fb0 Device

Forum: Other Help Topics
Topic: fb0 Device
started by: Crotalus

Posted by Crotalus on Dec. 30 2003,01:07

The How-To is about how to activate a fb0 device on a computer that is having this error:

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.

Or something to that effect. This might solve other errors too, personally, I'm not sure.

To begin, if you are having the above error, you will boot into a console after it.
Now, type cd etc at this console then type nano lilo.conf. This should have gotten you to a text editor showing the configuration

file of LILO, the linux bootloader. Now, look for a line that looks like this:

vga=791

The number might be diffrent, but I believe that's the default. After you have found this

line, you're going to need to edit the number there. The original number doesn't work so
you need to try others. Here is a list of valid parameters for this.

Colours Resolution
640x400 640x480 800x600 1024x768 1152x864 1280x1024 1600x1200
------------\_/--------------------------------------------------------------
16 | ? ? 770 ? ? ? ?
256 | 768 769 771 773 353 775 796
32,768 | ? 784 787 790 354 793 797
65,536 | ? 785 788 791 355 794 798
16.8 million | ? 786 789 792 ? 795 799
16.8 million | ? ? ? ? 356 ? ?

Once you have edited lilo.conf, press and hold CTRL and press

X then press Y to save it, and then press ENTER.

Now, you should be back at the console. Type lilo to have LILO, the

Linux Bootloader, re-read the configuration file. If you skip this step, your computer might

not be able to boot-up, resulting in a re-install of linux, or just the loader. You can now

restart the computer, and when you boot up you should see a little penguin in top-left hand

corner. To reset the fb0 device to the way it was, instead of putting a number, put

normal. I have tryed this on a NM2090 (NeoMagic Graph128V). Please

leave your video card's manufacturer and chipset/model number and amount of memory if this

worked for you.

Posted by John on Dec. 30 2003,01:36

Thanks Crotalus! Just a quick add, if you are running from the CD on a laptop made in the mid to late 90s try booting with fb800x600. If the framebuffer is working then you will see the little Tux penguin in the upper left corner. Then you will be able to run Xfbdev.

By default Knoppix and DSL tries to establish a framebuffer at 1024x768 which is too much for many laptops from this period.

Posted by Crotalus on Dec. 30 2003,19:20

If you get the Undefined Mode Error, this will fix that too. :;):

Posted by gekkokid on April 02 2004,20:10

this helped me alot

thanx to dan for showing it me (this post i mean) and Crotalus for the info via this post

all i know is that my graphics card is a neomagic 1mb on a compaq presario 1020

thx Crotalus

Posted by mclien on April 07 2004,09:01

Thanks for the hint, but for me it doesn't work:

IBM Thinkpad 560 (2640-10u), Trident Cyber 9385/82 PCI with 1MB videoram

still the same error....

any ideas?

Posted by Tomo on April 07 2004,09:57

Try "vga=0x314"

thats 800x600 @ 16bit

google for xserver screen sizes ........ the ones above wouldnt work for me either.

Posted by mclien on April 07 2004,10:36

no,
is perhaps on some notebooks the screen not :0.0 ?

Posted by mclien on April 07 2004,10:40

...or are there somwhere permissions to set somewhere, so this peer doesn't refuse me to connect the Display :0.0 ?

Posted by Niko on April 15 2004,23:29

Hi,
I have the same problem with a tp560 (cyber 9382)

As far as I know the resolution depth is only 8.

For me X worked only resolution 480x640 with an "unused" black frame around the X window.

Being a total newbie, I played in lilo.config with "vga=770" and "vga=771" - unfortunately without success

TIA,
Niko

Posted by edard on April 17 2004,02:39

No help for my ThinkPad 750Cs either. Have been fighting this problem for a week now and still stuck in a text-only non-enhanced install despite much good help from the courteous and knowledgeable users here.

Any 750Cs users out there having any success?

Posted by WW on May 10 2004,01:50

I'm trying to run DSL from the CD on a Dell Latitude LM (133MHz, 40Meg ram). The CD is not bootable, so I boot with a DSL floppy. The video chip set is NeoMagic 2070 (only 896K memory, no MMX). X is not working yet. If I try the defaults, I get the "Can't locate module fb0" and "Undefined mode..." errors. The closest I've come to a working X is by entering "fb800x600 vga=771" (without the quotes) at the boot prompt. (I didn't know I could give the vga parameter like that--I just tried it out of desperation. I'm not sure if it is supposed to work that way.) I don't get the "fb0" or "Undefined mode" errors, and X starts up, but it is only blue and black, with most menus and other text being black-on-black (i.e. invisible text).

Any suggestions?

I am hoping to get something working before I decide to install it on the hard disk.

Posted by WW. on May 20 2004,00:40

I just want to add that I know it is possible to get Xfbdev working on the Dell Latitude LM, because it works in Feather Linux. At the Feather Linux boot prompt, I enter "knoppix lang=us vga=771", and when the X configuration screen comes up, I select Xfbdev. (As soon as the window manager comes up, I change the style to "minimal". With only 256 colors, the fancier styles get "posterized" and don't look very nice.) It seems that Feather and Damn Small are quite similar. What is Damn Small doing differently that prevents X from working?