gui problems in gnome (and maybe kde)

kevinlyfellow · 05-07-2005, 10:10 PM

Sorry about the horrible subject, I really do not know how to word my problem, which makes it difficult to search for a solution. A common example of the problem is when I have a terminal window open and I open up the gnome menu. The words and background of the terminal window will appear tiled in the gnome menu. A picture is worth a thousand words though.

Here's a screenshot of the problem

Anyways this is a problem that I have had since I started linux and I have found to occur in both gnome and kde (at least kde in redhat 7.2 I haven't used it since). But I did not have this problem in Ubuntu Warty Warthog, but I installed (freshly) Hoary Hedgehog and unfortunatly this problem came back. Any ideas at all will be greatly appreciated

n0sr · 05-07-2005, 10:49 PM

That shot makes me think you may have the wrong settings in your X configuration (specifically memory size). In Windoze an old driver can cause the same problem, you should also see if there is possibly a new linux driver for your video card as well.

kevinlyfellow · 05-07-2005, 11:28 PM

I have an integrated i810. I set my bios to allocate 1 Mb for graphics memory, but when I tell X that that is the memory my card has, it fails to start. Funny cause I just remembered that I bookmarked a page on configuring X with an i810... I'll give that a go and see how it turns out

n0sr · 05-08-2005, 04:39 AM

Yes, look at that as I know there is a driver (maybe still beta?) for the i810 nowadays. When I ran linux with that graphics chipset, I think I just used the SVGA X server. It wasn't around then!

comptiger5000 · 05-08-2005, 11:25 AM

1 mb graphics memory is not enough, up it to 4 mb or more

kevinlyfellow · 05-08-2005, 12:10 PM

Quote:

1 mb graphics memory is not enough, up it to 4 mb or more

my bios lets me have 512 kb or 1 mb. I checked for a bios update from my vender and there are none. Unless you mean to say that I do not need to listen to the bios, I'm stuck with either 512kb or 1 mb.

I have the driver for sure, its just that when I edit my xorg.conf file to have video ram it will not start.

here is the section of my xorg.conf file

Code:

Section "Device"
        Identifier      "Intel Corporation 82810E DC-133 CGC [Chipset Graphics Controller]"
        Driver          "i810"
        BusID           "PCI:0:1:0"
#       VideoRam        1024
EndSection

The intial configure when I installed the os was not to have the videoram line at all. When I xorgconf it, the configuration simply doesn't work and it to has this line commented out. My assumption is that the driver does not handle videoram the same way.

kevinlyfellow · 05-08-2005, 01:04 PM

I found the README to the i810 driver, and I am correct that it does not have support for the VideoRam line. It is set up as it should be... now I know that it is a driver issue. I don't know a whole lot about graphics, so maybe someone can help me understand if any of the driver options will help me out.

/usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg/README.i810 says:

Quote:

However, if you have problems with auto-detection, you can specify:

o DacSpeed - in MHz

o MemBase - physical address of the linear framebuffer

o IOBase - physical address of the memory mapped IO registers

comptiger5000 · 05-08-2005, 07:49 PM

640 by 480 is the maximum practical screen resolution with that card, try that

kevinlyfellow · 05-08-2005, 11:35 PM

If thats the cure then I'd rather die...
Things are way too big and it would be more difficult to deal with that than the minor issue I'm having. Somedays I don't even have the problem at all with a res of 1024x768, other days its pretty horrible but manageable... I might try the 800x600 which I have on windows, but I'm pretty happy where I am.

comptiger5000 · 05-09-2005, 04:38 AM

is this a laptop or desktop?

If it's a desktop, buy a cheap 16 or 32 mb pci graphics card, that should fix the problem

kevinlyfellow · 05-09-2005, 04:22 PM

It's a desktop. I've definatly been considering that and I usually do at least one small upgrade to my pc every year and that may be next. I've been wanting 3d graphics on my comp for a while (interestingly I ran 3d ok on redhat 8.0 for a while, but was never able to get it to do that again, which is a mystery to me since the i810 driver doesn't have 3d support yet). But I don't think my situation is too problematic, just a little annoying. But I'm tickled to death by know why its has this problem. My assumption was that it was a glitch in X but I'm happy to know its just my hardware.

pnellesen · 05-09-2005, 04:40 PM

I had one of those i810 chipsets, and had similar problems too - had a little more memory, but I eventually just put an old 4MB PCI card in and never had any other problems - I think it was a Matrox Millenium card I bought for about 5 bucks at a used computer store, so if the computer works fine in all other respects, I'd definitely recommend sticking another video card in it. In fact, I also put an old Creative Labs sound card in it because of all the problems I had with the onboard sound...

Just my 2 cents.

comptiger5000 · 05-09-2005, 05:25 PM

decent 32 mb pci video cards can be had from ecost.com for like 35 bucks

kevinlyfellow · 05-09-2005, 09:21 PM

ok, well thanks everyone for the help. I guess its time to go shopping (no complaints here

)