Looking for xorg.conf or MACH64, DL380 G4

[Tony Su]

Only possible relevant prior post I could find was this

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/General/Cant-change-monitor-resolution/m-p/3765517#M13107

But in that forum thread the links to Pau Garcia's previous Forum Posts are dead.

Problem:

Because the MACH64 GPU drivers have had a history of faulty implementation, neglect, stability and even security issues, it is no longar a part of the mainstream kernel, so drivers are implemented in User Space. Because even the default driver values are faulty, a working xorg.conf is <mandatory>.

So far, have not found any reliable working solution on the Internet at large, am hoping that since this was a chip often found in HP workhorse servers that either a known good file exists or an approach to building a working xorg.conf is available.

Am primarily interested in a file that supports kernel 3.7.x and later.

Although this machine is running openSUSE (in text mode only since no graphical environment is working), I doubt this is a distro-specific issue although <might> involve a specific recommended driver.

Thx.

[Matti_Kurkela]

In many cases, the Xorg X server can create a xorg.conf template for you. But if you already know the GPU is likely to be difficult, first make sure you can log in to the system through the network if necessary.

Run "Xorg -configure" as root in text mode (with any other local X server processes stopped).

The screen may blink for a while, but the text mode should return, and it should have generated a template xorg.conf file in root's home directory.

The next step is to remove any unnecessary InputDevice sections from the template. The modern modular Xorg X server will auto-detect most modern mice and keyboards just fine, and the distribution has usually already made it so that your install-time keyboard layout choice will be the X server's default setting too.

Then, put the xorg.conf file in place, and try starting the X server. If it fails, read /var/log/Xorg.0.log.

The links in Pau Garcia's post may be dead, but the post still contains the magic keywords: "modeline calculator". If you need one, just put those keywords to Google and you'll find one.

However, modern Xorg X server contains a built-in database of standard modelines, so in most cases it is enough to specify the frequency ranges of the display, and the X server will automatically generate a list of appropriate modelines. If the GPU can supply the monitor's PnP EDID information, even that may be unnecessary... assuming that the PnP information is valid. There are monitors that provide conflicting or invalid information, and some KVMs may pass through only part of the EDID information, causing the EDID checksum to fail.

Any xorg.conf that includes custom modelines is very likely going to be specific to the particular display model it's been written for.

[Dennis Handly]

>but the post still contains the magic keywords: "modeline calculator". If you need one, just put those keywords to Google and you'll find one.

Yes, I thought of that too:

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/Workstations-z-series-xw-series/Need-a-Modeline-for-xorg-conf-for-a-LP3065/td-p/798679

http://h30499.www3.hp.com/t5/General/Fedora-on-Wide-screen-laptops/td-p/4970159