Anyone got a Dell Mini 9 with a working xorg.conf?
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From: Simon Brooke on 30 Jan 2010 06:16 I'm feeling somewhat sour towards Ubuntu just now... I bought a Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu pre-loaded about a year ago. I bought it because I wanted to encourage Dell to keep offering Linux as an option. My Mini 9 been very nice and reliable and useful, until over Christmas I installed some updates from Ubuntu... And since then the screen doesn't work and the wireless internet doesn't work. Which, given it is a netbook, more or less bricks it. I'll post the network problem separately. It looks like the update to xserver-xorg-video-intel broke. The intel driver is there, but it won't start; so Ubuntu cheerfully wipes out my xorg.conf and substitutes it's own, using the vesa driver and insisting that the only screen resolutions I have are 640x480 and 800x600. dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg does /not/ work; it just returns me to broken state. lspci gives (among other stuff): 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) My hand-edited best-guess xorg.conf contains /----- start excerpt ----- Section "Device" Identifier "Configured Video Device #1" VendorName "Intel Corporation" BoardName "Mobile 915GME Express Graphics Controller" BusID "PCI:0:2:0" Driver "intel" Option "AccelMethod" "XAA" Screen 0 EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Configured Video Device #2" VendorName "Intel Corporation" BoardName "Mobile 915GM/GMS/910GML Express Graphics Controller" BusID "PCI:0:2:1" Driver "intel" Option "AccelMethod" "XAA" Screen 0 EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Configured Monitor" Vendorname "Dell" Modelname "Mini 9" Modeline "1024x600(a)60" 48.96 1024 1064 1168 1312 600 601 604 622 -hsync +vsync Gamma 1.0 EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Device "Configured Video Device #2" Monitor "Configured Monitor" Defaultdepth 24 SubSection "Display" Depth 24 Virtual 1024 600 Modes "1024x600(a)60" EndSubSection EndSection \----- end excerpt ----- startx reports: /----- begin output ----- (WW) intel: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0:2:0) found (EE) No devices detected. Fatal server error: no screens found \----- end excerpt ----- Obviously the graphics chip announces itself as two devices, PCI:0:2:0 and PCI:0:2:1; whichever I don't link to the 'Screen' section of xorg.conf gets reported as 'No matching device section for instance'. What's even more frustrating is that if I don't try to force the machine to use my own recipe but just let Ubuntu invent its own, in the xorg.0.log I get (amongst other junk) /----- begin output ----- (II) VESA(0): Printing DDC gathered Modelines: (II) VESA(0): Modeline "1024x600"x0.0 50.83 1024 1105 1159 1320 600 605 612 642 +hsync -vsync (38.5 kHz) (II) VESA(0): Modeline "1024x600"x0.0 33.89 1024 1105 1159 1320 600 605 612 642 +hsync -vsync (25.7 kHz) (II) VESA(0): Searching for matching VESA mode(s): \----- end excerpt ----- so it actually /knows/ it's dealing with a 1024x600 screen... and then it decides that that can't possibly be what I want and dumps me back to 640x480. I actually don't care whether I use the Intel driver (yes I know it's proprietary) or the Vesa one. I don't care if I use a Hercules driver. I don't care! I just want a screen I can use, which on this machine means 1024x600. Surely that can't be too much to ask? Rant re: broadcom follows. -- ;; Semper in faecibus sumus, sole profundam variat
From: Gordon Henderson on 30 Jan 2010 07:02 In article <7siiolF7qgU1(a)mid.individual.net>, Simon Brooke <stillyet+nntp(a)googlemail.com> wrote: >I'm feeling somewhat sour towards Ubuntu just now... > >I bought a Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu pre-loaded about a year ago. I bought >it because I wanted to encourage Dell to keep offering Linux as an >option. My Mini 9 been very nice and reliable and useful, until over >Christmas I installed some updates from Ubuntu... I have an Acer Aspire One - which has the same hardware more or less. My xorg.conf is at: http://unicorn.drogon.net/xorg.conf >And since then the screen doesn't work and the wireless internet doesn't >work. Which, given it is a netbook, more or less bricks it. I'll post the >network problem separately. I use Debian Lenny on mine, but I am old fashioned in that I custom compiled the kernel for it. Wi-Fi and Audio seem to work OK. Gordon
From: Theo Markettos on 30 Jan 2010 07:24 Simon Brooke <stillyet+nntp(a)googlemail.com> wrote: > I bought a Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu pre-loaded about a year ago. I bought > it because I wanted to encourage Dell to keep offering Linux as an > option. My Mini 9 been very nice and reliable and useful, until over > Christmas I installed some updates from Ubuntu... Which Ubuntu? I don't quite understand how Ubuntu manages its xorg.conf, as mine (on a Mini 9 on Ubuntu 9.04) is very sparse: Section "Monitor" Identifier "Configured Monitor" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Monitor "Configured Monitor" Device "Configured Video Device" SubSection "Display" Virtual 1024 1368 EndSubSection EndSection Section "Device" Identifier "Configured Video Device" EndSection That's /etc/X11/xorg.conf There must be another, but I'm not sure where it lives. I can't spot one in /var. The GUI display manager tool works fine, so it must be saving the settings somewhere. I notice a list of monitors I've ever used in ~/.config/monitors.xml but I don't know how that gets used. Theo
From: Tony van der Hoff on 30 Jan 2010 08:02 On 30/01/10 12:24, Theo Markettos wrote: > Simon Brooke<stillyet+nntp(a)googlemail.com> wrote: >> I bought a Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu pre-loaded about a year ago. I bought >> it because I wanted to encourage Dell to keep offering Linux as an >> option. My Mini 9 been very nice and reliable and useful, until over >> Christmas I installed some updates from Ubuntu... > > Which Ubuntu? > > I don't quite understand how Ubuntu manages its xorg.conf, as mine (on a > Mini 9 on Ubuntu 9.04) is very sparse: > > Section "Monitor" > Identifier "Configured Monitor" > EndSection > > Section "Screen" > Identifier "Default Screen" > Monitor "Configured Monitor" > Device "Configured Video Device" > SubSection "Display" > Virtual 1024 1368 > EndSubSection > EndSection > > Section "Device" > Identifier "Configured Video Device" > EndSection > > > That's /etc/X11/xorg.conf There must be another, but I'm not sure where it > lives. I can't spot one in /var. The GUI display manager tool works fine, > so it must be saving the settings somewhere. > > I notice a list of monitors I've ever used in ~/.config/monitors.xml > but I don't know how that gets used. > > Theo Modern implementations of X server auto-configure using udev. Generally they seem to get it right. Only where they can't autodetect the hardware do they need a bit of help from a xorg.conf, so that's why your file is sparse; there is no other. -- Tony van der Hoff | mailto:tony(a)vanderhoff.org Buckinghamshire, England |
From: Simon Brooke on 30 Jan 2010 08:12
On Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:24:33 +0000, Theo Markettos wrote: > Simon Brooke <stillyet+nntp(a)googlemail.com> wrote: >> I bought a Dell Mini 9 with Ubuntu pre-loaded about a year ago. I >> bought it because I wanted to encourage Dell to keep offering Linux as >> an option. My Mini 9 been very nice and reliable and useful, until over >> Christmas I installed some updates from Ubuntu... > > Which Ubuntu? > > I don't quite understand how Ubuntu manages its xorg.conf, as mine (on a > Mini 9 on Ubuntu 9.04) is very sparse: > > Section "Monitor" > Identifier "Configured Monitor" > EndSection > > Section "Screen" > Identifier "Default Screen" > Monitor "Configured Monitor" > Device "Configured Video Device" SubSection "Display" > Virtual 1024 1368 > EndSubSection > EndSection > > Section "Device" > Identifier "Configured Video Device" > EndSection > > > That's /etc/X11/xorg.conf There must be another, but I'm not sure where > it lives. I can't spot one in /var. The GUI display manager tool works > fine, so it must be saving the settings somewhere. > > I notice a list of monitors I've ever used in ~/.config/monitors.xml but > I don't know how that gets used. Many thanks. That's pretty much like the one Ubuntu keeps autogenerating for me (and what I get it I run dexconf). I used to loathe NeXTStep because it looked like UNIX, and all the configuration files you were used to were still there, but the real configuration was hidden in other places, mostly in binary files you couldn't edit with a text editor anyway. I'd really hate to see Linux ending up like that! Curiously my monitors.xml is in ~/gnome2; it doesn't tell me anything useful, though, apart from the fact that my screen refresh rate apparently should be 61Hz. There's obviously some other configuration file which I just have not found. -- ;; Semper in faecibus sumus, sole profundam variat |