xorg failure with geode based terminal

[Francis Giraldeau]

Binary package hint: ltsp-client-core

Geode based thin-client doesn't work. The screen is mangled with green dots.

[Francis Giraldeau (francis-giraldeau)]

Here is the log file from Xorg

[Guillaume (guillaume-vigeant)]

true I got the same problem with my s10 and my lt2600(lx800) I had to build my own xorg.conf file and my lt2600 still isnt working.

[Guillaume (guillaume-vigeant)]

xorg -confirgure actually fails to build a xorg.conf on the client thus failing to start the xserver. I saw that by only specifying a shell in the lts.conf and tryed to configure X from there and it failed because of some missing libraries for one useless driver. This the results in no xorg.conf file beeing created. Try specifying a xor.conf file in your lts.conf file...

[Francis Giraldeau (francis-giraldeau)]

I did test under Hardy and this is the message I got in /var/log/Xorg.1.log on the thin-client :

Number of created screens does not match number of detected devices.
  Configuration failed.

Seems that autoconfiguration for this device is still not working properly.

00:01.1 VGA compatible controller: National Semiconductor Corporation Geode GX2 Graphics Processor

There should have a default xorg file with VESA driver to, at least, make the device working.

[Theo Schmidt (sus2006)]

Our Geode-based Thinner Formula Thin Client (thinner.de) work fine with LTSP4.2 ( under VESA) and LTSP5 from Gutsy. They no longer work with LTSP from Hardy: they boot and show the splash and progress bar and go black, however the monitor still gets a signal.

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

this bug is a duplicate, please test the packages from hardy-proposed

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

It should be noted that configuration with always fail on GX1 ("nsc" driver) and GX2 ("geode" driver) hardware. This is because both chipsets share the same PCI ID and yet X.org needs to match a PCI ID with a precise driver module; it cannot be made to match on two different drivers. For this reason, support for NSC products will be imported into the unified GEODE driver sometimes later this year, on time for inclusion into Intrepid.

Hardy might also receive an SRU exception to allow uploading a backport of the updated driver with NSC support merged back in, but this will require extensive discussion with the Release Manager, before it can be allowed.

However, with the fixed xserver-xorg-core (2:1.4.1~git20080131-1ubuntu9.1) and xserver-xorg-video-geode (2.9.0-1ubuntu1) currently sitting in hardy-proposed and in intrepid, this should at least work on LX-based hardware.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

I confirm that the xserver-xorg-core and xserver-xorg-video-geode packages in hardy-proposed fix operation on standalone hosts, but not in LTSP. However, reverting to the earlier xserver-xorg-video-amd package suddenly fixes it.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Please try packages in my PPA for GEODE 2.9.0-1ubuntu2 which add support for Debian/Ubuntu-specific X server files and test whether this fixes the issues.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

2.9.0-1ubuntu2 was just replaced by 2.9.0-1ubuntu3 to completely close this issue. It's already available in my PPA and should soon be uploaded to Hardy-proposed. For Intrepid, package 2.9.0-3 (pending import from Debian/unstable) includes the same fixes.

[joehill (joseph-hill)]

I've installed 2.9.0-1ubuntu3 from Martin-Éric's PPA and I'm still having the same problem. Blinking cursor instead of X. I can't get into a terminal in the thin client to see any error messages either.

[tanyacomputer (tanyacomputer)]

I have the same problem and work with the same unit (LT2610) as Guillaume has. I had installed with the latest *buntu distro (hardy) with the lates geode driver(2.9), but still no luck. Is there any solution for configuring this X yet?

ps:
server spec: ibm xseries 335 type 8676
thin client unit: LT2610 from Lucidatech

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Please note that you must install the updated drivers inside the chroot that is used to build boot images and then rebuild the image afterwards:

1) sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386/
2) mount -t proc proc /proc
3) echo "deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu hardy-proposed main restricted" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
4) aptitude update && aptitude safe-upgrade
5) apt-get clean
6) exit
7) sudo ltsp-update-kernels
8) sudo ltsp-update-image

Done.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Updating xserver-xorg-video-all, xserver-xorg-video-nsc and xserver-xorg-video-geode from my PPA should fix this issue. Please test this.

NOTE: make sure that you purge xserver-xorg-video-amd after upgrading all the above, before you rebuild your LTSP boot image.

[joehill (joseph-hill)]

Re. the blinking cursor/no X issue, my system is up-to-date (I'm assuming Martin-Éric's PPA builds have been worked into proposed because they're no longer available), and I've rebuilt kernels and image, purged the amd package, but I'm still getting the same problem. I don't know about chrooting--I tried that but I can't update&&upgrade since the network doesn't seem to be working through chroot. (I have no idea how to do this since I'm not much of a chroot user.)

Am I still doing something wrong or is there still a problem with this geode setup? For what it's worth, I still get the blinking cursor even when I set "XSERVER = none", so does that mean this is a separate issue from the driver issue?

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Please try either of the methods show below to upgrade to the latest packages from hardy-proposed:

http://q-funk.blogspot.com/2008/06/howto-build-clean-ltsp-boot-image-that.html

http://q-funk.blogspot.com/2008/06/howto-make-geode-thin-clients-work-on.html

Please let us know whether this resolves the issue.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Please note that all required package updates have now entered Hardy-updates and are already present in Intrepid. Can you please test them by following the above procedure and confirm whether this fixes the issue you reported?

[Theo Schmidt (sus2006)]

Martin-Éric Racine schrieb:
> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 214119 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/214119
>
> Please note that all required package updates have now entered Hardy-
> updates and are already present in Intrepid. Can you please test them by
> following the above procedure and confirm whether this fixes the issue
> you reported?

I use Kubuntu 6.06 with LTSP 4.2 and this works with all clients I have.
So does LTSP 5.0, but this is very slow booting. I'm now trying to
update to Edubuntu 8.04. While our clients made of old PCs work, our
modern Geode-based Thinner Formula Thin Clients don't work with 8.04.

After doing the following:

su -
chroot /opt/ltsp/i386
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade
apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-geode
exit
ltsp-update-kernels
ltsp-update-sshkeys

I do get the login and splash screens, but then it just goes black.

Is this bug therefore not yet completely solved or is the above method
wrong?

Theo Schmidt

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Theo, please follow one of the two methods explained here, to build your LTSP chroot:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ltsp/+bug/131675/comments/16

Also, please tell us the brand name and model number of the exact Geode hardware you are trying to boot this with.

[Theo Schmidt (sus2006)]

Martin-Éric Racine schrieb:
...
> Theo, please follow one of the two methods explained here, to build your
> LTSP chroot:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ltsp/+bug/131675/comments/16

Thank you, Martin-Éric! It worked using the second method:

sudo chroot /opt/ltsp/i386
echo "deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/q-funk/ubuntu hardy main" >>
     /etc/apt/sources.list
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade && apt-get clean
      answer "Yes".
apt-get --purge remove xserver-xorg-video-amd
exit
sudo ltsp-update-image

The line with "echo" didn't work properly, I had to modify
/etc/apt/sources-list directly.

It appears that your q-funk repository is the only one which works,
neither the normal hardy nor hardy-proposed repositories seem to work
yet. Any idea when your changes will be incorporated there?

> Also, please tell us the brand name and model number of the exact Geode
> hardware you are trying to boot this with.

It is a Thinner Formula (thinner.de) with
AMD Geode LX-800 (500 MHz)

Thanks again for your work! We have 10 of these thin clients, so not
being able to use them was pretty bad.

Regards, Theo Schmidt

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Actually, hardy-updates already has what's needed. You can safely replace my PPA with hardy-updates.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

More precisely, hardy-updates has what's needed for Geode LX.

However, for Geode GX2, the package in my PPA is needed until the changes have reached hardy-updates.

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Francis, could you confirm whether what's in hardy-updates fixes this issue for you?

If it doesn't fix it, can you provide us with the following information:

1) brand and model of the hardware.
2) BIOS brand and version number.

Thanks!

[Martin-Éric Racine (q-funk)]

Could the people affected by this bug please upgrade to Hardy and try the GEODE package that is in hardy-proposed (2.9.0-1ubuntu2.5). Alternately, the bug should also be fixed on Intrepid.