I had to use the vesa driver, and if I stayed with the 1.4.2 version of xorg-server, I had to fall back to xf86-video-siliconmotion version 1.5.1.

Neither of those was a bad choice. But holding back on the core video elements of your system, update after update … well, it’s a bit like having a grain of sand in your mouth. It’s always grinding, no matter what you do, and you can’t quite put it out of your mind.

Arch bumped up to siliconmotion 1.7.0 today though, and I decided to go for it. I keep backup packages of the server and the driver, in case these things don’t work. But the new driver seems to be the solution, and my Lynx card is happy after the update.

So this is me, running the proper version of both xorg-server and xf86-video-siliconmotion, for the first time since around September or so.

Now all I need is for Xorg 7.4 to be able to detect the Chips and Technologies card in my ancient laptop. And I can retire to the riviera. 😀