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Old 12-03-2004, 02:03 AM   #1
Ozlin
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Registered: Dec 2004
Posts: 2

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Problems With startx (depth unsupported and unusable configuration errors)


I'm new to Linux, but managed to successfully install Slackware, however I've run into an issue with startx.

I went through the xorgconfig setup and selected what I think were the best settings. But upon entering the "startx" command it seems to start to load, screen goes black for a second, then it comes back with two errors:

Quote:
(EE) VGA(0): Given depth (16) is not supported by this driver.
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.
I then decided to try forcing depth to something else, trying the "startx -- -depth 8" and also at 4. Doing that did seem to load everything up, however the screen is pretty much unusable, looking as if its split either in two or multiple slits across the screen kinda like a window blind depending on the depth I set, also the colors are rather low and graphics unrecognizable, text unreadable, making it unusable (believe me I tried).

I also tried going back into xorgconfig and selecting different options, but none caused any improvements.

The computer I'm trying to do this on is pretty old (around 1999), I believe it has a SiS 530 graphics card with 8 mb of video memory. I tried tracking down some other drivers to try those out, but I got stuck with an rpm file dependency loop (this rpm needs this one and this one needs this one, ad infinitium). I'm not even sure if any other drivers would help either.

Heres a snipit from my xorg log:
Quote:
(II) Setting vga for screen 0.
(II) Loading sub moduel "int10"
(II) LoadingModule: "int10"
(II) Laoding /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/linux/libint10.a
(II) Module int10: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
compiled for 6.7.0, module version = 1.0.0
ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 0.7
(II) VGA(0): initializing int10.
(II) VGA(0): Primary V_BIOS segment is: 0xc000
(EE) VGA(0): Given depth (16) is not supported by this driver.
(II) UnloadModule: "vga"
(II) UnloadModule: "int10"
(II) Unloading /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/linux/libint10.a
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error :
no screens found
I recall trying Knoppix once and not having any horrible graphical issues such as this, which makes me think there is a way to fix this.

Any suggestions on a solution to fixing this?
 
Old 12-04-2004, 08:59 AM   #2
nukkel
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Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Belgium
Distribution: Hardened gentoo
Posts: 323

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It looks like X is using the VGA driver, which is really only meant as a fallback (maximum bpp is 8, etc. ).

Try to select the "sis" driver. It should be buit-in in X (no seperate rpms needed).
If xorgconfig won't let you do it, edit the config file (normally /etc/X11/XF86Config) by hand, there should be a "Device" section in it, change (or add) the "Driver" field to "sis"
 
Old 12-05-2004, 02:54 AM   #3
Ozlin
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Registered: Dec 2004
Posts: 2

Original Poster
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Thank you so much! This has been a problem that no one has had any advice on or was able to fix for months now.

What I did was went into the xorg.conf file using vi and changed the two occurences of Driver "vga" as you said (I missed one at first), simply changing them to "sis" did the trick! Everything seems to be running smoothly now! I didn't check through the xorgconfig program because I remember from the list of drivers it had that sis was not present.

Thank you again!
 
Old 12-05-2004, 04:21 AM   #4
nukkel
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Registered: Mar 2003
Location: Belgium
Distribution: Hardened gentoo
Posts: 323

Rep: Reputation: 30
No problem! Have fun with your new system
and bookmark linuxquestions.org!

nukkel
 
  


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