Load Graphics Driver for USB Boot

Forum: USB booting
Topic: Load Graphics Driver for USB Boot
started by: Juanito

Posted by Juanito on Sep. 22 2005,03:13

As my graphics card (Intel 855) is not supported by DSL, I can either boot in 640 x 480 (all four sides of the EmelFM window are off-screen so it cannot be used) or in 1024 x 784 with weird colours that are 50% unreadable.

I have downloaded the Intel 82845G driver and 855 Patch (so I can use XFree86) but am unable to install them. If I try directly from the USB I get an error because the USB is mounted read only (?). If I copy the files to /ramdisk/ and unpack and try to install (the idea being that the backup/restore function would copy them back to USB on shutdown) I get an error message "mount: special device /dev/root does not exist"

I can use my USB installation as it stands (just, I am posting this from it) but it would be much better with the proper graphics drivers. Note that I do not have a CD drive on this machine so I cannot boot from CD.

Can anyone help?

Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 23 2005,04:32

You can use emelfm and other programs with a 640x480 screen.

You can press down the ALT key and click and drag the window down until you can reach the "Maiximize" button in the upper right corner. Then push it.

I have run 1024x768x8bit color with an Intel 845G integrated graphics.

Press CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE to exit the graphical mode.
Type

xsetup.sh

and choose XVesa 1024x768 8 bit color

type

nano .xserverrc

and add the parameter "-swaprgb" to the first line of text.
Make sure that you add it before the "-mouse" parameter.

Then press CTRL-O to save and CTRL-X to exit.

Then type

startx

to return to graphical mode.

Finally, your card might work with the standard XFree86 i810 driver. It can't hurt to give it a try.

Good Luck.

Posted by Juanito on Sep. 23 2005,10:03

Thanks

I added the "-swaprgb" parameter to .xserverrc (note I had to reboot so that backup/restore would overwrite the default .xserverrc file) but that didn't fix the problem.

I'll try to "prune" the contents of my 64Mb USB stick so that I can fit XFree86 on it to see if that cures the Intel 855 graphics problem. BTW, are you referring to the XFree86.dsl extension or the full XFree86 installation?

If you mean XFree86.dsl, can you run this under Fluxbox along with xfree86config.dsl or do you (somehow) have to run it from boot after copying the two files to the USB root directory?

Posted by cbagger01 on Sep. 23 2005,22:23

I don't run it myself (I use DSL embedded from within MSWindows), but I recommend the Xfree86.dsl extension. You don't need to use Xfree86config.dsl unless you need help in building your XFree86 config file. Even so, once you have successfully built your XF86Config-4 file you can then get rid of the xfree86config.dsl extension because it is no longer needed.

Other people here have more experience with XFree86.dsl extension than me. Maybe they can help. It is also possible build a customized, smaller xfree86.dsl extension that only keeps your x-server (i810) and gets rid of the ones that go unused for your specific computer model.

Posted by Juanito on Sep. 26 2005,02:21

I tried the XFree86.dsl extension a couple of times without success (I get a fetching lime green screen...). Maybe I'm making a mistake with the XF86Config-4 config file but it's not obvious.

Is there a FAQ on how to install modules under DSL? I downloaded several modules packaged for Debian but they don't want to install under DSL.

Posted by Juanito on Sep. 27 2005,06:11

Since I could not get the XFree86.dsl to work, I tried downloading the full version of XFree86.

When I try to install XFree86, the installation seems to initially go OK but after a certain time, I start to get error messages stating that there is no more space available and the installation aborts.

Since the installation is copying files to /ramdisk/ I cannot imagine there is a space problem (I have 1Gb RAM) - does the problem occour because /ramdisk/ is linked to the 64Mb USB stick I am booting from?

On a similar subject, I have also tried to install the i915Graphics driver and 955 patch downloaded from the Intel site and the Synaptics driver for the touchpad on my laptop. In both cases I cannot install the drivers - the Intel driver installation reports a required utility is missing and the Synaptics driver does not have an executable install file.

Does the installation of drivers require the use of an apt or dpkg utility or similar?

Any help would be much appreciated.