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Old 09-12-2021, 06:06 PM   #1
wwm
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Question scrambled video screen "sometimes" on login. old fedora 6 core system on laptop


Hi, need some advice here. trying to bring an old, old, laptop back to life for a little data logger system I'm configuring. It's dual-boot, Win XP & Fedora 6.0.52, last version that runs on this old hardware. Sometimes the video is scrambled upon user mode login to fedora, not during boot though. Restarting in XP, then restarting again in fedora generally fixes this issue. So I'm guessing that something is not initialized in the video hardware when starting fedora. This is on an old HP NW8000 laptop,the video card is "ATI RV350 [mobility radeon 9600 m10], the display is "lcd panel 1440 * 900". To make it more interesting, I have not seen this issue when logging in as "root" after bootup, only when logging in as a regular user...further interesting tidbit: the display settings box for root says this is 1600 * 1200, thousands of colors. Seems odd for a 1440 * 900 lcd! Anyone remember enough ancient history to shed light on this?
Thanks,
Bill M
 
Old 09-13-2021, 01:10 AM   #2
mrmazda
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I don't know if this option existed 15 years ago, but you could try appending to the kernel command line in Grub
Code:
radeon.agpmode=-1
I've seen what I consider an abnormally high number of issues in the recent past with old radeons indicating likely RAM failure. I mentioned this here in a thread less than a month ago.

Whether that old Radeon shares RAM with the system I have no idea, but it might be worth reseating the RAM. If that doesn't work, and the laptop is user serviceable, try reseating the Radeon, as well as cleaning out accumulated dust and spiders.

Hardware from that era caught the tail end of the worst of the capacitor plague, so a check for bad ones would be a good idea if you have it open for cleaning.
 
Old 09-13-2021, 01:33 AM   #3
syg00
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Why bother ?. I know power is cheap(er) in the 'states, but I have a pile of old junk (mainly laptops) I wouldn't consider running 24x7 anymore. Too much power, too much (fan) noise. Go get a pi or somesuch.
 
Old 09-13-2021, 10:29 AM   #4
wwm
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Hmm, had not considered a possible hardware issue, as this never occurs when booting into XP. Can't say "never" about booting Fedora as root, as I seldom do that, just have not seen that case either. My suspicion is it has something to do with configuration files somewhere that are login-specific, but I'm too ignorant to know where to look...or what to look for.
What files in user login space might have anything to do with display hardware config?
Thanks,
Bill
 
Old 09-13-2021, 06:47 PM   #5
wwm
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Update on above info: It does misbehave when booting as root, so rule out files in user space that differ with login id. Just now did a little experiment, restarted immediately after first boot came up with bad video, was fine on second try. If this behavior is consistent, I can live with it no more than I use this system. Would be much better to fix the problem, of course!
 
  


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