FC6 X failure

[CrystalCowboy]

FC6 x86_64
Motherboard is Commell LV-677 with Intel i945GM chipset.
CPU is Intel Core 2 Duo (Merom)
Using the onboard graphics.
Monitor is 1280 x 1024 LCD flat panel (NEC LCD71V)

X has been extremely unstable since I installed FC6. It frequently fails to come up when I run startx or log in. Attempts at running system-config-display result in a panic and reboot.

The original /etc/X11/xorg.conf file lacked a monitor section and mode lines, so I added some. X still fails. My xorg.conf file is attached.

The end of "dmesg" output looks like this:
device peth0 entered promiscuous mode
audit(1162408388.899:8): dev=peth0 prom=256 old_prom=0 auid=4294967295
xenbr0: port 2(peth0) entering learning state
xenbr0: topology change detected, propagating
xenbr0: port 2(peth0) entering forwarding state
eth0: no IPv6 routers present
[drm] Initialized drm 1.0.1 20051102
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[drm] Initialized i915 1.5.0 20060119 on minor 0
crond[2109]: segfault at 0000000000000000 rip 0000555555557308 rsp 00007fff829334d8 error 6



I don't know what crond would have to do with a failure of X to start.

This system was stable under FC5.

[CrystalCowboy]

My Xorg.0.log file is attached.

[CrystalCowboy]

I copied a xorg.conf file from a different, FC5, system, and changed the driver to "i810". I got X to start up once, but it is not repeateable. I cannot run ysstem-config-display because it crashes the system.

[jcliburn]

What version of glibc is installed on your system? Execute this command to find out:

rpm -qa | grep glibc

Also, what's the output of this command:

cat /etc/fedora-release

[CrystalCowboy]

What version of glibc is installed on your system? Execute this command to find out:

rpm -qa | grep glibc

Also, what's the output of this command:

cat /etc/fedora-release
# rpm -qa|fgrep glibc
glibc-headers-2.5-3
glibc-devel-2.5-3
glibc-2.5-3
glibc-devel-2.5-3
glibc-2.5-3
glibc-common-2.5-3

The doubled entries are presumably the 64 bit and 32 bit versions.

# cat /etc/fedora-release
Fedora Core release 6 (Zod)

[CrystalCowboy]

Whoa!! Hold on there @CrystalCowboy. Did I read that correctly? You are using the onboard video??? In other words you are using the video built into the motherboard?

I would find it highly surprising that a motherboard mfg would be putting video on the mobo that could handle anything greater than 640x480 in 8bit or 16bit mode. Therefore, the settings in your xorg.conf setting the default depth as 24 bit and resolutions way above 640x480 could very well be the problem.

Yes, I am using the onboard video. The specs say "Intel 945GM integrated GMA(Graphic Media Accelerator) 950 Technology". It should have absolutely no trouble with 1280x1024 in 24 bit mode. I honestly don't know where you're coming from.

[jcliburn]

Something seems badly broken on your system if crond segfaults. Please run these commands and post their output here:
uname -a
rpm -q --queryformat "%{NAME}-%{VERSION}.%{RELEASE}.%{ARCH}\n" kernel kernel-devel kernel-headers

[CrystalCowboy]

Thanks for your time, but I just gave up and am installing FC5 right now.

[CrystalCowboy]

FC5 x86_64 installation goes just fine, yum update to the latest stuff. Then I noticed that the xorg.conf driver is "vesa". Switching to the i810 driver buys me some error messages:

(II) I810: Driver for Intel Integrated Graphics Chipsets: i810, i810-dc100,
i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 852GM/855GM, 865G, 915G, E7221 (i915),
915GM, 945G
(II) Primary Device is: PCI 00:02:0
(--) Assigning device section with no busID to primary device
(WW) I810: No matching Device section for instance (BusID PCI:0:2:1) found
(EE) No devices detected.

I guess it's not recognizing the 945GM chipset. I don't think the vesa driver is going to do it for me, I need to run a Java app with streaming video, and previous experience on earlier versions of FC says vesa won't cut it.

I'm not having a good week.

[CrystalCowboy]

I'm making progress, I guess. I re-installed FC6. I went in with rescue mode to change the inittab runlevel to 3. IWhenI put in an /etc/X11/xorg.conf created under FC5 with the vesa driver, then X starts OK with startx.

I updated what packages I could, working around some kind of dependency foulup with KDE libraries. This included pygtk2 and pygobject2, which I thought might be relevant to the problem with system-config-display.

I was able to run the graphical Display config utility or system-config-display without panicking the kernel. I specified my monitor, and I chose the "vesa" driver. The FC5 xorg.conf was 109 lines, the FC6 version was 41 lines. startx worked fine.

I tried changing the driver to "intel". startx worked OK once, but then I changed /etc/inittab to make it come up to level 5 automatically. When the boot sequence got around to X, the screen went blank. Fortunately I was able to come in over the network.

Now that I have a working config file for the "vesa" driver, I have a little more freedom to play around and see if I can get the "intel" or "i810" driver to work.

[CrystalCowboy]

OK, it seems to boot up with the i810 driver as well.

One more odd thing, when I try to reboot it, with either the i810 or the vesa driver, the screen goes completely blank and the system cannot be reached, even over the net, and it does not come up again.

[CrystalCowboy]

Currently using the i180 driver, and managed to get most of the updates done despite the dependency issues.

Now every time I log out, the system freezes up. Black screen, no network access even. I suspect X isn't coming down right.

[CrystalCowboy]

Current status:

"vesa" driver works, but probably lacks the advanced features I will needfor my application, if/when I can stop futzing with FC and get back to said applcation.

"i810" driver starts up OK, but goes into a frozen state whenever i log out or reboot.

"intel" driver not working; upon reboot, the screen is completely black. This may or may not be relevant:
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 169

I've been over to bugzilla.redhat, and I see I'm not the only one having problems with these drivers.

Does someone know which RPM package the intel driver is in?

[CrystalCowboy]

I'm making a bit of progress. With the "intel" driver and the FC6 (x86_64) distribution, I added a line:
Option "Monitorlayout" "CRT,NONE"
to the device section in xorg.conf. Then I got a display! (This embedded chipset also has a connector for LVDS direct flat panel connection) Still, it was choosing a very low resolution. Next I removed all resolutions but "1280x1024" from my "Screen" > "Display" > Modes line. With only one choice to make, it made the right choice.
It still reboots every time I log out.

My current xorg.conf file is attached.