[Noob] Need help finding and installing the graphics card drivers on a really old laptop

storms · 04-13-2018, 03:03 AM

echo " Good Morning everyone! I hope you are having a great day! "

so as the title says, i need help getting the graphics driver on this rly old laptop. the only available resolution is 640x480 and the install drivers wont find any more driver to install!

right now i'm using ubuntu mate, but i'm open to alternatives! I just need a lightweight distro so this pc can run smoothly so i can study with it.

jlinkels · 04-13-2018, 04:37 AM

First thing we need to know is the graphics card in your laptop.

Open a terminal (command line) and type

Code:

lspci -v

Copy the output paragraph which says something about "VGA" and post.

Ubuntu is fine for beginners. If you graphics is really incapable I would switch to LXDE which is Lubuntu. But try to solve the graphics problem first, then you can see if that is necessary. Maybe you can keep your Mate.

jlinkels

fatmac · 04-13-2018, 05:08 AM

Quote:

SiS Mirage 3+ Graphics,

This might help.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=57181

syg00 · 04-13-2018, 05:39 AM

No wonder all the references are 8-10 years old. Yuch - I think my first card was SIS, and it was a mongrel to get the thing working back around 2000. Even on DOS/Windows, let alone linux.
Currently no support for fixes, (certainly) no wayland support ...

Good luck. Maybe ssomething like bodhi - I had good results with that on an old gateway that also had junk video hardware.

Shadow_7 · 04-13-2018, 06:11 AM

https://launchpad.net/~mati75/+archive/ubuntu/sis771

there's a PPA for that GPU. Although might be for an older version of ubuntu 14.04? And it's a xorg module so everything not X will be the same.

https://cd-rw.org/t/how-to-install-s...-resolution/74

storms · 04-13-2018, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fatmac

This might help.

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=57181

Quote:

https://launchpad.net/~mati75/+archive/ubuntu/sis771

there's a PPA for that GPU. Although might be for an older version of ubuntu 14.04? And it's a xorg module so everything not X will be the same.

https://cd-rw.org/t/how-to-install-s...-resolution/74

both these links lead to a dead download link.
i added the ppa and tried to do the apt-get install but the server doesnt have the 2 packages that says it has!

PS IMPORTANT: also formatted again and installed xubuntu and the weirdest thing happened, the resolution was fine, and once i update the sisteme it went back to 640x480 and now i cant change it again. not sure what to make of it.

Shadow_7 · 04-13-2018, 05:00 PM

It's a xorg module, so if the update went to wayland, there's no module for that (yet, or ever).

jefro · 04-17-2018, 04:40 PM

Shouldn't that run in vesa mode too? I used to use vesa on old S3's way back when.