12.04 - video config (AVWizard)

[jamo]

I'm setting up an MD I had basically working in 10.04.

It is an old HP6410b compaq laptop with an intel video card (GM965/GL960) that can do 1280x1024 UI2 without alpha blending (at least on 10.04).

When AvWizard came up in 12.04, I had a couple of issues-

• Firstly, when selecting an option from the initial screen resolution, connector, frequency page and pressing next (or enter), it can take a really long time to show the screen where you have to confirm. Like 8 minutes! Any idea what's going on there? That's, of course, tricky, because you tend to be doing something else so catching the "yes it's ok" bit in 10 seconds is tricky.
  
  
• Secondly - 1280x1024 doesn't seem to work any more. I select it because it's definitely what I had previously, but
  when it "tests" it, the screen is oversized - ie  lots of the buttons are offscreen. I went through with it anyway, because
  I figure maybe there's something quirky about avwiz and I could guess my way through blindly having done
  it so often ;-) But then when I finally get to a running system it's the same problem - the menu bar is offscreen.
  And when I check the monitor it says it's receiving 1024x768, not 1280x1024 which I chose.
  
  I can confirm that in webadmin the media director video settings are 1280 1024/60.
  
  I can't see any Xorg.conf file. Do we use one anymore? How to troubleshoot?
  
  
• And then finally, just a question - Does the frequency still matter in the AVWiz screen setup? Especially for LCD screens? Is there a default? I'm assumig 50 or 60 Hz? Will it make much difference? Should one experiment with these?
  

Thanks in advance

James

[pigdog]

Hi,

See if this will help.

http://forum.linuxmce.org/index.php?topic=13459.0

Cheers.

[phenigma]

I

• Firstly, when selecting an option from the initial screen resolution, connector, frequency page and pressing next (or enter), it can take a really long time to show the screen where you have to confirm. Like 8 minutes! Any idea what's going on there? That's, of course, tricky, because you tend to be doing something else so catching the "yes it's ok" bit in 10 seconds is tricky.
  

I've never seen this happen.

• Secondly - 1280x1024 doesn't seem to work any more. I select it because it's definitely what I had previously, but
  when it "tests" it, the screen is oversized - ie  lots of the buttons are offscreen. I went through with it anyway, because
  I figure maybe there's something quirky about avwiz and I could guess my way through blindly having done
  it so often ;-) But then when I finally get to a running system it's the same problem - the menu bar is offscreen.
  And when I check the monitor it says it's receiving 1024x768, not 1280x1024 which I chose.
  
  I can confirm that in webadmin the media director video settings are 1280 1024/60.
  

The intel video drivers have changed drastically from 1004 to 1204 and could be part of the issue.  Otherwise I'm not entirely sure.

I can't see any Xorg.conf file. Do we use one anymore? How to troubleshoot?
[/li][/list]

Yes we use xorg.conf (except on the rpi).  If you do not have an xorg.conf file after avwizard then there is an issue there for sure.

• And then finally, just a question - Does the frequency still matter in the AVWiz screen setup? Especially for LCD screens? Is there a default? I'm assumig 50 or 60 Hz? Will it make much difference? Should one experiment with these?
  

It does not make a difference on LCD monitors (that I have tried).  But is very important for proper operation of CRT monitors.  I'm not sure how this data is being utilized in the current AV setup scripts.

J.

[jamo]

Thanks, phenigma... that gives me something to start working with at least.

[jamo]

I'm attempting a re-install with newer snapshot. If that sorts it I'll mark as solved.

[phenigma]

Sounds good.  /me crosses fingers.

J.

[jamo]

Naah... unfortunately at this stage, diskless MDs still snafu'd. Probably still networking issues. Core is good with new snap but I think there's something wrong with MDs.

[phenigma]

This may be, again, related to the firewall bug preventing packages from installing.  Maybe.  I recommend waiting for a new snapshot and testing with it.

Thanks for testing!

J.

[jamo]

Phenigma, I think you're right.

I've trashed the MDs and in fact replace /usr/pluto/bin/Network_Firewall.sh with the 1004 version and I'm busy rebuilding the MD. So far it is looking better - it's downloading videodrivers and stuff which it didn't before.

Dropping back to the 1004 script may be a bit extreme but it will be interesting to see...

[phenigma]

jamo, I have tested the Feb 21 snapshot.  It has, for some reason, been built with old versions of the dvd creation scripts.  There are a few known issues, including a networking bug, in the old versions of the dvd creations scripts.  I'm not sure why this has happened. 

I cannot predict what oddities will occur on this snapshot, I consider it to be bad snap though.

J.

[jamo]

OK. That, I think, is good news because it was a nasty. I see from IRC that Feb 23rd am snap was also a little under suspicion so I shall wait until  you guys feel you've got a goodie before I burn another frisbee. Or at least, learn to put them on thumb drives.

[phenigma]

Yeah...  the snapshots have not been creating properly.  The Feb 23 snap is no different.  Working through the issues, hopefully have a shiny new snap very soon.

J.

[jamo]

OK... working with snap 28788.

Hybrid/Core install went, MD Has come up fine but took ages to get to AVwiz.... on 3rd reboot kept blanking the screen and a mouse pointer appearing for a moment before going back to text. I left it for about 1/2 hour and when I came back it was at AVWiz but couldn't get anything better than 1024x768 UI1. As before, in 10.04 I can do 1280x1024 UI2 with this rig so something wrong there....

Just finishing Sarah and I'll snoop a bit more.

[jamo]

No, it's hosed.

Relevant line in xorg.conf.log

15009 Mon, 03 Mar 2014 11:16:54 +0200 Empty display driver. Will not continue. This shouldn't happen

[l3mce]

That message is mine, and as it says... should not happen. Please give me the output of lspci -nn | grep VGA