[SOLVED] Linux Mint 18.3 display

bewas.bgw · 02-24-2018, 02:02 AM

I made a fresh installation of Linux Mint 18.3 on an old Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo LA1703 machine and found that only 640x480 resolution was coming along. I have searched and found reference to xrandr, but the guidance was apparently deficient. I get the message "Failed to get size of gamma for output default" and have found no good suggestion to correct it. I have made attempts to give other resolutions according to given suggestion without success.

As a general suggestion to Linux Mint developers, I would suggest the inclusion of some other resolutions into their standard distributions, because the 640x480 is impossible to work with due to the size of most windows in setting up system preferences.

mrmazda · 02-24-2018, 02:28 AM

Does https://www.notebookcheck.net/Fujits...03.3132.0.html fairly describe your laptop? If yes, then likely xserver-xorg-video-openchrome needs to be installed but is not. What is the output from

Code:

lsmod | grep via

?

bewas.bgw · 02-25-2018, 10:22 AM

Yes that's the machine. Output as below

bgw@amilo ~ $ lsmod | grep via
snd_hda_codec_via 20480 1
snd_hda_codec_generic 69632 1 snd_hda_codec_via
snd_hda_codec 114688 4 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_si3054,snd_hda_codec_via
snd_hda_core 69632 5 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_codec_si3054,snd_hda_codec_via
snd 65536 17 snd_hda_intel,snd_hwdep,snd_seq,snd_hda_codec,snd_timer,snd_rawmidi,snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_seq_de vice,snd_hda_codec_si3054,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec_via
i2c_viapro 16384 0
via_rhine 32768 0
mii 16384 1 via_rhine
pata_via 16384 0
sata_via 16384 2

mrmazda · 02-25-2018, 12:54 PM

None of those are for video. One is chipset, two are network, two are ata, and the rest sound. Nothing for video. But apparently that may be OK. I found a PC to remove the PCIe video card from and use its onboard S3 UniChrome Pro, and it doesn't have anything for video in lsmod output either.

Is xserver-xorg-video-openchrome installed?

Code:

dpkg -l | grep openchrome

How about showing us output from these?

Code:

inxi -G -c0

Code:

lspci -nnk | grep -A3 VGA

Does /dev/fb0 exist?

Code:

ls -l /dev/fb*

If /dev/fb0 does not exist, try booting a live Linux distro to see if it does better. I recommend Knoppix for this purpose. It's the best there is at automatic configuration.

This thread might attract more helpful attention if moved to hardware.

bewas.bgw · 02-25-2018, 02:45 PM

Responses:
bgw@amilo ~ $ dpkg -l | grep openchrome
ii xserver-xorg-video-openchrome 1:0.3.3+git20160310-1 i386 X.Org X server -- VIA display driver

bgw@amilo ~ $ inxi -G -c0
Graphics: Card: VIA K8M890CE/K8N890CE [Chrome 9]
Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: fbdev (unloaded: vesa)
Resolution: 640x480@73.00hz
GLX Renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 5.0, 128 bits)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 17.2.8

bgw@amilo ~ $ lspci -nnk | grep -A3 VGA
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: VIA Technologies, Inc. K8M890CE/K8N890CE [Chrome 9] [1106:3230] (rev 01)
Subsystem: Fujitsu Technology Solutions K8M890CE/K8N890CE [Chrome 9] [1734:10d9]
Kernel modules: viafb
04:01.0 Audio device [0403]: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237A/VT8251 HDA Controller [1106:3288] (rev 10)

bgw@amilo ~ $ ls -l /dev/fb*
crw-rw---- 1 root video 29, 0 Feb 11 2016 /dev/fb0

In addition I tried to install the resolution 1024x768 through xrandr and got it to Preferences/System Settings/Display, but from selecting it I got the error message:
Failed to apply configuration

GDBus.Error

rg.gtk.GDBus.UnmappedGError.Quark._gnome_2drr_2derror_2dquark.Code3: required virtual size does not fit available size: requested=(1024, 768), minimum=(640, 480), maximum=(640, 480)

mrmazda · 02-25-2018, 04:21 PM

Let's look and see if there are clues in Xorg.0.log, which you can find in /var/log/ and/or $HOME/.local/share/xorg/ and attach in entirety here. Most of the relevant lines will have "(EE)" or "(WW)" near the start of the line, but better to attach the whole file unless there are only about 4 or less lines containing (EE). Make sure to attach the newer file if you find them in both places. If you see what may be clues to video issues from the two following commands, post them here too:

Code:

dmesg | egrep -i 'error|fail'

Code:

journalctl -b _COMM=Xorg

Does the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf exist? Even though mine doesn't need one, it's possible one might be required for your specific hardware. Normally Xorg auto-configures and this file is not needed. Alternatively, the directory /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ could be used. You could try creating a file 10-openchrome.conf with the following content:

Code:

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Device0"
	Driver      "openchrome"
	Option      "DRI"    "true"
EndSection
 
Section "DRI"
        Group  "video"
        Mode   0666
EndSection

Take a look at https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?pa...ome-DRM-Rebase to see what you're likely up against here trying to use Mint 18.3. My testing was done with kernel 4.4 and server 1.18.3 and openSUSE 42.2. Same machine using openSUSE Tumbleweed with kernel 4.15 and server 1.19.6 is failing Xorg entirely with "(EE) CHROME(0): Unable to map the frame buffer." and ultimately no screens found. You might wind up needing to use an older distro or a distro intended for old hardware, such as AntiX.