[SOLVED] stuck-no xwindows after lenny install

Daveb3 · 10-29-2009, 04:33 PM

after installing debian 5.03 & rebooting i get 'input not supported' on the screen. monitor acer al2216w, 22" lcd & video card sapphire ati hd4770.

ive got a working copy of ubuntu 904 on this box & debian testing from a year ago on another box with the same monitor but diff video card & have fiddled with linux off & on for a while so i should be able to get this but im stuck.

i been trying to compare the xorg.conf & Xorg.0.log files from the different installs but the conf is pretty sparse & the log has way too much info though i do see the mon being identified & ref to ati.

so far ive tried inserting the horiz & vert freqs in the conf file & copying the conf file from ubuntu over to the debian install but no luck. i also tried apt-get install fglrx-driver, supposedly an ati driver but it said it couldnt find it. not sure if i can even do that in single-user mode. i think ubuntu is using a native driver tho so i shouldnt need that anyway. ive also reinstalled from the cd1 (it downloaded 794 files during install by the way).

any suggestions? its gotta be the video card sending the wrong signal right? i think i need to figure out how to get a diff video driver in there or somehow get ubuntus driver copied over. running out of ideas.

Dutch Master · 10-29-2009, 06:20 PM

First, to get a screen running you'd have to reconfigure the X-server:

Code:

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Select the VESA driver for now. After thats done, start the xserver with

Code:

startx

If that gives an error, check you have the proper packages installed: xorg, gnome-core and gdm. If not, install and try again.

If that works, it's time to install the ATI driver. Hopefully your videocard is supported by the latest AMD/ATI drivers, check the ATI website for a package and instructions. Can't help you there, I'm on nVidia videocards

Daveb3 · 10-29-2009, 07:52 PM

well ill give that a try but ive pretty much decided to dump it & try the current testing. since i had luck with it last year on my other box.

theres something strange going on. im thinking its a bug.

i say that cause my other box running lenny testing from sep08 has no video problems & has native drivers as far as i know. i didnt do any installing of special video drivers. it has the radeon hd3850 card same monitor. this new box has the radeon hd4770. i see lots of references to radeon in the xorg.0.log file of the old box, it even mentions the specific card. none in the lenny "stable" box.

the install screens looked nice (i did the graphic install) but as soon as it finished & rebooted--gone!

Dutch Master · 10-29-2009, 09:41 PM

The reason you had a graphical installer working was that it uses the VESA driver in the first place

The VESA driver is a generic driver supported on all videocards. Now, I suspect your other box also still uses the VESA driver, or perhaps the free ati driver from Debian. Not the proprietary driver from ATI/AMD, unless you've installed that yourself on purpose. Go over to that box and open the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf the find the section

Code:

Section "Device"

Under "Driver" is the driver listed that's used.

Daveb3 · 10-30-2009, 02:50 PM

xorg.conf is so sparse its confusing.

ive looked at it on ubuntu & lenny on the new box & lenny on the old box.

they all say:

Device
Identifier "Configured Video Device"

a little to generic for me to get much out of. the other entries are similarly vauge.

however, on the old box, lenny testing, which has worked from the beginning, i did find the following line in Xorg.0.log:

loadmodule
/usr/lib/Xorg/modules/drivers//radeonhd.drv.so

there follows a bunch of lines starting with 'radeonhd' one of which lists the hd3850 which is the card i have in there.

thats got to be the video card driver right? would that be the generic one?

i see no such line in the new box with lenny stable.

what really baffles me is these 2 boxes are both running lenny & i would think the 'stable' version of lenny would have better detection than the 'testing' on the old box. bad assumption obviously.

it also occurred to me maybe im being to optimistic in how fast debian keeps up with these new video cards, tho the hd4770 is hardly cutting edge technology, 4 or 5 notches below, at least.

i think the bottom line here is how does one remove one video driver & reinstall another, from the command line of course. maybe you could point me in that direction. id be happy with the vesa on the theory that i know it works & low res is better than no res, at least for now.

Daveb3 · 10-31-2009, 03:39 PM

well ive decided to play with this a little longer, use it as a learning tool.

i tried dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg & all it did was prompt me about keyboard stuff, nothing about video.

i tried startx & saw a very brief flash of red noise & then the usual 'input not supported' error msg.

looked at xorg.0.log & spotted 'loadmodule vesa'.

im assuming loadmodule is linuxspeak for load driver & the drivers all end with '.so'

would appreciate if someone could confirm these assumptions.

Daveb3 · 11-01-2009, 09:44 PM

solved the problem by installing squeeze.

the window mgr came right up.

the xorg log now shows dozens of lines beginning with radeon.

guess my video card was too new for lenny