Comment 0 for bug 1205643

Please bear with me and read all of this. Since I can't get a working display in Saucy with that graphics chip I need to use this method to file the initial bug report, but I can provide info using a chroot or replacing the "quiet splash" boot parameter with "text" which takes me to a tty interface.

I hope using the tty interface provided by using the "text" boot parameter I can use "apport-collect" to collect the info needed from an installed Lubuntu 13.10 but I won't do so until asked by a dev in case some "switch" needs to be set to collect the appropriate info.

I also want to say that I'm fully aware that graphics chip is not supported by Ubuntu/compiz itself, or even GNOME's mutter window manager, but I think it should still work with the openbox, metacity, and Xfwm window managers ...... at least I hope so :^)

So onto what actually happens. When I try to boot either Lubuntu or Xubuntu Saucy Alpha 2, either the live image or an installed version, I just get a frozen progress bar. So it's just 5 frozen dots on the screen. If I try booting through the recovery mode or otherwise trying to "startx" or "'sudo service lightdm start' I just get a blank screen. I can see the backlight is working but that's all.

This is the specific hardware:

VIA C7 CPU @ 1500MHz
VIA CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 Graphics [S3 UniChrome Pro] (rev 01)
VIA VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
Ethernet controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
1GB DDR2 RAM

I did take a pic of the live image boot process while dealing with an unrelated d-i bug during Lubuntu Alpha 2 testing process:

https://launchpadlibrarian.net/145894508/P4M800_xfreeze.JPG

Now I'm wondering what else to say ............... the same Saucy images and installs work with two other totally different sets of hardware.

I'm ready to roll up my sleeves to help gather any needed info. Thanks in advance.