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Topic: All the colors are off!, Incorrect color rendering with Xvesa

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roadie

Group: Members
Posts: 59
Joined: Dec. 2003

Posted: July 26 2004,19:00

I'm running a Compaq 5721
Intel 500 64 ram, yes it is the 82810-DC100 CGC from I think 1999
My monitor is a Datatrain DC521P, Xfbdev does'nt work with my video.

Right now I'm running Feather 0.5.3 but as I said I have had no problems before with Feather or DSL.
It seems 800x600 is the best I can get, 1024x768 has always been dosed but I've never played with it, 800x600 is fine for my old eyes.

roadie

cbagger01

Group: Members
Posts: 4264
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: July 26 2004,21:50

Update:

I was able to locate a Dell Optiplex GX260 (Intel i845G series graphics controller) for some testing.

I didn't spend much time with the Xvesa server because it seems like a less promising approach.

However, I was able to get a 640x480x16 mode going with the following command line:

dsl vga=785

and select "xfbdev" at the prompt.

Unfortunately, you cannot run "Dillo" because it is too big for the screen. Instead, I "Right Click" on the left edge of the screen and choose "xkill" from the menu. I then click on the Dillo window to kill it.

Instead of Dillo I use glinks which (barely) fits on the screen. Because other applications also do not work with 640x480 I started up an xterm (rxvt dark) so I can ALT-TAB over to it and type "killall programname" if I get stuck again with a full screen application and no titlebar.

Now as to the Xi810 server. It appears that the precomipled binaries for this server do not seem to work with DSL. You cannot see the messages with the .xserverrc / startx command because the output is piped to /dev/null.

However, if you just type ./Xi810 from the command line you should get a grey screen with an "X" mouse cursor (hit CTL-ALT-BACKSPACE to exit).

But when I try this I get promped for a password. Something involving libPAM is interfering with the startup of the X Server. I tried setting the 'root' password, but typing in the root password at the prompt did not succeed to start up the xserver correctly.

Just to make sure that this was a precompiled binary problem and not an "Xi810" specific problem, I downloaded the precompiled Xvesa server and the same problems existed.

However, if I start the custom DSL executable (/usr/X11R6/bin/Xvesa) it works fine.

John, if you are reading this, please respond.

When you compiled the Xvesa / xfbdev servers, you should have also generated an Xi810 server. Do you still have it stored somewhere? Perhaps you could post it to an ftp or http link for us to try out.

A "plan-B" option is to boot up using the intelfb framebuffer driver instead of the vesa framebuffer. Maybe it will work with the xfbdev server.

The boot option for the kernel is described here:

http://www.xfree86.org/~dawes/intelfb.html

Good Luck.

RobF

Group: Members
Posts: 22
Joined: July 2004

Posted: July 27 2004,04:54

Thanks a lot, cbagger, for all the effort you've put into trying to solve this problem. The Intel i845G graphics chipset in the Dell Optiplex that you got your hands on is virtually identical with the i845GL that's in my Dell (the GL is missing a few features that the G has). So the hardware is very close.

Your tests seem to indicate that there may be a problem with the precompiled binaries dated 1/8/03 that one can download from the Kdrive-related website. There certainly is a disparity in file sizes: at the Kdrive website Xvesa is 965 KB and Xfbdev 937 KB whereas in the /usr/x11R6/bin directory of DSL Xvesa is 640 KB and Xfbdev 618 KB. But perhaps that means nothing and merely reflects precompiled binaries vs. fully compiled binaries.

I duplicated some of your tests and by and large got the same results.

With the boot time option 'dsl vga=785' and then choosing xfbdev in the "DSL X Setup" box, I indeed got an X window with 640x480x16 and correct colors. This is the only condition I've found so far for which the system would not crash when the Xfbdev server is chosen. With Xvesa too, that's the only resolution for which I get the correct colors but with Xvesa at least I get X windows at all the other resolutions (except of course that most colors are off).

I finally managed to set the permissions for the Xi810 file to match exactly those of Xvesa and Xfbdev. With that done, when I type ./Xi810 on the command line (ordinary user), I'm prompted for a password. When I type 'root', I get the error message "PAM authentication failure, cannot start X server." When I then change to root (sudo su) and type ./i810, the system fails with "segmentation fault" and kicks me back to the root prompt. I didn't get to the grey screen with the mouse cross cursor as you did as an ordinary user. However, the Kdrive folks say that these servers must be started as suid root (am I reading this right?).

E.g. here is a quote that I found on the web from someone associated with Kdrive:

"There are 10 servers: Xchips Xfbdev Xi810 Xigs Xmach64 Xsavage Xsis530 Xtrident Xtrio Xvesa. Grab a likely server, and put it in /usr/X11R6/bin, and chmod 4711 the server binary. XFree servers must be installed suid root. The Xvesa server should work with most hardware, as will Xfbdev. (You have to
enable the fb device at boot time.) The other card specific servers are more of a shot in the dark."

It certainly would be great if John (I presume you're referring to the principal developer of DSL) could make available a properly compiled binary of Xi810.

In the meantime, I'll explore "plan-B" and see if I can get David Dawes' Intel i845 frame buffer driver to work with the Kdrive Xfbdev.

Again, many thanks!

Robert

cbagger01

Group: Members
Posts: 4264
Joined: Oct. 2003

Posted: July 28 2004,01:30

Update:

I tried playing around with the intelfb device today and I was able to get it running. Unfortunately, when using the xfbdev kdrive server, I still got the blue screens and the weird colors.

If you wish to use the intelfb device for console mode, here is how you do it:

At boot prompt, type:

dsl vga=normal

Cancel out of the Xwindows to get back to the text prompt and type:

sudo su
modprobe intelfb mode=1024x768-8@60
exit

And you should be running in 1024x768 console text mode framebuffer.

The framebuffer driver only recognizes 892k of video memory, so make sure that your framebuffer resolution + color depth does not exceed 892k or you will be dumped into the default 640x480 frame buffer.

For example, 1024 Xpixels * 768 Ypixels * 8 bit (or 1 byte) color depth = 786,432 bytes of video RAM, so it works properly.

Hope this helps somewhat.

RobF

Group: Members
Posts: 22
Joined: July 2004

Posted: July 28 2004,02:48

Thanks, cbagger, for chipping away at this. I too tried out the intelfb driver, mostly though with Feather Linux where I got a little farther than with DSL. But the bottom line is: I still can't get the correct colors at an acceptable resolution.

The intelfb driver is definitely there, built into the kernel of the current versions of both DSL and Feather, and I'm sure I was running it. With Feather, I booted with the option knoppix 2 which gets me to runlevel 2, i.e. with no X started. From the root prompt, I typed "modprobe intelfb mode=640x480-16@60" and then "startx". That got me to the X Setup box where I selected Xfbdev. With those choices, I wound up with an oversized Dillo at 640x480 and the correct colors. So far so good.

But when I went through this procedure again, for any setting higher than 640x480, I wound up with X windows with the appropriate higher resolution but with incorrect colors which were worse than anything I'd seen before, e.g. Dillo with dark blue text on a black background and bright red menu and scroll bars, or with the Google letters very grainy in psychedelic colors.

You said: "The framebuffer driver only recognizes 892k of video memory, so make sure that your framebuffer resolution + color depth does not exceed 892k or you will be dumped into the default 640x480 frame buffer." That explains it - either I wound up with 640x480 and good colors even when I had set a higher resolution or I did get the higher resolution but only a few colors, principally blue and black.

The only virtue of using intelfb with Xfbdev is that with 1024x7687 and 1280x1024 you get nice looking small text in the console mode. But I don't expect I will spend much time in that mode.

There is also the fbset command which has quite a few options. You can spend hours changing settings and still not wind up with anything usable. With DSL, I duplicated most of what I had found with Feather using intelfb anf xfbdev, except I had more failures, i.e. nothing working at all and the system crashing.

Perhaps I'll put all of this before the author of intelfb who invited feedback and problem reports. This driver is supposed to support the i845G chipset. I may also want to send an email to John of DSL and ask him if he's got the Xi810 server compiled for Debian. I got the (precompiled?) Xi810 from RULE, and it probably wasn't compiled for a Debian-based system.

Where would you suggest I go from here? I really would like to get DSL going on my machine; it's a good distro to learn Linux from because it's lean and mean, and you're not distracted by the overwhelming bloat factor of full size Linux distros. Would it be very involved to replace the Kdrive servers with Xfree86? I don't mind carrying DSL around with me on a 210 MB CD as long as the colors are right.

Again, many thanks for your help, cbagger!

Robert

43 replies since July 17 2004,06:05

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