ichase Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Greetings all,I have spent an hour typing in all sorts of search criteria for this issue I am having but I'm not coming up with anything. I went ahead and blew up my Arch install and started from scratch. I have obviously learned a lot because it took only about 20 minutes without the use of the tutorial. I got everything installed and even got wireless working using netcfg at the CL (Good Call Josh). I have installed everything required including e17-svn and e17-extra-modules. I even went back to Josh's tutorial just to make sure I did not forget to install something and all is installed. :)I edited my .xinitrc with exec ck-launch-session enlightenment_startNow, the last time I installed, I had installed KDE then Enlightenment. Well with this being an older lappy I found running E17 with KDE made the lappy a bit sluggish. May have also accounted for my slow wireless. This time around I only have E17 installed. My problem is this. Once I log in and "startx" Enlightenment comes up but the info on the screen is scrambled to the point I can't read it. I tried setting my VESA code to VGA=733 from 788 but that did not make a difference. When I booted into E17 with KDE I had no problem as you have seen I submitted screen shots in the screen shot thread. I did install my ATI video driver "xf86-video-ati" as I had done before so at this point, I know I have not done anything different. I figured using only E17 would speed things up on this lappy considering how little bloat E17 actually has.Your opinions and guidance as always are MOST appreciated. :)All the best,Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SueD Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 I did install my ATI video driver "xf86-video-ati" as I had done before so at this point, I know I have not done anything different. I figured using only E17 would speed things up on this lappy considering how little bloat E17 actually has.Are you sure? I had to install the xf86-video-ati driver several times before it finally stuck. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 From the Archwiki it says to just use: exec enlightenment_start https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/E17#Starting_E17 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 (edited) Are you sure? I had to install the xf86-video-ati driver several times before it finally stuck.Hey Sue,Maybe I might need to re-install the driver. I have installed Arch 4 times in the last month or so due to screwing something up or deciding that I wanted to run this over that etc and each time the driver took 1st time. But if it took you a couple of times, maybe that is what I need to do this time. After all this is the first time I am trying to run E17 solo so who knows. :)Thanks for the advice.@Josh,I thought it was always good practice to put ck-launch-session prior to the WM you are going to use? Should it make a difference? Either way, taking out the ck-launch-session yielded the same results. All the best,Ian Edited March 4, 2011 by ichase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Hey Sue,Maybe I might need to re-install the driver. I have installed Arch 4 times in the last month or so due to screwing something up or deciding that I wanted to run this over that etc and each time the driver took 1st time. But if it took you a couple of times, maybe that is what I need to do this time. After all this is the first time I am trying to run E17 solo so who knows. :)Thanks for the advice.@Josh,I thought it was always good practice to put ck-launch-session prior to the WM you are going to use? Should it make a difference? Either way, taking out the ck-launch-session yielded the same results. All the best,IanWell I use the 'exec ck-launch-session' on all of my sessions also, I just seen what the E17 wiki entry said to do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 (edited) Just something to add that may or may not be important.When I run glxgears I get the following error: [ichase@ichase~]$ glxgearsError: couldn't open display (null) I may not be running it correctly but I have read a few post where people post there output after running glxgears.Editing to add more info: I noticed in my /etc/X11/xorg.conf that under "Devices" I show Identifier "Card0"Driver "vesa"VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc" Now this is leading me to believe the xf86-video-driver did not load as Sue had mentioned. From what I read in the ATI Arch Wiki the Identifier should read what ever my graphics card name is and the Driver should read "Radeon"Any thoughts?Thanks,Ian Edited March 4, 2011 by ichase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Yes, you are only running the Vesa driver and not the Radeon one. Did the wiki say anything about replacing Vesa with Radeon?Also, you should have a bunch of output from glxgears and you do not because your display is not setup correctly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 The wiki did not mention anything about the vesa driver. I am assuming (which I hate to do) that if properly loaded the xf86-video-ati driver shoud load inplace of the vesa driver. Considering this was the only video driver I installed I would imagine vesa is default until you load an actual driver? I really am just shooting in the dark on this one. :)I would like to think that if the driver loads correctly, I should not have to configure anything in regards to video. Now mind you, I did not configure anything when I had KDE installed and I had graphics (albeit I was not happy with them) I still had graphics none the less.So, I guess it is safe to say, I need to pacman -S xf86-video-ati again and let it reload the driver??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 The wiki did not mention anything about the vesa driver. I am assuming (which I hate to do) that if properly loaded the xf86-video-ati driver shoud load inplace of the vesa driver. Considering this was the only video driver I installed I would imagine vesa is default until you load an actual driver? I really am just shooting in the dark on this one. :)I would like to think that if the driver loads correctly, I should not have to configure anything in regards to video. Now mind you, I did not configure anything when I had KDE installed and I had graphics (albeit I was not happy with them) I still had graphics none the less.So, I guess it is safe to say, I need to pacman -S xf86-video-ati again and let it reload the driver???Yes, Vesa is the last resort/default video driver. It does not support direct rendering or anything else really. That could be the reason that your screen was not looking before.You could try changing "vesa" to "radeon" and restart X as you may have the driver install. If not you will get some output when starting X. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 Changing "vesa" to "radeon" was a real good idea Josh. Unfortantly it yeilded the same result with no error. Truth be told, I thought that was going to do the trick. ;)Well this evening when I can link to the interwebs, I will try to re-install the driver. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 Changing "vesa" to "radeon" was a real good idea Josh. Unfortantly it yeilded the same result with no error. Truth be told, I thought that was going to do the trick. ;)Well this evening when I can link to the interwebs, I will try to re-install the driver. Sounds good, let us know how it goes. I have to work for a few hours tonight but I will be back on around 10 EDT. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 In looking in my /ect/X11/xorg.conf.d directory, the only 3 files I have listed is 10-evdev.conf, 10-quirks.conf and 10-synaptics.conf. Once again, this leads me to believe the xf86-video-ati driver never properly installed because I would think there would be a conf file in there for it.Just a thought,Have a great night at work.Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 4, 2011 Share Posted March 4, 2011 In looking in my /ect/X11/xorg.conf.d directory, the only 3 files I have listed is 10-evdev.conf, 10-quirks.conf and 10-synaptics.conf. Once again, this leads me to believe the xf86-video-ati driver never properly installed because I would think there would be a conf file in there for it.Just a thought,Have a great night at work.IanThanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 exec enlightenment_start That is what I have in my .xinitrc, if it hekps. Run Nvidia so can not help with the ATI prob. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 5, 2011 Author Share Posted March 5, 2011 Well trying to re-install the ATI driver was a huge failure. Would not load due to other dependancys and then when I tried to startx it failed miserably. SO, I wanted to see something so I re-imaged the partition with the KDE load. I'm on it now. Looked at my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and this is what it shows: Section "Device" ### Available Driver options are:- ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False", ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz" ### [arg]: arg optional #Option "ShadowFB" # [<bool>] #Option "DefaultRefresh" # [<bool>] #Option "ModeSetClearScreen" # [<bool>] Identifier "Card0" Driver "vesa" VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc" BoardName "Radeon XPRESS 200M 5955 (PCIE)" BusID "PCI:1:5:0"EndSection Same thing it showed on the previous install. Vesa driver. Maybe KDE has additional drivers installed with it to make this card work with vesa. I don't know. I need to do some more research to see if there is an issue in relation to E17 and ATI video cards. Or maybe I might just need to install a different WM because KDE is just to much for this lappy. Hope everyone is having a great start to their weekend. :)All the best,Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SueD Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 Have you tried replacing vesa with Radeon and restarted in KDE? I can't remember but I think I had to put it into my xorg.conf file manually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abarbarian Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 (edited) Warning: If you have the proprietary driver (catalyst) installed, remove it and reboot before installing the radeon driver and make sure to remove the old /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Note: xf86-video-ati is recognized as "radeon" by Xorg (in xorg.conf). This is taken from the wiki. You may not have the catalyst driver installed buit it is a good idea to uninstall any ati drivers you have. Also take note of the remove the old /etc/X11/xorg.conf. as this may be causing problems. Disable KMSUsers should consider disabling kernel mode-setting if encountering kernel panics, distorted framebuffer on boot, no GPU signal, Xorg refusing to start, Xorg falling back to Mesa software rasterizer (no 3D acceleration) or 'POWER OFF' problem (kernel 2.6.33-2)at shutdown. 1. Add radeon.modeset=0 (or nomodeset, if this does not work) to the kernel options line in the bootloader configuration file (/boot/grub/menu.lst for GRUB users). That should work. If you want to remove KMS support from the initramfs, follow the next two steps. 2. If radeon was added to the MODULES array in mkinitcpio.conf to enable early start, remove it. 3. Rebuild the initramfs with # mkinitcpio -p kernel26Alternatively, module options can be specified in a file within the /etc/modprobe.d directory. If using the radeon module (lsmod | grep radeon) disable KMS by creating a file containing the above code:File: /etc/modprobe.d/radeon.confoptions radeon modeset=0 When uninstalling progs do you use "pacman -Rsn" as this gets rid of a lot of dross that "pacman -R" does not.All the above is stuff you have probably tried but it is all I can suggest. Renaming xorg.confRenaming /etc/X11/xorg.conf, which may include options that conflict with KMS, will force Xorg to autodetect hardware with sane defaults. After renaming, restart Xorg. Edited March 5, 2011 by abarbarian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 5, 2011 Share Posted March 5, 2011 Does ATI not have a tool to generate an xorg.conf? I know with Nvidia, a simple nvidia-xconfig does the trick.I have never used any switches to remove packages besides pacman -R since pacman will notify you of an unneeded package. This way you are not removing things you really need. I have seen where it said that X was a dependency of Y and was not required anymore. The problem was X was a major system library. So I do not automate dependency removal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 @Sue - When I had just E17 installed, I did manually change "vesa" to "radeon" in the xorg.conf file with no change in results. Also, I am thinking that KDE must have support for vesa drivers because KDE loads fine with the vesa driver even though I have installed the radeon driver (xf86-video-ati) though I really don't think that it is installed properly due to the fact that I am not seeing radeon in the driver section.@Abarbarian - Some great ideas. I started reading about the KMS and if I re-install Arch on this partition I planned on going down that road. When I remove any programs I use pacman -R I don't have any other ATI driver installed except for the xf86-video-ati driver so I am confident it is not a conflict issue.@Josh - I thought the same thing and even tried on a whim ati-xconfig but it did not work. Have not read any where there is mention of a tool to generate an xorg.conf.Easiest fix at this point is to find someone who has a laptop in there closet that has an NVIDIA video card. Somebody want to make a 100 bucks. LOLIan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SueD Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 Easiest fix at this point is to find someone who has a laptop in there closet that has an NVIDIA video card. Somebody want to make a 100 bucks. LOLIanI know I said I was going to replace this card with a nvidia one but now that I've got the catalyst driver working, I'm not so sure. If it ain't broke, don't fix seems like pretty good advice these days.LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 I know I said I was going to replace this card with a nvidia one but now that I've got the catalyst driver working, I'm not so sure. If it ain't broke, don't fix seems like pretty good advice these days.LOLAs I am always of that mindset, I could not agree more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Opinion. I have been doing A LOT of research and reading about the open source ATI driver as well as issues others have had. Now one thing I have read somewhere was, if the xorg.conf file is showing the driver as "vesa" vice "radeon", delete the xorg.conf file as well as moving any xorg.conf files out of the xorg.conf.d directory. Essentially empty the xorg.conf.d folder. Then by selecting "startx" it may find the correct driver.Does this sound like good advice? I have seen everything from 1 page script files to launching the laptop at a skeet range and point and laugh like a school kid when Bubba disintegrates it with his high powered 12 gauge shot gun.The internet is a great source of information as we all know, but you see a plethora of information many in which contradict each other. KWIM?? :)All the best,Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Opinion. I have been doing A LOT of research and reading about the open source ATI driver as well as issues others have had. Now one thing I have read somewhere was, if the xorg.conf file is showing the driver as "vesa" vice "radeon", delete the xorg.conf file as well as moving any xorg.conf files out of the xorg.conf.d directory. Essentially empty the xorg.conf.d folder. Then by selecting "startx" it may find the correct driver.Does this sound like good advice? I have seen everything from 1 page script files to launching the laptop at a skeet range and point and laugh like a school kid when Bubba disintegrates it with his high powered 12 gauge shot gun.The internet is a great source of information as we all know, but you see a plethora of information many in which contradict each other. KWIM?? :)All the best,IanI would not delete the file but make a backup in case it does not work:# mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf-bk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 (edited) I would not delete the file but make a backup in case it does not work:# mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf-bk Well, I NEVER delete anything with out making a backup copy of it first. I have been burned WAY to many times in the past making that dumb mistake. So essentially you are saying that this is a viable option to try? Just re-installed the base again today. Will try this evening to get some ethernet time to DL all the requirements. Keep you posted as this may help someone else in the future.I am going to install Arch on my build computer. Just installed PCLOS Enlightenment last night. I put a Nvidia GeForce 8400 in this, so there should be NO reason why this bad boy should have any issues in regards to video and screen resolution. ;)Ian Edited March 7, 2011 by ichase Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Well, I NEVER delete anything with out making a backup copy of it first. I have been burned WAY to many times in the past making that dumb mistake. So essentially you are saying that this is a viable option to try? Just re-installed the base again today. Will try this evening to get some ethernet time to DL all the requirements. Keep you posted as this may help someone else in the future.I am going to install Arch on my build computer. Just installed PCLOS Enlightenment last night. I put a Nvidia GeForce 8400 in this, so there should be NO reason why this bad boy should have any issues in regards to video and screen resolution. ;)IanI am not saying it is a viable solution but I figured you could try it anyway. You should have zero issues with the Nvidia card, just make sure you install the nvidia driver and use nvidia-xconfig to generate an xorg. Then open up nvidia-settings as root to configure the driver if needed.# pacman -S nvidia nvidia-utils Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 14, 2011 Author Share Posted March 14, 2011 Greetings all,Hope everyone is coming off a great weekend. For those of you in Virginia, you know we had some AWESOME weather. :)Wanted to give an update on this issue I am having in regards to X not recognizing the open source ATI driver.I re-installed Arch and re-installed Enlightenment by it's self. (no kde bloat)This time around I was able to get into Enlightenment. :thumbsup:But X is still recognizing the VESA driver instead of the Radeon driver. Identifier "Card0"Driver "vesa"VendorName "ATI Technologies Inc" I ran lsmod | grep radeon with this output: {ichase@ichase~} $ lsmod | grep radeonradeon 723481 1ttm 38517 1 radeondrm_kms_helper 21512 1 radeondrm 131562 3 radeon,ttm,drm_kms_helperi2c_algo_bit 4219 1 radeoni2c_core 15144 5 radeon,drm_kms_helper,drm,i2c_algo_bit,i2c_pii X4 Not sure what this is telling me but is it saying that in fact that the radeon (ATI) driver is being used even though it shows VESA in my xorg.conf?Also, this time around I was succesfully able to run glxgears with this output" {ichase@ichase~}$ glxgears225 frames in 5.0 seconds = 44.952 FPS226 frames in 5.0 seconds = 45.018 FPS225 frames in 5.0 seconds = 44.947 FPSXI0: Fatal IO error 11 (Resource temporarily unavailable) on X server ":0.0" after 8134 request (7306 known processed) with 0 events remaining I feel pretty confident that X is running the vesa driver and not the radeon driver. The screen even though it is readable now is not up to par at all. Desktop backround is slightly blury, icons just don't seem right etc. I can't for the life of me get conky running transparent. There is just a considerable difference with this same video card in XP and Mandy on the same lappy.Your opinions are always most appreciated.All the best,Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 15, 2011 Author Share Posted March 15, 2011 Even though I have said that I may give up on using Arch on this lappy I just can't bring myself to wave the white flag of defeat. So after I clone the current load, I plan on getting rid of my xorg.conf (of course backing it up) and moving everything out of my xorg.conf.d folder and seeing if starting X will then recognize the radeon driver. Keeping fingers crossed. :)Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
securitybreach Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Yes it looks as though it is running the Vesa driver and not the radeon one. Your FPS should not be that low. The output should be in thousands, not in the hundreds Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichase Posted March 15, 2011 Author Share Posted March 15, 2011 Well, the more I have read in different threads the more I am thinking that I need to move my xorg.conf file and let X reload the drivers. I started thinking that on all ocasions, I installed X before I installed the ATI video driver. So by moving the xorg.conf file as well as the additional drivers in my xorg.conf.d folder, if may force X to reload the drivers that are installed. I feel pretty confident that if I can be running off the open source radeon driver that I am going to notice a world of difference.Ian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SueD Posted March 15, 2011 Share Posted March 15, 2011 Ian, have you not tried the Catalyst driver? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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