Display Problems with Gateway Notebook

[Chris Ruhl]

Hi!

I have a Gateway Solo 1450 notebook which has a Intel 830M graphics controller. The BIOS says that it has 8Mb of video memory. I'm new to Linux and wanted to try it out without having to repartition my hard drive.

I typically use 1024 x 768 True Color setting in Windows XP, but I cannot get better than VGA 640 x 480 in Knoppix, which makes for huge icons in KDE and it's very hard to navigate from everything being so large. I get the impression that the Knoppix kernel is trying to pass or receive a VESA number which isn't recognized.

I tried Topologilinux and can't even run the X Windows system!

Any ideas? I'm using the latest download version of Knoppix. I tried all the F2 boot options that I could find...

[KiwiGoldfish]

.... but less extreme. I have a ASUS L1B Notebook with the Intel 830M graphics controller with 30MB video ram. The default setting to use the i810 driver gives some graphics problems (some areas of the desktop are garbled, as are images.) I got more success using the vesa driver (xmodule=vesa) but still with fewer colours than I want. (stuck with 256 colours if I want anything other than a 640x480 desktop.)

I had more sucess starting in runlevel 2 and manually playing with the XF86Config-4 file. Here's my copy of the relevant sections of that file that I changed.

Section "Monitor"
# Wish we could use some probed settings here, too, but XFree4 cannot do this yet.
#	HorizSync    28.0 - 78.0 # Warning: This may fry very old Monitors
 # Warning: This may fry old Monitors
 # Very conservative. May flicker.
# These are some Modelines that happen to work on many systems
# Especially the "1024x768" has been thoroughly tested, even on Laptops
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	HorizSync    31.5 - 48.5
	VertRefresh  60
	ModeLine     "640x480" 25.2 640 664 760 800 480 491 493 525
	ModeLine     "800x600" 40.1 800 848 968 1056 600 601 605 628
	ModeLine     "1024x768" 85.0 1024 1056 1152 1360 768 784 787 823
	ModeLine     "1152x864" 92.0 1152 1208 1368 1474 864 865 875 895
	ModeLine     "1152x864" 110.0 1152 1240 1324 1552 864 864 876 908
	ModeLine     "1152x864" 135.0 1152 1464 1592 1776 864 864 876 908
	ModeLine     "1152x864" 137.7 1152 1184 1312 1536 864 866 885 902 -hsync -vsync
	ModeLine     "1280x1024" 80.0 1280 1296 1512 1568 1024 1025 1037 1165 interlace
	ModeLine     "1280x1024" 110.0 1280 1328 1512 1712 1024 1025 1028 1054
	ModeLine     "1280x1024" 126.5 1280 1312 1472 1696 1024 1032 1040 1068 -hsync -vsync
	ModeLine     "1280x1024" 135.0 1280 1312 1456 1712 1024 1027 1030 1064
	ModeLine     "1280x1024" 135.0 1280 1312 1416 1664 1024 1027 1030 1064
	ModeLine     "1280x1024" 157.5 1280 1344 1504 1728 1024 1025 1028 1072 +hsync +vsync
	ModeLine     "1280x1024" 181.8 1280 1312 1440 1696 1024 1031 1046 1072 -hsync -vsync
	ModeLine     "1600x1200" 162.0 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
	ModeLine     "1600x1200" 189.0 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 -hsync -vsync
	ModeLine     "1600x1200" 202.5 1600 1664 1856 2160 1200 1201 1204 1250 +hsync +vsync
	ModeLine     "1600x1200" 220.0 1600 1616 1808 2080 1200 1204 1207 1244 +hsync +vsync
	ModeLine     "1800x1440" 230.0 1800 1896 2088 2392 1440 1441 1444 1490 +hsync +vsync
	ModeLine     "1800x1440" 250.0 1800 1896 2088 2392 1440 1441 1444 1490 +hsync +vsync
EndSection

# The following line is auto-generated by KNOPPIX mkxf86config
	BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver      "vesa"
	VendorName  "All"
	BoardName   "All"
#	ChipSet     "i830M"
#	Card        "Intel i830M"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     8  #To get a large enough desktop. Colour depth is traded off against desktop size.
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     1
		Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     4
		Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     8
		Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     15
		Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     16
		Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     24
		Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     32
		Modes    "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

I had more success limiting vrefresh to 60 (but am still tweaking) and specifying the BusID. Unfortunately as I have no floppy I have to manually copy XF86Config-4 every time.

If anyone has any suggestions on getting the most out of my graphics card I'd be glad to hear them...

Kiwi

[KiwiGoldfish]

Try updating your Bios (my Asus let me do that simply enough.) I was looking around the www.linux-on-laptops.com links for inspiration on this problem and apparently the Bios limits video memory (on Asus anyway.) Updated BIOS and I get 1024x768 with good colour depth and no display issues as I described previously - all from automatically probed settings.

It's just a case of convincing my soundcard to work properly now (KDE loves it, but the XMM media player doesn't...)

Kiwi

[Chris Ruhl]

Thanks for the ideas, all!!! I appreciate it.

I hear the new xfree86 4.3.0 will solve some of my problems.

Ciao!
Chris