Toshiba Satellite A100-LE1

Hunkah · #1 7th February 2012, 02:20 AM

Hello,

I installed Fedora 16 on a Toshiba A100-LE1 and everything was going amazingly until the initial bootup.

I'm firstly getting a scrambled screen and if I do a Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, I get it unscrambled, but I can't click anything. It is like it gets locked up!

Is there anything I can do to fix this?

---------- Post added at 09:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 PM ----------

Sorry here is some more information:

Code:

[root@mybot ~]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 5a31 (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:12.0 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 Serial ATA Controller (rev 80)
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev 80)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev 80)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller (rev 80)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 82)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller (rev 80)
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB4x0 High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge (rev 80)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge (rev 80)
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RC410 [Radeon Xpress 200M]
02:04.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC (rev 01)
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
02:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

Hunkah · #2 8th February 2012, 02:12 AM

I should have put this in the installlation help section. Sorry about that.

anishjp · #3 8th February 2012, 08:29 AM

Hi

What exactly is the problem? Is it booting up? Where it freezes?

Hunkah · #4 8th February 2012, 01:37 PM

Everything boots fine, it gets to the black and gray login fedora icon but it is scrambled, then if I do a Ctrl+Alt+Backspace the login/blue background becomes visible but is totally unresponsive.

I can do a Crtl+Alt+F3 and get to the command line.

beaker_ · #5 8th February 2012, 02:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hunkah

Hello,

I installed Fedora 16 on a Toshiba A100-LE1 and everything was going amazingly until the initial bootup.

I'm firstly getting a scrambled screen and if I do a Ctrl+Alt+Backspace, I get it unscrambled, but I can't click anything. It is like it gets locked up!

Is there anything I can do to fix this?

---------- Post added at 09:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 PM ----------

Sorry here is some more information:

Code:

[root@mybot ~]# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Device 5a31 (rev 01)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS480 PCI Bridge
00:12.0 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 Serial ATA Controller (rev 80)
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev 80)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB Host Controller (rev 80)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 USB2 Host Controller (rev 80)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 SMBus Controller (rev 82)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 IDE Controller (rev 80)
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB4x0 High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-ISA Bridge (rev 80)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc IXP SB400 PCI-PCI Bridge (rev 80)
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc RC410 [Radeon Xpress 200M]
02:04.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR2413 802.11bg NIC (rev 01)
02:06.0 CardBus bridge: ENE Technology Inc CB1410 Cardbus Controller (rev 01)
02:07.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

I hate to be the one who tell you this but I have two machines with the Xpress 200 series (a G and a M) and support just sucks. You want to run either CentOS or SL and rebuild the packages you need or want.

Hunkah · #6 8th February 2012, 02:50 PM

So there is no available drivers or anything? I have scoured google for answers but there is absolutely nothing available for a fix for this.

I was hoping that the masterminds that frequent these forums would have more insight than google. I have yet to walk away from here without a brilliant solution to whatever I'm facing.

That sucks.

beaker_ · #7 8th February 2012, 03:09 PM

I wouldn't hold my breath for some of that insight.

I don't know if the options are still true but you could try passing nomodeset at boot (grub). Or try forcing a modesetting. Maybe try XAA acceleration instead of EXA through xorg. But I find the older Xorg (used in CentOS and SL) have much better support for those old chipsets.

---------- Post added at 11:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:04 AM ----------

Sorry for the double post.

Assuming i386, try a live CD and see if I'm full of crap:
http://mirrors.versaweb.com/centos/6.2/isos/i386/
http://ftp.scientificlinux.org/linux.../6.1/i386/iso/

And you'll want to check out either forums wrt enabling third party repos. Other than that, expect to rebuild a few SRPMS to get everything you want.

Hunkah · #8 8th February 2012, 03:17 PM

Ugh, this is so discouraging.

I went on and on and on about how amazing Fedora was, how it would solve all the worlds problems and how everything that they were having issues with in windows XP would be completely obliterated with a brand new install of Fedora. Now I can't even get past the login screen.

This is going to hurt.

beaker_ · #9 8th February 2012, 03:28 PM

It's just a lappy and you've already been flailing around for two days. For sh1ts and giggles, I suggest you take the 20min or however long it takes for you to burn that live cd/dvd and boot it.

I didn't say Fedora wouldn't work. But considering you haven't thrown "nomodeset" or an xorg.???.conf back at me then I'm saying CentOS or SL is the route you want to take.

Good Luck.

Hunkah · #10 9th February 2012, 01:47 AM

Hey, sorry I'm at work right now and don't have access to the laptop. I will definately get back to you with that information.

Could you give me a hint or a bit of a walkthough as things have changed since they've switched where xorg.conf and stuff has been placed. I looked yesterday and it wasn't where an old walkthrough said it was.

---------- Post added at 08:44 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:46 PM ----------

nomodeset worked!!!

See, I can still say that I walked away from here with a working laptop.

I just have one question now, if I fix this... on the next kernel update will this need to be reentered?

---------- Post added at 08:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:44 PM ----------

Frig sakes...

Cinnamon won't work with nomodeset

Is there any way of fixing this so Cinnamon runs?

beaker_ · #11 9th February 2012, 02:24 AM

Makes sense.

Instead of nomodeset, how about video=640x480 or video=600x600 or video=1280x1024 or... whatever your monitor supports.

Hunkah · #12 9th February 2012, 02:31 AM

No, same issue as before.

Which file do I need to edit to make nomodeset become a default? I can at least make this work for now, but the person I am doing this for hasn't ever owned a computer and this will confuse them too much to have to enter this on ever reboot.

beaker_ · #13 9th February 2012, 02:37 AM

Try radeon.modeset=0 before making it permanant.

You add it to /boot/grub2/grub.cfg but besure to read the manual. I don't know if there is a second or third step since grub2 was introduced.

Hunkah · #14 9th February 2012, 02:49 AM

radeon.modeset=0 gave me the same results as nomodeset

I'll give grub.cfg a shot and report back.

Thanks for all your help. You rock!

---------- Post added at 09:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:43 PM ----------

Editing /boot/grub2/grub.cfg worked. I now have radeon.modeset=0 included

I suppose I'm going to have to do this every time the kernel gets updated eh?

Wow, I just got thinking, I would have never figured this out on my own. Thanks for your help.

beaker_ · #15 9th February 2012, 02:56 AM

Disabling the modsetting pretty much kills any pretty 3d stuff (gnome shell, cinnamon). But atleast you know how to get in. If, without nomodeset or radeon.modeset=0, you see the animated fedora icon durring boot but it goes all to he11 before logon, then I'm thinking force or specify a mode setting through an xrog.conf.., actually there's a new naming scheme and it's all under xrog.conf.d so there's some reading for both of us. But I'm too lazy for reading tonight.

---------- Post added at 10:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:54 PM ----------

np. Past releases preserved your editing. But we are talking about fedora.