[Partially solved] Cannot start X on ATI AIW 128 PRO AGP

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

I am trying to install X on an old PC with ATI All-in-wonder with Rage 128 PRO chip by following current Gentoo how-tos without success. As suggested, X should start without any configuration. When I startx, it loads modesetting and tries to load ati driver instead of r128:

Keruskerfuerst · Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 6:03 am Post subject:

The X11 config is not sufficient.

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

What else can be configured?

Keruskerfuerst · Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 8:06 am Post subject:

Have a look at X11 doc here: http://www.x.org/wiki/UserDocumentation/
and
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/xorg

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 9:30 am Post subject:

pdraganov,

As you say, I would have expected the automatic set up to just work.

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

Keruskerfuerst, I read a lot of documentation, but most of it is for radeons and my video card is since a pre-radeon millenium

NeddySeagoon, I followed Gentoo how-tos and I have in the kernel:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 1:10 pm Post subject:

pdraganov,

A few things.

Lets see if it will work with the vesa driver. This is just a test.
Rename your xorg.conf so Xorg can't find it.

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

It works with vesa driver, but after few minutes (probably when video goes to stand-by) it freezes with blinking caps lock and scroll lock. It happened twice.
.config file is in https://bpaste.net/show/a1719933629e

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 5:30 pm Post subject:

pdraganov,

The kernel .config looks OK.

The flashing caps lock and scroll lock indicate a kernel panic.
Something happened that the kernel could not recover from.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

OK, so how can I use r128 driver instead of vesa?

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jan 17, 2016 8:52 pm Post subject:

pdraganov,

Post your /var/log/Xorg.0.log first please.
Xorg should have tried r128 first. Lets see what the log says.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

It still tries to load ati instead of r128: https://bpaste.net/show/3b1ea61b9c64
I cannot understand how Xorg matches autoconfigured drivers and how to change this.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 7:25 pm Post subject:

pdraganov,

Some time ago, there was only the xf86-video-ati driver for all ATI cards. Recently, the r128 and mach64 drivers were split out.
Neither are well maintained.

Your VIDEO_CARDS= needs to list vesa and r128 but not ati.
vesa is a get-you-going.

If the automatics persist in the list in the log

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

My VIDEO_CARDS="r128" only. Should I add "vesa" and recompile whole X, or emerging xf86-video-vesa installed what was needed? Anyway, vesa makes kernel panic.
I included Xorg.0.log in my initial post, but I tried it again with the same result: https://bpaste.net/show/35ba33772fc3
I think that r128 driver is not matched with /dev/dri/card0 video card and that is why X unloads r128 module.
I tried with:

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 9:26 pm Post subject:

pdraganov,

Your log says

Ant P. · Watchman Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 6920

R128 is a pre-KMS driver, so you may have to do this the old-fashioned way: by manually defining ｢SubSection "Display"｣ entries inside the ｢Section "Screen"｣ one. If you run `X -configure` it should generate a default config file with those in it, which you can copy and paste from.

Keep in mind the card only has 16MB of VRAM, so it might get unhappy with 24bpp @ maximum res; you may need to settle for ｢Depth 16｣.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:00 pm Post subject:

Ant P.

It was trying to run at 1024x768 in 24 bit colour. At 4 bytes per pixel, that's less that 4MB per pixel buffer, so it fits into 16MB with double buffering.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

NeddySeagoon, as I wrote, I tested with just one Section "Device" and Xorg.0.log is in https://bpaste.net/show/35ba33772fc3. I didn't change the kernel, so its .config is at https://bpaste.net/show/a1719933629e. The PC worked OK with ubuntu before I decided to reinstall it with the latest Gentoo, so most probably there is no hardware problem with it.
Ant P., I generated a config file with X -configure and tried it with X -config /root/xorg.conf.new without success - the generated config and log are in https://bpaste.net/show/529b6502a68d

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Tue Jan 19, 2016 6:59 pm Post subject:

pdraganov,

In this section of the kernel, you need support for your motherboard chipset. It does not relate to your Graphics card.
You discover your motherboard chipset from

Ant P. · Watchman Joined: 18 Apr 2009 Posts: 6920

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

Motherboard is Gigabyte GA-7VRX with VIA KT333 chipset

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 5:20 pm Post subject:

pdraganov,

The kernel options you don't need are just bloat. You can disable them if you wish.

What does uname -v show?
When did you last build your kernel?
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

I downloaded latest Gentoo after Christmas and I made clean install.
uname -v
#1 Sun Jan 10 21:51:34 EET 2016
uname -a
Linux AthlonXP 4.1.12-gentoo #1 Sun Jan 10 21:51:34 EET 2016 i686 AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2000+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2016 8:07 pm Post subject:

pdraganov,

pdraganov · n00b Joined: 17 Oct 2014 Posts: 27

My .config file is modified on 10th of January 21:35, just before I compiled the kernel. I didn't make any changes to it since I first asked my question.