Video problems with Slack 10.2 on my Dell GX620
 

Ok so this is my latest project. I have Dell gx620 with Pentium D dual core, SATA drive, 2GB RAM and the integrated intel 945 chipset. I loaded Slack 10.2 with using the full install option. I am having several problems so far. But I'll start a thread for each so as to not confuse everyone.

For this thread, I have a problem with the graphics. X will only start up if I use the VESA framebuffer device. If i specify the i810 (thich is my understanding of the device I should use for this chipset), X exits with the error no screens found.

Here are the pertinent sections from the xorg.conf that doesn't work:
Section "Device"
Identifier "IntelDell"
Driver "i810"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
VideoRam 16384
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection


# **********************************************************************
# Screen sections
# **********************************************************************

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen_1"
Device "IntelDell"
Monitor "Dell"
DefaultDepth 16

Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
# Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 32
# Modes "1920x1440" "1600x1200" "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection

# **********************************************************************
# ServerLayout sections.
# **********************************************************************


Section "ServerLayout"

# The Identifier line must be present
Identifier "Simple Layout"
Screen "Screen_1"
InputDevice "Mouse1" "CorePointer"
InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"

EndSection

# Section "DRI"
# Mode 0666
# EndSection

And the output of lspci
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 945G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 945G Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02)

Any ideas where to start?

Check out my thread about DRI (Link is in my sig)

Do me a favor: Instead of using 'xorgconfig', run 'xorgsetup' as root. You may be surprised by the results...

That helped!
 

I ran xorgsetup with excellent results. (Thanks for the tip) I'm now running at 1280x1024 and it looks good. My only question is whether I should care that I'm running the vesa driver still.

pertinent xorg.conf sections:
Section "Monitor"
Identifier "Dell LCD"
VendorName "Dell"
ModelName "1905FP"
EndSection

Section "Device"
### Available Driver options are:-
### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
### [arg]: arg optional
#Option "ShadowFB" # [<bool>]
#Option "DefaultRefresh" # [<bool>]
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "vesa"
VendorName "Intel Corp."
BoardName "Unknown Board"
BusID "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Dell LCD"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 1
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 4
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 8
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 15
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 16
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Viewport 0 0
Depth 24
EndSubSection
EndSection


Xorg.0.log:
(II) VESA(0): initializing int10
(WW) VESA(0): Bad V_BIOS checksum
(II) VESA(0): Primary V_BIOS segment is: 0xc000
(II) VESA(0): VESA BIOS detected
(II) VESA(0): VESA VBE Version 3.0
(II) VESA(0): VESA VBE Total Mem: 7872 kB
(II) VESA(0): VESA VBE OEM: Intel(r)Lakeport-G Graphics Chip Accelerated VGA BIOS
(II) VESA(0): VESA VBE OEM Software Rev: 1.0
(II) VESA(0): VESA VBE OEM Vendor: Intel Corporation
(II) VESA(0): VESA VBE OEM Product: Intel(r)Lakeport-G Graphics Controller
(II) VESA(0): VESA VBE OEM Product Rev: Hardware Version 0.0
(**) VESA(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32
(==) VESA(0): RGB weight 888
(==) VESA(0): Default visual is TrueColor
(==) VESA(0): Using gamma correction (1.0, 1.0, 1.0)

If it works well, I wouldn't worry. I havn't read cwwilsons thread, so I don't know if it talks about DRI on an intel graphics chip... But it might be worth a look (I know I'm about to.)

I think there was a problem with the i810 xorg driver in that version. I could never get it to work on my laptop, had to use vesa, until I upgraded to -current which is using a newer xorg.

vesa works fine for general use so unless you seriously need the acceleration, I wouldn't worry about it.

and the best way to -current? Will shilo's swaret entry do?

Probably not. there are some new packages in current, some things have been split up and moved around. the way that worked for me is noted HERE, though your mileage may vary. ;)

The difference for most users would be that after rsyncing -current you would simply cd to the slackware directory (the one containing a/ ap/... xap/ & y/ and maybe following 10.2s UPGRADE.TXT

followed by fixing your kernel (make sure the symlinks are all good and run /sbin/lilo) and re-implementing any custom scripts. making sure the system boots to runlevel 3 just in case X got hooped.... the general drill when making a major system change.

err on the side of caution.

It was written SPECIFICALLY for Intel, and later expanded to Nvidia and ATI and others...

DO NOT USE SWARET TO 'UPGRADE' TO -current!!!!
Shilo even admits in another thread that the swaret deal is wrong.
-current is so far away from 10.2, things will break. Either find a premade iso image of -current, make your own, or find a script that will mirror -current for you and make one.
vesa is fine. Leave it in, because if all else fails, you can use that to get into X.
What are you talking about? Xorg in 10.2 never failed on Intels. There were issues with ATI, but not Intel. You just had a bad configuration, or a chip that was made long after Xorg was written. Did you read my guide and recompile your kernel?

Yeah, I went and read the thread about 2 minutes after I posted that comment. :oops:

lol...

It happens. 22 thousand have read it so far, now 22 thousand and 1...lol

rsyncing now... I'll try the 10.2 upgrade instructions. I used the to get from 10.1 to 10.2 on another box so that should be straight forward enough. Thanks for the help everyone.

Now, how about a good guide for recompiling? The thread on this site is now 30 pages long. Is there a good synopsis somewhere?

One more video question
 

I have my LCD plugged into the DVI riser card on this GX620. While on DVI, the contrast function is disabled using the on screen controls. When this was running windows, the contrast could be set using the advabced desktop properties. Any idea how I do that now?

Upgrade good
 

The -current upgrade went well. I'm going to work on the new kernel now. Thanks all

New kernel
 

Just wanted to stop back and let you know how it went. I configured the new kernel with sata, smp & himem support. I had to compile twice because i didn't know which sata driver to compile in the kernel. Got it the second time. We're not booting 2.6.17.7. Linux sees both cores, 2GB RAM and the sata without initrd. Very nice.

Thanks to all.