[Gutsy] Tribe 1 installer gives blank video during boot

[Matt Weller]

HP nw8240 laptop

When trying to install Gutsy Tribe 1 the screen goes black after the usplash status screen. The system is booting fine as I can hear the login sound effects and the system is usable if I ctrl-alt-f1. lspci -v lists the ATI video card as (ran from my Feisty install):

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X700 (PCIE) (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 0940
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        I/O ports at 2000 [size=256]
        Memory at c8800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at c8820000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2
        Capabilities: [58] Express Endpoint IRQ 0
        Capabilities: [80] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit+ Queue=0/0 Enable-

[Matt Weller (gapplewagen)]

Also, "Safe Graphics" and vga=771 does not help or fix this issue. Attached is the xorg.cof file the Gutsy generated.

[Matt Weller (gapplewagen)]

If I replace /etc/X11/xorg.conf with the xorg.conf file from my Feisty install and then kill off the X process (restarting gdm does not work) I can get X to load. However, the fonts are tiny and my touchpad scrolling does not work. Attached is the xorg.conf file that works for me under Feisty and that I'm currently using with the Gutsy livecd.

[Matt Weller (gapplewagen)]

Last post for now. Attached is the Xorg.0.log file for the semi-working xorg.conf file. Lines of interest:

(EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/lib/dri/r300_dri.so failed (/usr/lib/dri/r300_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory)
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering

- and -

(II) Synaptics touchpad driver version 0.14.6 (1406)
Synaptics no synaptics event device found (checked 10 nodes)
Synaptics The /dev/input/event* device nodes seem to be missing
(**) Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
(**) Option "HorizScrollDelta" "0"
Query no Synaptics: 6003C8
(EE) Synaptics no synaptics touchpad detected and no repeater device
(EE) Synaptics Unable to query/initialize Synaptics hardware.
(EE) PreInit failed for input device "Synaptics"
(II) UnloadModule: "synaptics"

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for including all the xorg.conf and Xorg.0.log files! Those are helpful for ruling out several possibilities.

I notice in your xorg.conf that the monitor is listed as a generic. One thing you could try is to manually specify the hsync and vrefresh rates specific to your monitor in there. In theory, xorg should be able to autodetect those, but sometimes it can't. You can do this by changing your monitor section to look like this:

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Default"
 Option "DPMS"
        HorizSync 28-80
        VertRefresh 48-75
EndSection

But change the numbers to match the frequencies for your monitor. You can find these rates from your monitor manual (usually). If you don't have the manual handy, you can often find it on the manufacturer's website.

Based on your description of the problem (everything working ok seemingly, but the monitor blanking out) it sounds like a monitor issue. Since monitor detection is not 100%, and issues are fairly common, that's what makes me think the refresh rates may be mis-detected. Apologies if you've already checked this.

[Matt Weller (gapplewagen)]

Yeah I figured that it had something to do with that. I knew it was a monitor issue and not vid card or gdm/X wouldn't have even started. I haven't had time to manually set it up yet. As I said though, it worked with my xorg.conf file from my working Feisty install and my Monitor section just says:

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Default"
 Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Wasn't sure what to make of that.

[Bryce Harrington (bryce)]

Ah, I think I see what the problem is. Since it didn't detect the monitor, it set the wrong resolutions up. This is a dupe of 3731 apparently.

Change your screen section to look like this:

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Device "ATI Technologies, Inc. X700"
 Monitor "Default"
 DefaultDepth 24
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth 1
  Modes "1680x1050"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth 4
  Modes "1680x1050"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth 8
  Modes "1680x1050"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth 15
  Modes "1680x1050"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth 16
  Modes "1680x1050"
 EndSubSection
 SubSection "Display"
  Depth 24
  Modes "1680x1050"
 EndSubSection
EndSection

Alternately, install and run displayconfig-gtk as root, and test out correcting the resolutions through that GUI tool. We'll probably be having people use this approach for fixing these resolution issues from now on.

[Matt Weller (gapplewagen)]

The above screen section did indeed fix the problem. I did not try displayconfig-gtk.