[done]Graphic mode problems with Mageia 6

[fabulous-muller]

Hello Guys , first of all thanks for the excellente work on Mageia 5 and 6 , these are wonderful pieces and you should be proud of achieve a high level of quality in both distros , mainly coming from a community driven distro. I'm together with you since Mandrake days and even trying other distros, I just can't use anything else for a linux desktop. I have an old laptop , from a local manufacturer , Philco, which is indeed a pegatron motherboard with a SIS graphics adapter. One of the worst combinations ever seen. This note came pre-installed with Mandriva 2010 and I managed to update it fine till Mandriva crash. I managed to put Mageia 5 to work fine in this system , I had just to keep de xorg.conf file from mandriva and select manually the "no local APIC" at Grub and the system runs fines. After Mag 6 arrival, I performed a successful update but graphics mode with SDDM didn't work at all. After Many attempts and trials I managed to get a work graphical system but not in a regular way .So I guess if anyone could help with suggestions to at least have the system booting in graphics in a "normal way" . What I'm doing here to have it running :

1- I disabled graphical login. Text login is working fine, I continue to have to disable local APIC at grub but that's not a problem for me and system is responding well.
1- I have to change to display manager to XDM instead of SDDM . SDDM does not work at all.
2- I have to select "Boot Mageia 6 ( in safe mode)" and disable local APIC in order to XDM work. This is the only option where the graphical mode worked. As you can see here https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B40R0bsXFN6wU1h1YjI0M3hXdWM/view?usp=sharing
3-After boot , at text prompt I have to call startx with sudo or as root user at the first time.If call it as a regular user at first time , it didn't work but If I call startx as SU or with sudo , when I exit the next time the regular user works. The graphics mode I enter is "raw" ,like this : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B40R0bsXFN6waDFneldiTERJOTg/view?usp=sharing
4-Notice that a got a red background with 2 xterm windows opened. If I call any graphical program from here it works fines.
5-If I want to leave this mode I have just to close xterm and it goes back to text prompt.
6- I installed cinnamon via urpmi , to see if it works and if I call it from the xterm window, it starts fine. As you can see here : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B40R0bsXFN6wNFlKZ0F1RjlmcVk/view?usp=sharing and https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B40R0bsXFN6wQy1rUXBwRTBGTDg/view?usp=sharing.

So in one way is kinda working but not as expected. Better than in WIndows 10, where this SIS chipset just work in 640x480 mode My doubts are : What the difference between the boot in Safe mode and the regular one ? Any suggestions to try to but directly in graphics ? Even if I lost KDE which I like very much , If I could get cinnamon or any other window manger to work normally It would be a victory and I promisse to buy a new notebook to install Mageia 7 !

My xorg.conf is this :

Code: Select all

[size=85]# File generated by XFdrake (rev 262502)

# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerFlags"
    #DontZap # disable <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
    #DontZoom # disable <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
    AllowMouseOpenFail # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Disable "dri"
    Load "dbe" # Double-Buffering Extension
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
    Load "extmod"
    Load "glx" # 3D layer
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "Keyboard1"
    Driver "kbd"
    Option "XkbModel" "abnt2"
    Option "XkbLayout" "br"
    Option "XkbOptions" "compose:rwin"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier "SynapticsMouse1"
    Driver "synaptics"
    Option "SHMConfig" "on"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Generic"
    ModelName "Flat Panel 1360x768"
    HorizSync 31.5-48.0
    VertRefresh 56.0-65.0
   
    # TV fullscreen mode or DVD fullscreen output.
    # 768x576 @ 79 Hz, 50 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     50.00  768  832  846 1000   576  590  595  630
   
    # 768x576 @ 100 Hz, 61.6 kHz hsync
    ModeLine "768x576"     63.07  768  800  960 1024   576  578  590  616
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1368x768_120"  185.67  1368 1472 1624 1880  768 769 772 823  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1368x768_100"  151.73  1368 1464 1616 1864  768 769 772 814  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1368x768_85"  125.67  1368 1456 1600 1832  768 769 772 807  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1368x768_75"  110.19  1368 1456 1600 1832  768 769 772 802  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1368x768_60"  85.86  1368 1440 1584 1800  768 769 772 795  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1368x768_50"  69.92  1368 1424 1568 1768  768 769 772 791  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1360x765_120"  182.63  1360 1456 1608 1856  765 766 769 820  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1360x765_100"  149.22  1360 1456 1600 1840  765 766 769 811  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1360x765_85"  124.65  1360 1448 1592 1824  765 766 769 804  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1360x765_75"  108.34  1360 1440 1584 1808  765 766 769 799  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1360x765_60"  84.40  1360 1424 1568 1776  765 766 769 792  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1360x765_50"  69.34  1360 1416 1560 1760  765 766 769 788  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1280x720_120"  161.56  1280 1376 1512 1744  720 721 724 772  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1280x720_100"  131.85  1280 1368 1504 1728  720 721 724 763  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1280x720_85"  110.01  1280 1360 1496 1712  720 721 724 756  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1280x720_75"  95.65  1280 1352 1488 1696  720 721 724 752  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1280x720_60"  74.48  1280 1336 1472 1664  720 721 724 746  -HSync +Vsync
   
    # modeline generated by gtf(1) [handled by XFdrake]
    ModeLine "1280x720_50"  60.47  1280 1328 1456 1632  720 721 724 741  -HSync +Vsync
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]"
    BoardName "SiS SiS 670 / 671-based cards"
    Driver "sisimedia"
    Option "DPMS"
    Option "UseTiming1366" "on"
    Option "ForceCRT1Type" "VGA"
    Option "EnableSiSCtrl" "yes"
    Option "IgnoreHotkeyFlag"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
    DefaultColorDepth 24
   
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 8
        Modes "1366x768" "1360x765" "1280x720"
    EndSubsection
   
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 15
        Modes "1366x768" "1360x765" "1280x720"
    EndSubsection
   
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 16
        Modes "1366x768" "1360x765" "1280x720"
    EndSubsection
   
    Subsection "Display"
        Depth 24
        Modes "1366x768" "1360x765" "1280x720"
    EndSubsection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout1"
    InputDevice "Keyboard1" "CoreKeyboard"
    InputDevice "SynapticsMouse1" "SendCoreEvents"
    Screen "screen1"
EndSection
[/size]

and lspcidrake -v is :

Code: Select all

$ lspcidrake -v
shpchp          : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|PCI-to-PCI bridge [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:1039 device:000a)
Card:SiS SiS 670 / 671-based cards: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|771/671 PCIE VGA Display Adapter [DISPLAY_VGA] (vendor:1039 device:6351 subv:1b0a subd:2014) (rev: 10)
sis190          : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|191 Gigabit Ethernet Adapter [NETWORK_ETHERNET] (vendor:1039 device:0191 subv:1b0a subd:2016) (rev: 02)
ath9k           : Qualcomm Atheros|AR2427 802.11bg Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [NETWORK_OTHER] (vendor:168c device:002c subv:1a3b subd:1112) (rev: 01)
shpchp          : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|AGP Port (virtual PCI-to-PCI bridge) [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:1039 device:0003)
pata_sis        : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|5513 IDE Controller [STORAGE_IDE] (vendor:1039 device:5513 subv:1b0a subd:2023) (rev: 01)
ohci_pci        : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|USB 1.1 Controller [SERIAL_USB] (vendor:1039 device:7001 subv:1b0a subd:2023) (rev: 0f)
sata_sis        : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|SATA Controller / IDE mode [STORAGE_IDE] (vendor:1039 device:1183 subv:1b0a subd:2023) (rev: 03)
ehci_pci        : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|USB 2.0 Controller [SERIAL_USB] (vendor:1039 device:7002 subv:1b0a subd:2023)
unknown         : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|SiS968 [MuTIOL Media IO] [BRIDGE_ISA] (vendor:1039 device:0968) (rev: 01)
shpchp          : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|PCI-to-PCI bridge [BRIDGE_PCI] (vendor:1039 device:000a)
ohci_pci        : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|USB 1.1 Controller [SERIAL_USB] (vendor:1039 device:7001 subv:1b0a subd:2023) (rev: 0f)
unknown         : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|671MX [BRIDGE_HOST] (vendor:1039 device:0671 subv:1b0a subd:2023)
snd_hda_intel   : Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]|Azalia Audio Controller [MULTIMEDIA_AUDIO_DEV] (vendor:1039 device:7502 subv:1b0a subd:201e)
hub             : Linux 4.9.35-desktop-1.mga6 ehci_hcd|EHCI Host Controller [Hub|Unused|Full speed (or root) hub] (vendor:1d6b device:0002)
uvcvideo        : Chicony Electronics Co., Ltd.|CNF7129 [Video|Video Control] (vendor:04f2 device:b071)
hub             : Linux 4.9.35-desktop-1.mga6 ohci_hcd|OHCI PCI host controller [Hub|Unused|Full speed (or root) hub] (vendor:1d6b device:0001)
btusb           : Broadcom Corp|BT-253 [Wireless|Radio Frequency|Bluetooth] (vendor:0b05 device:1751)
hub             : Linux 4.9.35-desktop-1.mga6 ohci_hcd|OHCI PCI host controller [Hub|Unused|Full speed (or root) hub] (vendor:1d6b device:0001)
usbhid          : Logitech|USB Receiver [Human Interface Device|Boot Interface Subclass|Keyboard] (vendor:046d device:c534)
hid_generic     : Logitech USB Receiver
hid_generic     : Logitech USB Receiver

Thanks in advance...

[rolf]

The red background used to be a warning about logging into the graphical desktop as root. I can't give you a rock-solid method to fine-tune your installation but my thoughts turn to the Mageia Control Center. You can call it from xterm with mcc and giving a password, if logged as normal user.

I would go to the Boot module and enter "Set up boot system".

copyq-screenshot_20170723_212538.png (79.23 KiB) Viewed 2713 times

There, you can choose "Advanced" and disable local apic for each boot. Press next and choose the default entry, then finish.

copyq-screenshot_20170723_212402.png (66.56 KiB) Viewed 2713 times

Go to the Hardware module and try "Set up the graphical server". There, among other configurations, you can choose the option to start the X server at boot, or not. Hopefully, if it fails, you can retrace your steps and re-configure until it works.

copyq-screenshot_20170723_212635.png (112.17 KiB) Viewed 2713 times

[benmc]

sddm implies plasma install.

how much ram do you have.

for me, early editions of Mga6 (sta1 etc) would not boot to plasma desktop in a lappy with 1.4g of ram.
later editions improved.
I upgraded it over the weekend and plasma is marginally slower than the kde4 Mga5, so available ram may be an issue.

Try Xfce or LXDE DE and see if they login ok.

Code: Select all

urpmi task-lxde

or

Code: Select all

urpmi task-xfce

you may need to add also another DM (lightdm or lxdm)

[fabulous-muller]

Thank you Benmc and Rolf for the suggestions. Rolf I configured each boot option to disable local APIC and APIC , which I didn't have make before, and now I can boot in text mode with default kernel without have to select safe mode, very good . Benmc, my old horse has 4 GB of ram and KDE4 worked like a charm , but anyway I installed lxde and what I thought nice about it, was lxdm , the desktop manage from lxde, one more option to choose from and way better than xdm. SDDM continues to not work but I don't care if I could have any other DM working. What I had to point here is that there is still some issues, not big ones , but it's good to share this.
First graphical mode didn't work at all. Probably due to a X11 problem which is my second problem. I boot normally into text as regular user and when I run startx for the first time it didn't work. I got the x11 errors messages and back to prompt again. Now if I call it again, it runs fine and form my surprise it runs fine with Plasma 5 ! from now one I got a normal system. I can logout and back to text many times as I want and startx works every time I call it. This weird thing happens only when I call startx as regular user. If I call it as root, it works from the first time, doesn't need to call it twice. I tried to enable graphic mode with XDM or LXDM and I even got the graphical user prompt but after I type the password I'm returned to the prompt again, even if login as root. So I running mag6 this way. Boot in text mode , call startx twice and start to work. Maybe a put a bash script to call startx twice directly and I'll get plasma 5.
Oh I forget to say that I updated the system from Mag5 to 6 , so maybe if I perform a Mag6 fresh install with my xorg.conf file I could have a normal system , but his is something that I will have to test later. And another thing is that I have to delete a file executable file called desktop that was in my home folder. Beside executable , that was most a txt file that said in some line had: desktop_environment=KDE4. While this file was in my home folder I couldn't run plasma. After I deleted it runs fine , just another adjust example of what I did here.
So, my system is working not as expected but is running pretty well. I feel plasma 5 much heavier than KDE4 , it crashed once but it recovered automatically and there are small issues with cosmetics that didn't work as expected ( Themes mainly) but I think you guys did a superb job. By my experience, the time for a good system adaptation varies from 3 to 6 six months and I think we'll get many more surprises in a near future till we get completely used to the kind of thing that is plasma , but we'll get accustomed to it anyway.
Brds...

[doktor5000]

I boot normally into text as regular user and when I run startx for the first time it didn't work.

Well, you should not use startx anymore at all it is deprecated and the cause of quite a log of issues.

[fabulous-muller]

No problem at all Dok , What command to type instead ?
tks..

[doktor5000]

systemctl start name_of_displaymanager.service

[fabulous-muller]

Dok and all , I'm returning just to tell the end of the story. I tried to use systemctl but found that the previous problem of not boot directly into graphic mode was related to it. If I call any DM from systemctl I could get the login screen but after put my password , like it was about to enter, it suddenly back to the login and I can't enter. Checking the logs, it seems a DBUS KDE error. I found many issues and at the end no action cleared it , so I gave up and continued to boot text and enter via startx (twice called). But , as I was getting other errors I decide to change my hardware sooner and bought an used Thinkpad t430 for a very good price. Both machines , my old and the thinkpad, had 4GB of Ram and 320GB HD. I simply swap the hdd's and Mageia 6 boots flawlessly (into text). Called XFdrake, reconfigured the video , called startx and voila , plasma at first startx call. Imediately I configured the boot options and enable the graphical mode again, reboot and system worked fine. Going further , I change from KDM to SDDM but it doesn't worked. I was about to make a fresh install, remembering I did and update from 5 to 6 but I couldn't boot either from Live 6 usb. Get back to text mode, changed SDDM to KDM and worked like a charm. well almost , sound was off. After search here I found a bug opened to intel snd ctrl that was fixed after an update. So , updated the system and sound worked fine. That's it ! For me, it's done. Plasma working fine and KDM as a DM. Nothing else to say. Problem solved , user happy, and machine flying. Next step is compile the kernel. But I'll enjoy Mageia 6 a little bit before that. Thanks for all help.

[wintpe]

you should not need to compile the kernel, that's an occupation from a bygone age, or for extreme hardware issues.

every few weeks a new kernel arrives with many vulnerability and stability issues fixed, plus new hardware support.

you should take advantage of those newer kernels.

compiling kernel, is just a waste of your time.

regards peter

[doktor5000]

For me, it's done. Plasma working fine and KDM as a DM. Nothing else to say. Problem solved , user happy, and machine flying. Next step is compile the kernel. But I'll enjoy Mageia 6 a little bit before that. Thanks for all help.

Please mark the thread accordingly by editing the topic of the first post and prefix it by [DONE], thanks