1st time, video problems, newbe, please help

jakwi · 05-17-2006, 08:45 AM

Hi all,

I'm on my first linux install. and I'm struggling.
My wife is going to kill me if I don't get this figured out in relatively short order.

for background

I have a
mb: MSI KM4M-V
cpu: 2400
mem: 256 Mb ram
hd: 250 gb SATA drive
On board Video: Integrated S3 Graphics UniChrome™ 2D/3D Graphics with motion compensation (I got this from the msi website)

Installed Debian, Sarge, The latest stable release.

I was running win XP pro. I installed Debian, and used the Grub boot loader and it is working great. I really had no problems getting everything up and running until I tried to install KDE

When i did that nothing happened. So then I tried Gnome, same deal. I know I'm probably missing something obvious here, but it's all greek to me.

I then read in a forum about X-Windows, So I tried that. It seemed to be my best failure.

I've tried reconfiguring it using every video choice. VESA is the only one that comes even close, When I choose Vesa and type xdm at the prompt, it comes up with come color at the top of the screen and what looks like some squashed text, but I'm not sure. It flashes that several times and then goes back to the prompt. I've tried every other module, but they just flash a black screen at me and then back to prompt. I've tried adj. the monitor settings. I even used Simple and 8 colors, but no go.

On this forum I've read something about a unichrome driver, and installing it, but I'm not sure how to install a driver.

I'm not really familiar with linux commands, so I'm struggling to get around in the text based enviro too.

I'd post the logs, but I haven't figured out how to look at them, or copy them yet. or even where they are for that matter.

Personal background: I'm not a computer guru by any means, but I did build my current box. I have installed windows etc for many years, I'm ok at DOS. I've always wanted to give linux a try, but after yesterday and today, I'm not so sure. I'm definately a little frustrated, but not throwing things yet!

Any suggestions would be greatly appreceated.

Jason

Agrouf · 05-17-2006, 10:02 AM

How did you install kde?
did you :

apt-get install kde qt kdelibs kdebase

?

Then startx
Log files are located in /var/log directory.
probably xorg.log

jakwi · 05-17-2006, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agrouf

How did you install kde?
did you :

apt-get install kde qt kdelibs kdebase

?

Then startx
Log files are located in /var/log directory.
probably xorg.log

actually I did something similar

apt-get install kde

when that didn't work I did the same for gnome

then that didn't work so I did the same for
x-windows-system

that seems like it wants to work but I think the video driver isn't correct.

what do you think?

ethics · 05-17-2006, 10:41 AM

debian uses xfree86?

Code:

apt-get install xfree86

or

Code:

apt-cache search xfree86

when you run

Code:

startx

what errors do you get?

tur third · 05-17-2006, 10:43 AM

I have a similar motherboard to you. I don't have dual boot, but it sounds like you are having more problems than I would have expected, I did not have to configure the graphics to load KDE.

I don't think I needed to install special drivers either (other than what installed automatically) for my onboard Integrated S3 Graphics UniChrome card. It all worked first time. Would a different distribution work?

(I will admit I do not have OpenGL working.)

jakwi · 05-17-2006, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tur third

I have a similar motherboard to you. I don't have dual boot, but it sounds like you are having more problems than I would have expected, I did not have to configure the graphics to load KDE.

I don't think I needed to install special drivers either (other than what installed automatically) for my onboard Integrated S3 Graphics UniChrome card. It all worked first time. Would a different distribution work?

(I will admit I do not have OpenGL working.)

it might, but it seems like this ought to work too.

it seems to me that I got a video error and a pointer error, but I'm not sure. I'll try the apt-get xfree86 tonight when I get home.

I think I'm close, It's probably something simple.

Agrouf · 05-17-2006, 11:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakwi

actually I did something similar

apt-get install kde

when that didn't work I did the same for gnome

then that didn't work so I did the same for
x-windows-system

that seems like it wants to work but I think the video driver isn't correct.

what do you think?

What didn't work?
What is the error message?

jakwi · 05-17-2006, 11:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agrouf

What didn't work?
What is the error message?

The gui didn't work, or maybe I just don't know how to use it.

when I type startx I get some video error, and a pointer, or maybe a pointing device error, but I can't remember exactly how it was worded. I'm at work now so I'll have to check it tonight.

Agrouf · 05-17-2006, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakwi

The gui didn't work, or maybe I just don't know how to use it.

when I type startx I get some video error, and a pointer, or maybe a pointing device error, but I can't remember exactly how it was worded. I'm at work now so I'll have to check it tonight.

Please post the output of "apt-get install kde"

jakwi · 05-17-2006, 12:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agrouf

Please post the output of "apt-get install kde"

I'm not sure I understand, you want me to type apt-get install kde again and then post what comes up on the screen?

thanks for your patience

Agrouf · 05-17-2006, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakwi

I'm not sure I understand, you want me to type apt-get install kde again and then post what comes up on the screen?

thanks for your patience

Correct.
I don't need patience, it is fun (making kde to work). Thank you for the chalenge.

jakwi · 05-17-2006, 09:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Agrouf

Correct.
I don't need patience, it is fun (making kde to work). Thank you for the chalenge.

ok, first I got it working.

I installed xorg and during the setup I realized that I had selected the wrong mouse.

Once that was fixed. it went right in.

so I boot up I get a graphical login.

Then gnome comes up.

if I do a ctrl-alt-f1 and type startkde kde won't come up,but if I open a terminal window with gnome up and type startkde. I get both kde and gnome desktops at the same time. I'm not sure what that means.

I also have no sound.

in anycase thanks for all the help, I'm pleased to just be in the gui!

Jason

jakwi · 05-19-2006, 08:14 AM

Just a followup,

I'm not sure what I did exactly, but I was in aptitude trying to update kde so that it would appear in sessions. I wasn't getting that option at the graphical login. Anyway somehow or another I deleted gnome. So then when I rebooted. I didn't get a graphical login any more. I could login, and then type startx and kde would start. That seemed ok except I didn't understand what had happened. I was trying to update kde in aptitude, not delete gnome.

So while I was in kde, I tried to install firefox again. I don't know what I did, but it killed my inet connection. I rebooted and it appears that dhcp was failing.

I decided to take the box to work so that my friend who knows linux could help. He played with it for awhile with no luck and we decided that a fresh linux install would be best. So that's what we did, Since it was at work and the connection is faster. We decided to do a net install of debian to get the latest and greatest.

It worked like a champ. It booted into the gui first time. So in the end I think I've learned a fair amount, and especially that the net install is the way to go.

I am still struggling with a couple of issues though

1: I'm using the VESA driver for video. I found http://unichrome.sourceforge.net/ and I downloaded what I believe are the appropriate drivers for my mobo's video, but I don't have any idea on how to install them. Any guidance here would be appreceated.

2: I can't get sound to work. I ran an apt-get alsa-core, but when I go into sound config in kde and try to set it up, it claims that I have no sound cards installed. I have onboard sound on my MSI KM4M-V mobo. I've done some googling on this and found this post
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=363250

I tried everything in this post, but I've had no luck

Thanks again for all the help, I feel like everyday I get a better handle on it.

timmeke · 05-19-2006, 10:12 AM

Did you try the lspci and lsmod commands too?
If your system complains that it can't find your sound card, it may just be that you need to load the appropriate kernel module for it or something like that.
In any case, lspci and lsmod should list your devices and loaded modules. You should find a line for your sound card in both, I suppose. Maybe you can post their output?

A few hints for next time:
you don't need the session option for KDE/Gnome. You can switch desktops when you want.
If KDE doesn't launch automatically, you could take a look at /etc/inittab to see if your system starts in runlevel 5 by default. Maybe you can look at your kde settings too.

Bottom line, re-install isn't always the best solution. Yes, it may work, but learning to overcome trouble is an important learning step...

jakwi · 05-20-2006, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timmeke

Did you try the lspci and lsmod commands too?
If your system complains that it can't find your sound card, it may just be that you need to load the appropriate kernel module for it or something like that.
In any case, lspci and lsmod should list your devices and loaded modules. You should find a line for your sound card in both, I suppose. Maybe you can post their output?

A few hints for next time:
you don't need the session option for KDE/Gnome. You can switch desktops when you want.
If KDE doesn't launch automatically, you could take a look at /etc/inittab to see if your system starts in runlevel 5 by default. Maybe you can look at your kde settings too.

Bottom line, re-install isn't always the best solution. Yes, it may work, but learning to overcome trouble is an important learning step...

Hi, well I did as you had suggested.
here are the results.

I know what you mean about working through the problems, but after two days of struggling with it I was pretty over it. Getting the sound to work is probably my first actual work through a problem scenario. I've been trying to learn more commands as well.

Code:

Don-Quijote:/home/jakwi# uname -r
2.4.27-2-386
Don-Quijote:/home/jakwi# apt-get install alsa-modules-$(uname -r)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
alsa-modules-2.4.27-2-386 is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 2 not upgraded.
Don-Quijote:/home/jakwi#

When it is first booting up I get an error that says

udev requires kernal ...>7.2.6.12 notstarted

I copied it as best I could as it scrolls by pretty fast

The error I get when kde boots up is a window with a
titlebar that says Error - artsmessage
Soundserver fatal error:
cpu overload. aborting.

I click ok and it goes away.

I also typed lspci

Code:

Don-Quijote:/home/jakwi# lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [KM400/A] Chipset Host Bridge
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 PCI Bridge
0000:00:05.0 Ethernet controller: Lite-On Communications Inc LNE100TX [Linksys EtherFast 10/100] (rev 25)
0000:00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 80)
0000:00:0f.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
0000:00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
0000:00:10.4 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86)
0000:00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
0000:00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
0000:00:12.0 Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8378 [S3 UniChrome] Integrated Video (rev 01)
Don-Quijote:/home/jakwi#

and lsmod

Code:

Don-Quijote:/home/jakwi# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
snd-seq-oss            21760   0  (autoclean) (unused)
snd-seq-midi            3008   0  (autoclean) (unused)
snd-seq-midi-event      2976   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi]
snd-seq                32048   2  (autoclean) [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event]
snd-via82xx            11840   2  (autoclean)
snd-pcm-oss            34048   0  (autoclean) (unused)
snd-mixer-oss          11000   0  (autoclean) [snd-pcm-oss]
snd-ac97-codec         48280   0  (autoclean) [snd-via82xx]
snd-pcm                50216   1  (autoclean) [snd-via82xx snd-pcm-oss snd-ac97-codec]
snd-timer              12548   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq snd-pcm]
gameport                1388   0  (autoclean) [snd-via82xx]
snd-mpu401-uart         2800   0  (autoclean) [snd-via82xx]
snd-rawmidi            11552   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq-midi snd-mpu401-uart]
snd-seq-device          3588   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi snd-seq snd-rawmidi]
snd                    28260   1  (autoclean) [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi snd-seq-midi-event snd-seq snd-via82xx snd-pcm-oss snd-mixer-oss snd-ac97-codec snd-pcm snd-timer snd-mpu401-uart snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device]
snd-page-alloc          4296   0  (autoclean) [snd-seq-oss snd-seq-midi snd-seq snd-via82xx snd-mixer-oss snd-pcm snd-timer snd-rawmidi snd-seq-device snd]
soundcore               3268   6  (autoclean) [snd]
floppy                 44120   0  (autoclean)
input                   3040   0  (autoclean)
apm                     8428   1  (autoclean)
parport_pc             19432   1  (autoclean)
lp                      5540   0  (autoclean)
parport                21608   1  (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
af_packet              11048   1  (autoclean)
ehci-hcd               14764   0  (unused)
usb-uhci               19472   0  (unused)
usbcore                52268   1  [ehci-hcd usb-uhci]
ide-scsi                8272   0
via82cxxx               9256   1
via-rhine              10960   1
mii                     1952   0  [via-rhine]
tulip                  35168   0  (unused)
crc32                   2848   0  [via-rhine tulip]
ide-disk               12480   0
ide-detect               288   0  (unused)
ide-cd                 27104   0
cdrom                  26212   0  [ide-cd]
ide-core               91864   0  [ide-scsi via82cxxx ide-disk ide-detect ide-cd]
rtc                     5768   0  (autoclean)
ext3                   65388   2  (autoclean)
jbd                    34628   2  (autoclean) [ext3]
sd_mod                 10764   6  (autoclean)
sata_via                2200   3  (autoclean)
libata                 21732   0  (autoclean) [sata_via]
scsi_mod               86084   3  (autoclean) [ide-scsi sd_mod sata_via libata]
unix                   12752 128  (autoclean)
Don-Quijote:/home/jakwi#