X window problem

Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: X window problem
started by: georges-h

Posted by georges-h on Oct. 14 2003,13:52

Hello -

I am trying to use DSL on an old Fujitsu Monte Carlo laptop. Everything goes along smoothly until the point where you select the X server to use.

When I select the frame buffer option I get an error message stating that fb0 cannot be found.

When I try the Xvesa option the system just sits there and nothing happens.

The video chipset is a Trident set (I don't remember exactly which one - I'm at work not at home).

Morphix does work fine - I would prefer to use DSL because I prefer Fluxbox over XFCE.

Can anyone help me with this?

George

Posted by not_logged_in_now on Oct. 14 2003,15:55

Try booting with the option 'fb600x800'. You would add that at the boot prompt.

Posted by John on Oct. 14 2003,15:57

Oops, make that fb800x600.

Posted by davide on Oct. 14 2003,21:48

same problem with trident TGUI 9440. not solved yet.
I'm using it in text mode, right now.But I don't know why xserver doesn't work, because debian's Xserver works on this pc..
I don't know. maybe this chipset does not support Xvesa.
typing (knoppix +) fb800x600 at boot doesn't help.
choosing xfbdev in the config script neither.

Posted by John on Oct. 14 2003,22:39

Hi, don't type knoppix + fb800x600, but just fb800x600 by itself and then pick the Xfbdev server.

fb800x600 is about the same as selecting 'knoppix vga=788'.

Posted by skaos on Oct. 15 2003,10:18

Xvesa requires a vesa 2.0 compliant card and as vesa 2.0 was published at the end of 1994 (if I remember correctly), it may be that your cards is too old. Though, it should work with standard VGA, i.e. 640x480 and 16 colours/4bit colour.

Posted by grantuk on Oct. 15 2003,19:28

I think this is what i need to do because i have he same error.
Do i type 'fb800x600' while sudo su'd?

Posted by georges-h on Oct. 15 2003,20:24

Hello again -

I tried typing fb800x600 at the boot: prompt and then selecting the Xfbdev server during the boot process. I still get the same error message - can't find fb0.

Additional ideas/thoughts or am I just out of luck - along with some other folks, it looks like?

George

Posted by georges-h on Oct. 16 2003,01:53

Hello -

The exact error message is as follows:

modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module fb0
XIO: fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0"
after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

The video chipset on my laptop is the Trident Cyber 9385.

Anybody got an suggestions?

(Tried Knoppix and can't get it to fly either).

George S-H

Posted by davide on Oct. 16 2003,07:56

same for me.
should we edit any config file somewhere? but which one?
don't know.

Posted by John on Oct. 16 2003,16:32

If your laptop won't boot into frambuffer at 800x600 you are stuck having to use the Xvesa at very low resolution. Try 800x600 at 4 or 8 bit color.

Posted by davide on Oct. 17 2003,08:17

hum...didn't work for me

I tried each and every config possibility that the config utility offers, both with fb and xvesa, but it doesn't start.

maybe I could use VGA mode, but how can I do that? does anyone know, by any chance?

thanx

Posted by Kyle on Nov. 12 2003,13:29

My toshiba laptop has the same video card, and typing fb800x600 at boot instead of hitting enter works for me. So perhaps it is something other than the video card's fault.

Posted by totty on Nov. 12 2003,17:13

what version are you using ? I had a different but possibly related problem with 4.9 but 4.10 works fine.

Posted by doc_terence on Dec. 06 2003,20:00

Same problem here,
can´t start x-server with a thinkpad 760XD
which have a Trident Cyber 9385 video card.

Any suggestions ?

Greetz Doc.

Posted by Crotalus on Dec. 08 2003,03:31

People please run a search

Anyway, I have posted a thread awhile ago about old/odd/laptop video cards that just don't want to work. The original fb0 error is also fixed in this. Link < http://damnsmalllinux.org/cgi-bin....3;t=393 >
I had this problem too, but I did some heavy research so here is the solution that worked for me, hope it helps you!

Posted by doc_terence on Dec. 08 2003,08:34

Thanks for your help.

i get DSL running on xvesa with 800x600 and 4 Bit.
Anything greater than this is impossible :-(

any suggestions ?

Greetz Doc.

Posted by Crotalus on Dec. 09 2003,04:22

Hmm, make lilo create a fb0 device for you and use the xfbdev Xserver instead of Xvesa. This has worked for me and should work for your trident because its supposed to be hardware independant.
Do you have any particular reason for using Xvesa? Try my fix and use xfbdev as the x server, NOT xvesa.

Posted by terence on Dec. 09 2003,08:31

Thanks for you advice,

but why create a fb0 device ? while booting DSL i can select
a xfb server

But with XFB xserver won´t start.

greetz doc.

Posted by doc_terence on Dec. 09 2003,19:26

Same problem here , also with Trident Cyber 9385 chipset.

Geroges-H do you also have a thinkpad 760xd?

modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module fb0
XIO: fatal IO error 104 (Connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0"
after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.

The video chipset on my laptop is the Trident Cyber 9385.

Posted by TyphoonMentat on Dec. 09 2003,20:19

You might need the specialised KDrive XTrident server - Trident cards aren't known to work too well with XVesa. See if you can find a pre-compiled copy of XTrident anywhere, and try that.

Posted by Crotalus on Dec. 09 2003,23:28

See when you get the error "modprobe: modprobe: Can't locate module fb0" Linux is saying, "Hey, you haven't made a framebuffer yet!" and sends a fatal error. So, when you put "vga=788" in the /etc/lilo.conf file it tells lilo to tell the kernel to make a fb0 device which Xfbdev, the framebufer server, works on! That's why this fix works. DSL, or the app modprobe rather, tries to setup your video card when you run DSL / install DSL. However, on older/f*cked up cards it doesn't always know what to do so you have to help it a bit :;):

Posted by doc_terence on Dec. 10 2003,08:06

Hmm, first of all i have not a hd install of dsl i´m booting
from floppy .

I´ve read that entering "knoppix vga=788" at boot should do the same job as editing the lilo.conf. Entering this at boot prompt changed nothing, same error.

So Next I tryed to edit lilo.conf with the tool lilo-config. Lilo-config asks for a pw. but i´ve never set a pw for root

Thanks for your patient.

greetz doc

Posted by Crotalus on Dec. 11 2003,03:04

About root, when booting from CD/Floppy use 'sudo -u root <cmd>' to run any cmd as root. And you can't edit the lilo for the CD but you can enter 'fb800x600' to get the same effect as entering 'vga=788' in lilo.conf. I thought you were doing a hdd install, well anyway the cd fix is a tad easier but you have type it in everytime

So basicly, just enter 'fb800x600' as a boot param, hint: no 'knoppix' at front of boot params

Posted by doc_terence on Dec. 11 2003,19:13

Hi Crotalus,

entering 'fb800x600' at boot prompt finally didn´t changed nothing

XFB doesn´t start, same error code.

Finally it seems that it´s better still using Win98se for this
IBM Laptop, because best mode is 640X480 4 Bit ... with Xvesa.

Greetz Doc.

Posted by Crotalus on Dec. 11 2003,23:25

doc_terence , I did a google search for you and found a XF86Config that you might want to setup on your machine (/etc/X11/ dir). The link is here: < http://www.qsl.net/n0nb/arc/XF86Config.txt > G/L

Posted by doc_terence on Dec. 12 2003,08:31

Thanx a lot Crotalus,

this looks very promising, but is there a way to copy
the new X86Config to /etc/X11/ ?? If i try to save the file
there it say´s can´t save.. file system is read only..

Can I change this somewhere ??

Greetz
Doc

Posted by doc terence on Dec. 20 2003,16:39

Ok. i´m giving up.

No way to get the trident video card to work, and
if i think about linux sound support (mwave) for
the Thinkpad.....

It´s better to use win98se for this
laptop, because sound / video (1024x768 24bit) is full supported :-)

Greetz Doc