Re: [PLUG] Re: Ubuntu 7.10 on Optiplex with i810 video

On 10/6/07, JP Vossen <jp@jpsdomain.org> wrote:

> Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 19:47:10 -0400
> From: "Brent Saner" <brent.saner@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Re: Ubuntu 7.10 on Optiplex with i810 video
>
> can you attach, inlinequote, or pastebin your xorg.conf? i'm just
> curious to see what sort of config you have going

Attached and sent to Brent off-list.  Anyone else care to see a copy?

It's a mongrel of a stock Ubuntu xorg.conf from whatever Ubuntu version
I first got it working under (probably Dapper, maybe Dapper -1), plus
manual fiddling, plus a load of cruft injected by the new Gutsy X config
tool.

> Date: Fri, 05 Oct 2007 23:22:43 -0400
> From: jeff <jeffv@op.net>
> Subject: [PLUG] Ubuntu with i810 video - widescreen, new kernel...
>
> I have a vague recollection of the i810 problem when I first put
> Ubuntu on a Dell.  It took some research to locate the fix.  It was a
> tiny program that did something to `convince' the BIOS that the video
> card was not some generic unit with no memory.  The next Ubuntu found
> it by itself.

THAT sounds interesting!  Can you provide details or pointers for me to
go Google?  (Assuming the 915 driver below doesn't help.)

System; Admin; Screens and Graphics GUI shows:
        Graphics card   = Intel 845
        Driver          = i810
        Video Memory    = (automatic)   # grayed out

That could possibly explain why the MythTV frontend on the Optiplex GX
260 will not show video.  When I try to play a recording the screen goes
blank for a few seconds, then the Myth GUI comes back.  Judging from
some of the logs, I think it's crashing then being restarted.  But I
find this odd because the Myth frontend *does* play video on the Dell
PE-650 server hosting the Myth backend.  Since the Optiplex is a
workstation I'd have guessed its graphics would be better than
server-class graphics...  (Catch-22, no video at all on Optiplex, but it
has a sound card so things would work if I could only get video.  Video
(and closed captions) work on PE, but it has no sound and PCI slots are
full-up.  I could ass USB sound, but that's just silly.)

> I have the only laptop with Alzheimer's.

Don't you mean Type III (or is it IV) Diabetes?  (See /. for reference :)

> Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 23:45:32 -0400
> From: "Brent Saner" < brent.saner@gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [PLUG] Ubuntu with i810 video - widescreen, new kernel...
>      uh-oh
>
> the dell wouldn't happen to be an inspiron 1300/B130, would it?

Nope, Optiplex GX 260 (P4 3G HT, 1G RAM).

> if not, post "lspci -v" output for me as well as "lsmod"

Attached to off-list note.

> and have you heard if the 915resolution driver? there've been cases
> where the 915 driver works better than the i810 (and of course, plenty
> of cases where the 915 doesn't work at all...)

I had not.  I just went with what Ubuntu detected.  How do I switch it,
just s/i810/i915/g; in xorg.conf?

Thanks for all the suggestions!
JP
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JP Vossen, CISSP            |:::======|        jp{at}jpsdomain{dot}org
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