topic Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6 in Operating System - Linux

graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

AngelIEO — Sun, 09 May 2010 07:20:58 GMT

INstalling debian lenny on my new DL380 G6 I can not get X to start using the ati driver. It is an ati ES1000 graphics card but only when I change driver to "vesa" instead of "ati" in the xorg.conf does gnome start.
Any pointes on how to get the appropiate driver to work?
Thanks

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

Goran Koruga — Mon, 10 May 2010 04:45:23 GMT

Hello.

Man page for "radeon" says ES1000 is supported.

Did you check Xorg logfile when it fails?

Goran

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

AngelIEO — Tue, 11 May 2010 09:04:22 GMT

Hi,
Thanks. The x log file does not report any problems (attached). X does not crash, I just get a black screen. I once got the same problem with a desktop and had to set the modelines manually in the xorg.conf file, but for the proliant I dont seem to manage to find what modelines to use.
Maybe that is not the problem.
Any help please?
Thanks,
Angel

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

Goran Koruga — Tue, 11 May 2010 09:49:38 GMT

Hi.

Can your monitor show information about the current mode? If it can, what does it show when you start X server?

Logfile says this:

(II) RADEON(0): Output VGA-1 using monitor section Configured Monitor
(II) RADEON(0): Total number of valid Screen mode(s) added: 0
(II) RADEON(0): Output VGA-1 using initial mode 1280x768

Is that the right output to use?

This mode definitely looks strange, so set the mode you want to use by writing xorg.conf manually.

Regards,
Goran

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

Matti_Kurkela — Tue, 11 May 2010 11:22:12 GMT

1280x768 would be a possible native resolution for an older/small widescreen LCD.

But the X.org radeon driver identifies it as a "color CRT", probably because it's plugged into an analog VGA connector.

A totally black screen might indicate the Xserver is trying to drive the display using a refresh frequency that the display cannot support. What's the brand and model of the display?

The log indicates the driver attempted to use the DDC (Display Data Channel) to get information about the display. But there is no information about detected frequency limits nor DDC-recommended display modes in the log, so perhaps it did not get the information.

I'm afraid it's time to find some technical documentation for your monitor. The most important thing would probably be the horizontal and vertical sync frequency ranges supportable by your monitor, and add them to the xorg.conf monitor section as HorizSync and VertRefresh statements. (HorizSync would be in kHz, VertRefresh in Hz.)

Modern X.org Xserver contains a built-in database of standard display modelines: usually it just needs some way to know what the display's limits are, and then it can automatically pick an "optimal" modeline for most common display resolutions.

MK

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

TwoProc — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:02:01 GMT

One thing I've done before is to use one of the "live" version cd's of a debian variant and see what it uses. This could be Ubuntu, Linux Mint, etc. Boot one of these and check out the settings in the xorg.conf once it's up and running.

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

AngelIEO — Tue, 11 May 2010 13:02:21 GMT

It is an HP TFT7600 Rackmount Keyboard and Monitor.
Here are some technical details:
http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/rack-options/TFT7600RKM/index.html
Any clues on what to put in the xorg.xconf file.
Thanks a lot

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

Goran Koruga — Wed, 12 May 2010 04:08:36 GMT

Hello.

It says max. resolution is 1440 x 900 WXGA+ so start with something simple like 1024x768:

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "HP"
HorizSync 30-81
VertRefresh 56-60
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Default Screen"
Device "Generic Video Card"
Monitor "HP"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Default Screen"
EndSection

Note that HorizSync and VertRefresh are relatively low and should be OK for your monitor - perhaps your HorizSync value is a bit lower, but given our limit on VertRefresh the 1024 mode should be fine.

Goran

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

AngelIEO — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:27:17 GMT

Thanks for the input.
Tried that setup without success. I still get a black screen.
Attached is the X log file.
Any other pointers?
Thanks,
Angel

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

Goran Koruga — Wed, 12 May 2010 07:13:30 GMT

How about my question about monitor's capabilities to show mode info?

Goran

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

AngelIEO — Wed, 12 May 2010 08:11:03 GMT

Yes, It shows the correct mode, i.e."1024x768" @ 60Hz. I've tried setting 1440x900 and it also displays that correctly but still get the black screen...

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

Goran Koruga — Wed, 12 May 2010 09:15:03 GMT

OK so it's not about that and I suppose removing this from xorg.conf is a proper thing to do.

Next thing to try is to change some of the driver options - see man page for 'radeon' and experiment with those.

Regards,
Goran

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

Modris Bremze — Wed, 12 May 2010 12:29:21 GMT

I hink the fglrx driver is the correct one for Radeons. Please try
Driver "fglrx"
Or refer to http://wiki.debian.org/ATIProprietary if that doesn't help.

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

AngelIEO — Thu, 13 May 2010 10:21:03 GMT

thanks for the recommendation
But the fglrx driver doesn't seem to work either, I get an X error, it seems as if it doesn't find the screen, log file attached.

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

Modris Bremze — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:58:27 GMT

The fglrx part should be correct, however it looks like ATI has not made drivers available that work with newer versions of xorg..
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-software-2/fglrx-and-debian-squeeze-not-letting-xorg-start-789414/
and
http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=564444

Re: graphics in debian on DL 380 g6

Modris Bremze — Thu, 13 May 2010 18:05:09 GMT

I just realized that the previous post might not be exactly about the same problem you are having, however I noticed that bugreport @debian.org (2nd link) states at the very end that "We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of fglrx-driver". Worth to check it out if you haven't tried that one yet.