Xorg 1.12.3 with OpenChrome 0.2.906 on VIA VT8623 (CLE266): Seg. fault!

kraileth · 08-02-2012, 04:19 PM

Hi!

I've been brushing the dust off a rather old computer of mine lately and wonder if it could still be put to some use. In the past it had SuSE 7 and 9 as OS and while it was primarily used as a router, I remember that Xfree86 4.0 with KDE worked on the machine back then.

Right, the machine has little RAM and a rather slow CPU but it should be enough nevertheless. I tested a Lubuntu Live-CD and it won't even load up to the point where you could select the language... Then I threw in a Gentoo minimal-install-CD which also didn't boot. A SystemRescueCD finally did the trick and left me with a working live-system.

However no luck with starting X11. Here's the Xorg.0.log:

Code:

[   225.670] 
X.Org X Server 1.12.3
Release Date: 2012-07-09
[   225.670] X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
[   225.671] Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.32-220.23.1.fd01.el6.x86_64 i686 Gentoo
[   225.671] Current Operating System: Linux dhcppc1 3.2.23-std281-i586 #2 SMP Tue Jul 17 17:44:34 UTC 2012 i686
[   225.671] Kernel command line: scandelay=1 initrd=initram.igz BOOT_IMAGE=rescuecd 
[   225.672] Build Date: 13 July 2012  08:03:03PM
[   225.672]  
[   225.672] Current version of pixman: 0.26.0
[   225.672] 	Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
[   225.672] Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[   225.674] (==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Fri Aug  3 16:03:44 2012
[   225.678] (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
[   225.680] (==) Using system config directory "/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d"
[   225.682] (==) ServerLayout "X.Org Configured"
[   225.682] (**) |-->Screen "Screen0" (0)
[   225.682] (**) |   |-->Monitor "Monitor0"
[   225.683] (**) |   |-->Device "Card0"
[   225.683] (**) |-->Input Device "Keyboard0"
[   225.683] (**) |-->Input Device "Mouse0"
[   225.683] (**) Option "DontVTSwitch" "false"
[   225.683] (**) Option "AllowMouseOpenFail" "true"
[   225.683] (==) Automatically adding devices
[   225.683] (==) Automatically enabling devices
[   225.683] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/util" does not exist.
[   225.683] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.683] (WW) `fonts.dir' not found (or not valid) in "/usr/share/fonts/encodings".
[   225.683] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.683] 	(Run 'mkfontdir' on "/usr/share/fonts/encodings").
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/local" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/corefonts" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/local/share/fonts" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/default" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/type1" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/arphicfonts" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/jisx0213" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/shinonome" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/baekmuk-fonts" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/kacst-fonts" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/sgi-fonts" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/unfonts" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/default/ghostscript" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (WW) The directory "/usr/share/fonts/OTF/" does not exist.
[   225.685] 	Entry deleted from font path.
[   225.685] (**) FontPath set to:
	/usr/share/fonts/misc,
	/usr/share/fonts/terminus,
	/usr/share/fonts/TTF,
	/usr/share/fonts/100dpi,
	/usr/share/fonts/75dpi,
	/usr/share/fonts/misc/,
	/usr/share/fonts/TTF/,
	/usr/share/fonts/Type1/,
	/usr/share/fonts/100dpi/,
	/usr/share/fonts/75dpi/
[   225.685] (==) ModulePath set to "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
[   225.685] (WW) Hotplugging is on, devices using drivers 'kbd', 'mouse' or 'vmmouse' will be disabled.
[   225.685] (WW) Disabling Keyboard0
[   225.686] (WW) Disabling Mouse0
[   225.686] (II) Loader magic: 0x819b55c
[   225.686] (II) Module ABI versions:
[   225.686] 	X.Org ANSI C Emulation: 0.4
[   225.686] 	X.Org Video Driver: 12.0
[   225.686] 	X.Org XInput driver : 16.0
[   225.686] 	X.Org Server Extension : 6.0
[   225.689] (--) PCI:*(0:1:0:0) 1106:3122:1106:3122 rev 3, Mem @ 0xd8000000/67108864, 0xdc000000/16777216, BIOS @ 0x????????/65536
[   225.689] (WW) Open ACPI failed (/var/run/acpid.socket) (No such file or directory)
[   225.689] (II) "extmod" will be loaded by default.
[   225.689] (II) "dbe" will be loaded by default.
[   225.690] (II) "dri" will be loaded by default.
[   225.690] (II) "dri2" will be loaded by default.
[   225.690] (II) LoadModule: "ddc"
[   225.690] (II) Module "ddc" already built-in
[   225.690] (II) LoadModule: "vbe"
[   225.696] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libvbe.so
[   225.698] (II) Module vbe: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   225.698] 	compiled for 1.12.3, module version = 1.1.0
[   225.698] 	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 12.0
[   225.698] (II) LoadModule: "extmod"
[   225.699] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libextmod.so
[   225.701] (II) Module extmod: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   225.701] 	compiled for 1.12.3, module version = 1.0.0
[   225.701] 	Module class: X.Org Server Extension
[   225.701] 	ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 6.0
[   225.701] (II) Loading extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
[   225.701] (II) Loading extension XFree86-VidModeExtension
[   225.702] (II) Loading extension XFree86-DGA
[   225.702] (II) Loading extension DPMS
[   225.702] (II) Loading extension XVideo
[   225.702] (II) Loading extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
[   225.702] (II) Loading extension X-Resource
[   225.702] (II) LoadModule: "dbe"
[   225.703] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libdbe.so
[   225.703] (II) Module dbe: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   225.703] 	compiled for 1.12.3, module version = 1.0.0
[   225.703] 	Module class: X.Org Server Extension
[   225.703] 	ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 6.0
[   225.703] (II) Loading extension DOUBLE-BUFFER
[   225.705] (II) LoadModule: "dri"
[   225.706] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libdri.so
[   225.708] (II) Module dri: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   225.708] 	compiled for 1.12.3, module version = 1.0.0
[   225.708] 	ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 6.0
[   225.708] (II) Loading extension XFree86-DRI
[   225.708] (II) LoadModule: "dri2"
[   225.709] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/extensions/libdri2.so
[   225.711] (II) Module dri2: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   225.711] 	compiled for 1.12.3, module version = 1.2.0
[   225.711] 	ABI class: X.Org Server Extension, version 6.0
[   225.711] (II) Loading extension DRI2
[   225.711] (II) LoadModule: "openchrome"
[   225.712] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/openchrome_drv.so
[   225.713] (II) Module openchrome: vendor="http://openchrome.org/"
[   225.713] 	compiled for 1.12.3, module version = 0.2.906
[   225.713] 	Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[   225.713] 	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 12.0
[   225.714] (II) OPENCHROME: Driver for VIA Chrome chipsets: CLE266, KM400/KN400,
	K8M800/K8N800, PM800/PM880/CN400, VM800/P4M800Pro/VN800/CN700,
	CX700/VX700, K8M890/K8N890, P4M890, P4M900/VN896/CN896, VX800/VX820,
	VX855/VX875, VX900
[   225.714] (--) using VT number 7

[   225.719] (!!) VIA Technologies does not support this driver in any way.
[   225.719] (!!) For support, please refer to http://www.openchrome.org/.
[   225.719] (!!) (openchrome 0.2.906 release)
[   225.720] (II) CHROME(0): VIAPreInit
[   225.720] (II) Loading sub module "vgahw"
[   225.720] (II) LoadModule: "vgahw"
[   225.722] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/libvgahw.so
[   225.723] (II) Module vgahw: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   225.723] 	compiled for 1.12.3, module version = 0.1.0
[   225.723] 	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 12.0
[   225.723] (II) CHROME(0): VIAGetRec
[   225.723] (**) CHROME(0): Depth 16, (--) framebuffer bpp 16
[   225.725] (==) CHROME(0): RGB weight 565
[   225.725] (==) CHROME(0): Default visual is TrueColor
[   225.725] (--) CHROME(0): Chipset: CLE266
[   225.725] 
[   225.725] Backtrace:
[   225.726] 0: /usr/bin/X (xorg_backtrace+0x49) [0x816c1e5]
[   225.726] 1: /usr/bin/X (0x8048000+0x1273a6) [0x816f3a6]
[   225.726] 2: (vdso) (__kernel_rt_sigreturn+0x0) [0x66c410]
[   225.726] 3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/openchrome_drv.so (0xa7f000+0x11df5) [0xa90df5]
[   225.726] 4: /usr/bin/X (InitOutput+0x441) [0x80a8923]
[   225.726] 5: /usr/bin/X (0x8048000+0x1da5a) [0x8065a5a]
[   225.726] 6: /lib/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0xe6) [0xea4256]
[   225.728] 7: /usr/bin/X (0x8048000+0x1d7a1) [0x80657a1]
[   225.728] 
[   225.728] Segmentation fault at address (nil)
[   225.728] 
Fatal server error:
[   225.728] Caught signal 11 (Segmentation fault). Server aborting
[   225.728] 
[   225.728] 
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support 
	 at http://wiki.x.org
 for help. 
[   225.728] Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[   225.728] 
[   225.731] Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.

According to lspci the graphics card is:

Code:

VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8623 [Apollo CLE266] integrated CastleRock graphics (rev 03)

Any ideas on what's happening here and what to do in this case?

Didier Spaier · 08-04-2012, 01:54 AM

It seems that the openchrome driver can't cope with your hardware as is.

In such a case I would try the vesa driver as a fallback.

For this you will need a file which you will call xorg-vesa.conf to be put in /etc/X11 and which include at least:

Code:

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "VESA driver"
    Driver      "vesa"
EndSection

Or you can rename as /etc/X11/xorg-vesa.conf appended file (included in Slackware 13.37 but which should work with any other distribution as well).

kraileth · 08-14-2012, 06:45 AM

Hi, Didier Spaier!

Sorry for not replying any earlier - I was off for a little longer than intended.

Taking a look at how "actively" developed unichrome is, I shouldn't even hope for a driver fix. So getting vesa to work might still be my best bet.

I had actually tried vesa first and it also does not work (for other reasons though). Because of this I had hoped that unichrome could be persuated on working with my machine - but it seems that this is not the case. Thanks for confirming this!

Didier Spaier · 08-14-2012, 07:54 AM

I guess that your best bet would be to download a driver directly from VIA.

Step 1, either choose linux-legacy or linux-current as OS type.

If you choose linux-current, you will see that a driver for your graphics card (CLE266) is is available only for Ubuntu 8.10. "tar -xf" to untar it, as this is an old archive. Be sure to read the README in it (sorry if all that is obvious for you, just to make sure I don't miss anything).

But if you choose linux-legacy you will find that source packages are available (two pages of information + 4 download links are presented).

Good luck.

It seems that the difference between "legacy" ant "current" (sic!) be that whilst legacy includes the kernel driver, current does not, very probably because nowadays it's already included in the vanilla kernel tree.

Didier Spaier · 08-15-2012, 05:11 PM

I realize that my suggestions in previous thread could be not relevant, as the openchrome driver is supposed to be able to handle your card, so maybe the error in X log is caused by some components of the distribution not fitting well together.

Could you please tell us why vesa didn't work, as this is the usual fallback?

Also if you give more information about your hardware: size of RAM, space on disk and processor (output of "uname -mp"), it will be possible to suggest you another distribution to try.

kraileth · 08-30-2012, 11:18 AM

Hi, Didier Spaier!

Thanks again for your efforts, I appreciate it a lot! I think that my distribution of choice loads a framebuffer by default and that this is blocking the vesa driver for X. The message is:

Code:

vesa: Ignoring device with a bound kernel driver

The distribution I'm talking of is Alpine Linux - something rather unusual since it's a distro with busybox and with µclibc instead of the standard glibc. It's primarily meant for embedded systems, but can of course also be used on a desktop. I like it for several reasons: the (very light-weight) way it is designed, its build and package system, the simple but confortable usage due to the many scripts it offers and of corse because of the extremely low memory usage (Xfce usable with ca. 50 MB of RAM, no joke!). The biggest downside of it is that there are not too many packages available (especially when you're - like me - spoiled by a big distro like Debian) and that µclibc can cause trouble with some programs making those tricky to get them working.

I've only used it in virtual machines so far and wanted to test it on real hardware now. So far I did not have the time to find out how do disable the framebuffer and see if I'm right about vesa. If all else fails, I might try Arch or some other distro on this machine and get another to tinker with Alpine.

And here's the output of uname -mp you asked for:

Code:

i686 unknown

Since that's not saying much, here's two more:

cat /proc/cpuinfo

Code:

processor	: 0
vendor_id	: CentaurHauls
cpu family	: 6
model		: 7
model name	: VIA Samuel 2
stepping	: 3
cpu MHz		: 799.835
cache size	: 64 KB
fdiv_bug	: no
hlt_bug		: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 1
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu de tsc msr cx8 mtrr pge mmx 3dnow up
bogomips	: 1600.32
clflush size	: 32
cache_alignment	: 32
address sizes	: 32 bits physical, 32 bits virtual
power management:

and cat /proc/meminfo

Code:

MemTotal:         222136 kB
MemFree:          104232 kB
Buffers:            5884 kB
Cached:            95152 kB
SwapCached:            0 kB
Active:            12332 kB
Inactive:          90132 kB
Active(anon):       1460 kB
Inactive(anon):       28 kB
Active(file):      10872 kB
Inactive(file):    90104 kB
Unevictable:           0 kB
Mlocked:               0 kB
HighTotal:             0 kB
HighFree:              0 kB
LowTotal:         222136 kB
LowFree:          104232 kB
SwapTotal:             0 kB
SwapFree:              0 kB
Dirty:                24 kB
Writeback:             0 kB
AnonPages:          1480 kB
Mapped:              800 kB
Shmem:                52 kB
Slab:              10932 kB
SReclaimable:       7752 kB
SUnreclaim:         3180 kB
KernelStack:         368 kB
PageTables:          416 kB
NFS_Unstable:          0 kB
Bounce:                0 kB
WritebackTmp:          0 kB
CommitLimit:      111068 kB
Committed_AS:       4676 kB
VmallocTotal:     802872 kB
VmallocUsed:       85284 kB
VmallocChunk:     714476 kB
AnonHugePages:         0 kB
DirectMap4k:      229312 kB
DirectMap4M:           0 kB

P.S.: No problem with you writing things on a rather basic level (like untaring archives). While I'm not a total newbie anymore, I'm still far from having a solid understanding of how Linux works. Plus I found that threads here on LQ are often on the first pages when searching the web for the solution of a problem. So it's probably best to discuss an issue in-depth as it's not completely unlikely that somebody else stumbles upon it somewhen and can possibly benefit from it, too. (Even though THIS particular problem may be not too common considering how old and uncommon my hardware is!

)

Didier Spaier · 08-30-2012, 12:32 PM

Well, it would help to know which "bound driver" it is and how it is bound

Maybe (i.e. if this driver was compiled as a module) we can easiky find its name. Just in case please append lsmod's output, renamed as lsmod.txt to your next message.

Or we can find that in looking at you kernel's config file. If you have it then great, just append it as well, renamed as config.txt.

Else if hopefully it is included in the kernel you can gather it with following command:

Code:

zcat /proc/config.gz > config.txt

In any case to get rid of any framebuffer and of kernel modesetting as well you could try to boot with following command:

Code:

<boot_image_name> vga=normal nomodeset

To do that just hit TAB when the greetings screen of your boot loader shows then type the command before hitting ENTER.

If that helps you will be able to make this setting permanent. The way to do that depends of which boot loader you use.

kraileth · 11-13-2012, 06:59 PM

Hi, Didier Spaier!

I don't know if you still care for this, but I couldn't reply any earlier since I've lived in another city for a while now and did not have access to the old pc and stuff.

Anyways, here's the output of lsmod:

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
af_packet              21128  0 
serio_raw               3593  0 
fbcon                  30311 70 
font                    7409  1 fbcon
bitblit                 3465  1 fbcon
pcspkr                  1384  0 
fbcon_rotate            1563  1 bitblit
fbcon_ccw               3901  1 fbcon_rotate
fbcon_ud                3854  1 fbcon_rotate
shpchp                 19775  0 
fbcon_cw                3858  1 fbcon_rotate
pci_hotplug            20518  1 shpchp
softcursor               941  4 bitblit,fbcon_ccw,fbcon_ud,fbcon_cw
i2c_viapro              4441  0 
tileblit                1643  1 fbcon
i2c_core               18617  1 i2c_viapro
via_agp                 4831  1 
agpgart                26178  1 via_agp
vt8623fb               10903  1 
svgalib                 8236  1 vt8623fb
cfbcopyarea             2697  1 vt8623fb
cfbfillrect             2525  1 vt8623fb
cfbimgblt               1860  1 vt8623fb
fb                     47577  8 fbcon,bitblit,fbcon_ccw,fbcon_ud,fbcon_cw,softcursor,tileblit,vt8623fb
fbdev                    645  2 fbcon,fb
vgastate                6474  1 vt8623fb
via_rhine              15948  0 
snd_via82xx            16181  0 
snd_ac97_codec         87632  1 snd_via82xx
ac97_bus                 988  1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm                57428  2 snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer              16387  1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc          6314  2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart         4643  1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi            16630  1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device          4811  1 snd_rawmidi
snd                    49015  7 snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore               5078  1 snd
8139cp                 13728  0 
8139too                15058  0 
mii                     3826  3 via_rhine,8139cp,8139too
mousedev                8161  0 
evdev                   8055  5 
parport_pc             14164  0 
parport                19115  1 parport_pc
button                  4176  0 
processor              25262  1 
uas                     5737  0 
sr_mod                 10970  0 
cdrom                  32399  1 sr_mod
usbmouse                2423  0 
usbhid                 15004  0 
hid                    64826  1 usbhid
power_supply            7923  1 hid
ehci_hcd               29915  0 
uhci_hcd               16639  0 
ata_generic             2533  0 
pata_acpi               2281  0 
pata_via                7216  2 
libata                148827  3 ata_generic,pata_acpi,pata_via
loop                   12649  0 
ext4                  224378  2 
mbcache                 5167  1 ext4
jbd2                   47765  1 ext4
crc16                   1259  1 ext4
usb_storage            29023  0 
usb_libusual            9502  1 usb_storage
usbcore               119094  8 uas,usbmouse,usbhid,ehci_hcd,uhci_hcd,usb_storage,usb_libusual
usb_common               729  1 usbcore
sd_mod                 21272  3 
scsi_mod               91377  5 uas,sr_mod,libata,usb_storage,sd_mod

There seems to be no config.gz or anything similar on my machine. However I found out that it's vt8623fb which is causing the trouble - or at least some of it. If I blacklist it, screen resolution does no longer change during startup. Also the VESA driver also does not complain anymore and Openchrome no longer crashes. But unfortunately X still won't work. I'm just getting my black screen and nothing happens so I have to hit reset.

I'll append three Xorg log files here and hope that they are of any use. The first one is using xf86-video-fbdev (leaving vt8623fb enabled); the others are xf86-video-openchrome and xf86-video-vesa (both having vt8623fb blacklisted).

While I feel that it's getting closer, I still have no idea what is really happening here.

Didier Spaier · 11-14-2012, 05:45 AM

Sorry, I do not see anything in the X logs that could explain why X doesn't start.

kraileth · 11-14-2012, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier

Sorry, I do not see anything in the X logs that could explain why X doesn't start.

Well, I guess, I'll give up on it for now. Thanks a lot for trying to help with my problem, though!