X server freeze in Fedora 17 with Savage video drivers (Thinkpad T23)

Hilbert · #1 5th June 2012, 05:04 PM

I just installed Fedora 17 on my Thinkpad T23, which has an S3 Savage video card.
When the X-server starts, it freezes with a black screen, no keyboard response, etc.
This seems like a problem with the S3 Savage video driver (package xorg-x11-drv-savage).
The fallback VESA driver still works (with very poor graphics performance as you would expect).

I have attached some log files, and also the xorg.conf file generated by running Xorg -configure.
No error messages appeared in /var/log/messages or in dmesg.

This might be related to this F17 bug https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=804362

I

Hilbert · #2 6th June 2012, 05:29 AM

Update:
Upgrading to a kernel that is not yet in the repository, kernel-PAE-3.4.1.1.fc17.i686.rpm (downloaded from http://koji.fedoraproject.org) converts this problem from a freeze to a messed-up screen, where the cursor is a black square leaving a black trail behind it, and there are strange square patterns.

Hilbert · #3 7th June 2012, 04:25 AM

POSSIBLE SOLUTION:
Turning on the "DisableTile" driver option makes the driver work OK.

As root:
1) Install the xorg-x11-drv-savage driver
2) Generate an xconf.org file and copy it to /etc/X11:

Code:

Xorg :1 -configure  
# ignore "Configuration failed." message
cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

3) Edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and uncomment 'Option "DisableTile"' in the 'Section "Device"' that contains the Savage driver options.

If you reboot, the driver now works.

I also added "DefaultDepth 16" in each of the 'Section "Screen"' sections. I'm not sure if that helps performance or not.

ksmallik · #4 16th January 2013, 06:11 PM

I also have a S3 Savage video card. I tried the xdriver=vesa solution and it worked elegantly till the post installation (after creating a user). Then I have a blank screen The solutions here work for people who have F17 installed. Unfortunately I could go only so far. Any suggestions my way could be handy.

P.S. I have a 2.4GHz VIA chipset P4M266a motherboard, with built in video card.

wicking · #5 1st February 2013, 07:07 PM

Hey Hilbert. Could you please post your xorg.conf file? Your solution solves the problem with Fedora 18 only partially. X starts, but it is still very slow playing videos or GL stuff.

ksmallik · #6 2nd February 2013, 12:42 PM

I found a simple way. login to the recovery console where root is default.

Code:

Xorg :1 -configure  
cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Worked like a charm. You need to "DisableTile" in the section referring to "savage".
I am not sure whether this will help...adding DefaultDepth 16 in all the "Screen" section and then running xdpyinfo |grep "as root". Should say planes are 16.

HTH.

RupertPupkin · #7 2nd February 2013, 05:08 PM

Hmm, I wonder if this has to do with DRI1 driver support for the Savage cards being dropped since F17: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/DRI2DriversOnly

I ran into a similar issue on an old laptop with an Intel i815 video chipset, and my solution was to disable hardware acceleration: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=280307

This turned out to work better than using the vesa driver, as I still got 24-bit color and acceptable software acceleration via the llvmpipe driver in Mesa. You could try using the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-local.conf file I posted in that thread, just changing the Driver option from "intel" to "savage",

wicking · #8 3rd February 2013, 01:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ksmallik

I found a simple way. login to the recovery console where root is default.

First, where do I find the recovery console?

Code:

Xorg :1 -configure  
cp xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Quote:

Worked like a charm. You need to "DisableTile" in the section referring to "savage".

Second: It didn’t work. I just did init 3 as root, and then tried to generate the xorg.conf file. But it ended with an error

Code:

Number of created screens does not match number of detected devices.
  Configuration failed.

I managed to manually delete all the screens except one that contained the savage device and set the DisableTile thing true. Then X started again. With the savage driver! But it was as slow as before. :-(

---------- Post added at 02:12 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:57 AM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by RupertPupkin

Hmm, I wonder if this has to do with DRI1 driver support for the Savage cards being dropped since F17: http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/DRI2DriversOnly

Thank you for this answer. I had the same error in the logs

Code:

(EE): Failed to load module "xaa" (module does not exist, 0)

So you seem to be right with the dri1/dri2 issue.

The Option "NoAccel" "true" improved the visual experience of my Xmonad window manager and brought back the borders around the tiling windows.

I’ll try Fedora 16 next.

Hilbert · #9 3rd February 2013, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wicking

Hey Hilbert. Could you please post your xorg.conf file? Your solution solves the problem with Fedora 18 only partially. X starts, but it is still very slow playing videos or GL stuff.

Here is the xorg.conf that made the video card work.

wicking · #10 11th February 2013, 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hilbert

Here is the xorg.conf that made the video card work.

I’ve installed Fedora 16 in the mean time. It works out of the box and has video acceleration.

Do you have video acceleration with your xorg.conf on Fedora 17 or 18? I thought that was impossible because of the missing DRI1 support (as mentioned above by RupertPupkin).