Laptops :: No X Display pm ThinkPad - Out of Ideas



Okay, I've done some more searching here and elsewhere, and have found out the following:

- No one has gotten X running with DSL on a ThinkPad 701c, except by doing a HD install and then downloading and installing xFree86, which allows for a proper XConfig file in which one can properly specify the exact graphics chip/device.

- Doing an "Xvesa -listmodes" brings up a number of modes for the 701's graphics chip (a Chips and Technology 65545 with 1MB VRAM). However, all the color modes say "(no linear framebuffer)" - which I believe means that this graphics chip is vesa 1.2 compliant and NOT vesa 2.0 compliant. That in turn means that there's no way to make it work with the xvesa or xfbdev drivers included in DSL.

- The only modes that are not listed as "no linear framebuffer" are monochrome modes. I took the hex code for 640x480x1 (i.e. 640x480 monochrome), converted it to decimal, and used a cheatcode with it: "dsl vga=529". But this code appears to be unsupported, as it does not prevent the "undefined mode number" error during early boot, and it does not enable X to start up properly with fbdev or xvesa.

So... it looks like the ThinkPad 701 and DSL are a no-go combination in a Live/standard version, unless/until someone makes a VESA 1.2-compatible fbdev, or perhaps finds a way to make the xvesa/fbdev X system configurable to the extent that XFree86 is.

Oh well.  :(

Matt
The xfbdev server does not care about compatibility.

It just takes your currently activated framebuffer driver (from the linux kernel) and uses it to run X-Windows graphics.

I agree that XVesa does not support VESA1.2 but xfbdev does not understand or even talk to your video card's BIOS or low level video driver.

So the real solution is to find a linux framebuffer cheatcode (similar to vga=771) that works with your video card.  Maybe googling for either the laptop model number or the chipset model number and combined with "linux frame buffer" will get you somewhere.

Otherwise, you will need to use XFree86.

As far as I know (I don't use it), it IS POSSIBLE to use the XFree86.dsl when running from livecd and not just for a full hd install.

HOWEVER, you will probably need a decent amount or RAM + SWAP SPACE in order to use it.
Quote (cbagger01 @ Feb. 11 2006,17:31)
The xfbdev server does not care about compatibility.

It just takes your currently activated framebuffer driver (from the linux kernel) and uses it to run X-Windows graphics.

[snip]

So the real solution is to find a linux framebuffer cheatcode (similar to vga=771) that works with your video card.  Maybe googling for either the laptop model number or the chipset model number and combined with "linux frame buffer" will get you somewhere.

Thanks again for your continued help, cbagger01.

I have done a lot of googling on the TP701c and framebuffer, and so far I haven't turned up any success stories that don't make use of xfree86. (I don't have anything against xfree86, but as you point out it's rather resource-intensive, which pretty much negates most of the benefits of using DSL on this old machine.)

When I use "vga=normal" I don't get the "undefined mode number" error during the boot process. But I still don't get the Penguin graphic, and X still won't work (with xfbdev it's the fb0 module error; with xvesa it's a black screen).

I do still have a couple of vga cheatcodes left to try, but my feeling is that it's probably going to be a no-go.

Also, for the fb cheatcodes, I wish I could try fb640x480, but apparently there's no support for that in the kernel.

Best,
Matt
Update - I've tried every single supported VGA cheatcode and I cannot get X to load - no supported framebuffer for the graphics chip in the Thinkpad 701c.  :(

Such a shame - during boot DSL detects a PCMCIA enet card in the machine and automatically starts up TCP/IP and (apparently) gets DHCP info from my router - something no other *nix or old-school OS does.

Matt

original here.