Re: [XFree86] startx problems.

[Greg Julius]

Here are the responses.  Possibly a few more pasted in from others as well.

> > > I have put in the 4.2.20 kernel - just fine now.  I installed the XFree86
>
> Yes, kernel, but I goofed with the #  it is 2.4.20.  Sorry,  The first
> instructions I received indicated I needed the 2.4.20 kernel so I started
> down that line.  See http://www.xfree86.org/~dawes/845driver.html .

Where did you get it?  Compile from source or a binary package from
somewhere?  Did you get the DRI module, too?

The 2.4.20 kernel I got from Linux.org - compiled from source with gcc 3.2

The 4.2.99.3 XFree I got from XFree86.org as a binary.  I have also brought the cvs tree for 4.2.99.3 down yesterday so I have the source. I haven't as yet figured out how to build XFree86 and all of its parts from the source.

Did I get the DRI module?  How would I know?  What should it have been in.  I didn't download anything specific.

What does lsmod tell you before you run startx?

I have put some stuff up on my website:
lsmod:  http://www.outtacyte.com/outtacyte/ref/lsmodlist
XFree86.0.log:  http://www.outtacyte.com/outtacyte/ref/XFree86-log
XF86Config:     http://www.outtacyte.com/outtacyte/ref/XF86Config

The config file comes from XFree86 -configure and I've only changed the driver from i810 to vesa.

About the weird blanking when switching between virtual consoles
(Ctrl-Alt-Fn), have you tried the vesafb ?  (easier to do if you compile
the kernel from source, I think)

what is vesafb?  Is this a driver?  What would I do to try it out?

Other Questions asked by others:

Scott:
>Are you loading the AGP GART driver?  I'm not very familiar with Linux,
>but your symptoms sound like those that I experienced in FreeBSD before
> figured out that I had to load the AGP GART driver into my kernel at
>boot-time.

I have the following AGP/DRM

CONFIG_AGP=m

CONFIG_AGP_INTEL=y

CONFIG_AGP_I810=y

CONFIG_AGP_VIA=y

CONFIG_AGP_AMD=y

# CONFIG_AGP_AMD_8151 is not set

CONFIG_AGP_SIS=y

CONFIG_AGP_ALI=y

CONFIG_AGPSWORKS=y

CONFIG_DRM=y

# CONFIG_DRM_OLD is not set

#

# DRM 4.1 drivers

#

CONFIG_DRM_NEW=y

CONFIG_DRM_TDFX=m

CONFIG_DRM_R128=m

CONFIG_DRM_RADEON=m

CONFIG_DRM_I810=m

# CONFIG_DRM_I810_XFREE_41 is not set

CONFIG_DRM_I830=m

CONFIG_DRM_MGA=m

CONFIG_DRM_SIS=m

I can recompile with any changes necessary easily.


>I always add the monitor's VertRefresh & HorizSync settings into
>XF86Config before doing the startx... If I don't do this, I seem to have a
>lot of problems :)

I've done this while goofing around with this problem.  Didn't help.  It's not in the current configuration.  I've tried leaving the XF86Config file pretty much as XFree86 generated it for me.

>I had all sorts of problems with the vesa driver on this chipset.   Once
> got the i810 driver to work (and the only trick to that was loading
>the AGP GART kernel module at boot) these problems disappeared.
>
>Also, make sure that DRI and GLX (tho, I don't know if these work with
>vesa) are loading in your config.   Also, I think there's some video
>memory allocation issues if you're using vesa...   There's some info on
>that here:
>   http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/intel845g/linux.htm

Humm, I'll have to look into that.  I have noticed some issues in the log before, but I didn't think much of them.  The log file is referenced above.  I do have a bunch of memory on the thing however.  I notice the memory spec is not mentioned in this incarnation of the config file.

OK, that's all the questions.  I'll read up on that memory thing mentioned by Scott whilst waiting for the next set of responses.

Thanks to all of you who are helping!

-g