Am I stuck in graphics mediocre land?
 

Hey all,
New problem; new question.

uname -r
2.6.32-24-generic

lspci output (video only)
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 03)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 03)

I went to intel's site and downloaded the driver for this controller.

When I ran the installation program and it got to the point where it was going to install things in the Kernel, it said it was compatible with Kernel versions 2.4.(some more numbers I don't remember) so I stopped the install.

Currently, I DO NOT have an xorg.conf file because if it exists, then I don't get to play with Linux in graphics mode.

Even the xorg.conf.failsafe with the vesa driver (which I am assuming is used when you choose the Failsafe option from the recovery option) crashes and burns.

In another post it was suggested (for resolving my no graphics at all problem) that I use the Intel i810 driver. This also crashed and burned (because of the aforementioned xorg.conf problem)

I went here and found this info in the compatibility area:
First I found this:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupp...ideoCardsIntel
Then:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/sh...t/2513/cat/187

and here we see the Intel i810 driver listed but with some mention of xfree86 version 4.3 and that my friends takes us to:
http://www.xfree86.org/

This is what I am assuming.
1) Intel is probably not going to update their driver for ubuntu any time soon so it can be installed in the 2.6 versions of the Kernel. Is there an open source version of Intel's graphics drivers that is more current / compatible for these older cards?

2) This means that I probably can't install the Intel driver that I downloaded because it will probably cause many things to crash. Is this correct?

3) If I want to attempt to use the i810 driver was suggested then I have to install a different version of X Windows because putting that in the xorg.conf as I mentioned before does not work. Is this correct?

Finally, does anyone know anything about this?
http://sourceforge.net/projects/openamt/

Am I hopelessly doomed to less than stellar graphics until I can afford to buy a newer machine?

Thanks...

Below is the xorg.conf file for my wife's desktop PC (running Fedora 13). Graphics work properly. Hope it helps:

Thanks, I'll give that a whirl.
One question though, I wonder if you have any different intel packages installed on your machine.

The reason I ask is that if you didn't cobble this together by hand, what created this xorg.conf file for you?

---
Okay, I put that info into my xorg.conf file.

It did not work. When I went to preference to change the display to use the normal configuration, it came back and said it couldn't do it.

So, for the moment, I am stuck in minimalist mode.

And, another feature is that without warning, the screen will go black, and half of the screen will start blinking.

I was downloading a movie when it happened; got 54% of 1GB and now I can't finish the download. I use the free option for the download site and now i'm stuck in the endless, repeating: please wait 45 seconds for the download link. A link that now, never appears.

Xorg created a file for me which I subsequently modified. As root:
I clean up the screen modes, then copy the cleaned up file to /etc/X11/xorg.conf. The intel video driver is the only one I keep. With earlier versions of Fedora, I was using the i810 driver. I see that Ubuntu (Lucid) lists xserver-xorg-video-i810 and xserver-xorg-video-i810-modesetting; yuou might want to trr them (and change the driver name in xorg.conf from "intel" to "i810")

Thanks for the reply, I will do what you suggested, to see what kind of file gets created.

But, one of the first suggestions that I had, very early on in this process was to use the i810 driver. At that time I had a very minimalistic xorg.conf with only module set as glx and driver set as i810. When I booted, I got the BSOD (Blank Screen Of Death ... er well not death, but just blank)

I THINK I now understand the problem, I just don't know exactly how to fix it.

The problem is that Intel has not updated its driver for this 845G controller. My kernel number starts with 2.6 and the driver installation program wants to install a kernel module for 2.4 and so it is incompatible.

What I am trying to find out is if there is a work around. Open source drivers? Can I actually complete the driver install with the older kernel information? Will that cause the whole OS to crash and burn?

lspci shows that the system can find the card and identify it. I can't seem to find the CORRECT driver version to make it work.

Until the intel driver came out, I used the (Fedora and Ubuntu) i810 drivers successfully on my old desktop. Another possibility is to give Mandriva a try (on a live CD or USB flash drive first). ALthough I don't normally use Mandriva, I do try it out from time to time, and hardware compatibility seems to be excellent.

Thanks for the reply, the i810 didn't work for me.

I think that I've uncovered a little chink in Linux's armor. As crappy as XP is the fact that they don't have the graphics embedded in the kernel means you can use older drivers.

My circumstances are bad and I can't afford to buy food sometimes let alone a newer machine.

If my finances pick up I'll do the research and choose the components that have the greatest compatibility with Linux.

Right now I have two options.
1) run in normal mode and have the machine flake out occassionally where I get a blank screen.
2) Find a guru that can explain in detail what needs to be changed.

I tried to install the latest graphics driver. I stopped the installation process when it said that this was only compatible with 2.4.nn-nn-generic kernels. I'm running a 2.6.32-24-generic kernel.

What needs to be changed? Where does it / or how does it know that it is not compatible with the newer kernel? Is it in the actual source code for the driver? Does the driver itself have code that references kernel specific routines? Is the driver compiled and linked with object libraries? Are the older kernel references in the makefile? In the libraries? Are the references in the installation script? Is there an apt-get package that's part of the process and there are no new versions of that?
I have many more questions. SO many questions ... SO few answers.

Last time I looked no guru's have shown up.

I think for the short term it's probably better to move my data and reluctantly go back to XP until I get some decent hardware.

I'm not sure why no one has answered yet for there have been lots of issues with the 845g and 855g, I also believe I've heard problems with the 865g as well. The problem came with a change to the kernel and xorg and started about a year ago, maybe more.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...82845g-788563/ [ This is a thread I started last year ].

The only alternative for the time being is to either compile an older xorg and intel driver, which might break many programs that rely on a newer xorg, or use the vesa driver (without 3d). Unfortunately, I know little else beyond that. Since I compile almost all of my programs I don't know if precompiled programs would work.

Although, if what I'm reading is right at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=26345, there may be a fix fairly soon. You might ask the maintainer/s of the kernel, xorg, intel, and/or mesa packages of your distro if they have added the patches for testing.

Really appreciate the reply. My skills are way to rusty in this environment to come up to speed to do anything.

When I tried to install the driver and it told me that was about to make mods to the kernel; and that these mods were not compatible with anything later than 2.4.... I gave up.

I don't have the big picture of how graphics drivers get embedded into the system, what libraries are used and how independent the source code for the vid driver is.

After reading the comments on the bug page, it appears there's a lot more to it than just trying to compile the existing drivers that are a few years old with newer libraries and embedding that into the kernel.

I hope, that I can overcome my pitiful financial situation so I can move up the hardware chain.

It's sad, but i have have a "killer" machine that I can't fix (financial) that died that had 2 EVGA 8800 GTX 768MB SLI vid cards that are now collecting dust.