FC7 on AMD Geode LX

[niroshpg]

Hi All,
I am in the process of setting up FC7 on to AMD Geode LX700 based machine. I successfully install the FC7 where I can boot into text mode without issue. Now I want to setup X to work.

I can run the GUI from startx after modifying default /etc/X11/xorg.conf to have "amd" driver.

I used following in xorg.conf to load amd driver

Section "Device"
Identifier "Geode"
Driver "amd"
Option "HWcursor"
EndSection

Following is the current state of the system.
1. Booting only to text base login.
2. Modes options given in xorg.conf ignored and deleted after running x from startx.
In the System/Display it is only activating 800x600 and 640x480 resolutions
Background image is blurred -- should be due to low resotions
3. /var/log/Xorg.0.log says

Module amd: compiled for 1.2.99.905, module version = 4.0.1

and could not detect if amd driver loading failed there .
4. using lspci -vv show system has actually detected the Geode LX Video module.

5. Cannot restart X . If I try to ctl+alt+backspace black screen comes up and all other virtual consoles are also same -- black screen !

6. uname -r
2.6.21-3194.fc7
uname -m
i586
System is having AMD Geode LX 700 433MHz processor, 256MB RAM, with LCD Touch Panel Display.

Can someone guide me to set up X correctly ?. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards
NP

[sander-nl]

Hi niroshpg (or anyone else),

How did you get the 800x600 and 640x480 resolutions working? I've tried everything that I could think of, but it won't work. On Debian I was able to get 640x480 and 800x600 resolutions working with the vesa driver. FC7 also don't accept the vesa drivers. I attached the Xorg.0.log error log, which contains lots of messages like:

(II) AMD(0): Not using default mode "640x350" (unknown reason)
(II) AMD(0): Not using default mode "320x175" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan)
(II) AMD(0): Not using default mode "640x400" (unknown reason)
(II) AMD(0): Not using default mode "320x200" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan)
(II) AMD(0): Not using default mode "720x400" (unknown reason)

In the second file I have attached (Xorg.0.log-2.txt) is the error log produced by X -configure. This ends with the following error message:

Backtrace:
0: X(xf86SigHandler+0x81) [0x80c2d21]
1: [0x12c420]
2: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libvgahw.so(vgaHWGetHWRec+0xef) [0x4d18ff]
3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//amd_drv.so [0x4a8b55]
4: X(DoConfigure+0xdd4) [0x80c07e4]
5: X(InitOutput+0x665) [0x80a32b5]
6: X(main+0x27b) [0x807151b]
7: /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe0) [0x20ef70]
8: X(FontFileCompleteXLFD+0x1e9) [0x8070a21]

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting

How did you get the 800x600 and 640x480 resolutions working on your machine?

When I've get it working at this resolution or higher (1024x768) I will post it here.

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,
Sander

[niroshpg]

Hi niroshpg (or anyone else),

How did you get the 800x600 and 640x480 resolutions working? I've tried everything that I could think of, but it won't work. On Debian I was able to get 640x480 and 800x600 resolutions working with the vesa driver. FC7 also don't accept the vesa drivers. I attached the Xorg.0.log error log, which contains lots of messages like:

(II) AMD(0): Not using default mode "640x350" (unknown reason)
(II) AMD(0): Not using default mode "320x175" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan)
(II) AMD(0): Not using default mode "640x400" (unknown reason)
(II) AMD(0): Not using default mode "320x200" (bad mode clock/interlace/doublescan)
(II) AMD(0): Not using default mode "720x400" (unknown reason)

In the second file I have attached (Xorg.0.log-2.txt) is the error log produced by X -configure. This ends with the following error message:

Backtrace:
0: X(xf86SigHandler+0x81) [0x80c2d21]
1: [0x12c420]
2: /usr/lib/xorg/modules//libvgahw.so(vgaHWGetHWRec+0xef) [0x4d18ff]
3: /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//amd_drv.so [0x4a8b55]
4: X(DoConfigure+0xdd4) [0x80c07e4]
5: X(InitOutput+0x665) [0x80a32b5]
6: X(main+0x27b) [0x807151b]
7: /lib/libc.so.6(__libc_start_main+0xe0) [0x20ef70]
8: X(FontFileCompleteXLFD+0x1e9) [0x8070a21]

Fatal server error:
Caught signal 11. Server aborting

How did you get the 800x600 and 640x480 resolutions working on your machine?

When I've get it working at this resolution or higher (1024x768) I will post it here.

Thank you in advance.

Best regards,
Sander

Hi sander-nl,
Actually I don't like to put 800x600 or 640x480 workings as even those resolutions we cannot restart x server successfully. I already posted what I done to X working i.e. editing /etc/X11/xorg.conf to force driver to be "amd" instead of "vesa". This trick "work" for me.

After trying FC7, FC6 & FC5 it is observed that most stable version run on AMD GEODE LX 700 / LCD Display is FC6. Here "vesa" driver is fully functioning [ up to 1600x1200 ] and system is recognize the Video module unlike in FC5. So now I switch to FC6 and and working on CF card installation for FC6.
Glad to see at least another one interested in this system

If you are suucessful in FC7 pls let us no.

Thanks/rgds
Nirosh

[sander-nl]

Hi Nirosh,

Thank you for your help. FC6 with VESA drivers is functional. If I will get it working with the AMD drivers (resolution 1024x768 or higher) I will post it here how it was done.

Regards,
Sander

[sander-nl]

Hi Nirosh,

Use the following procedure to use the AMD Geode drivers:


# maybe you need more dependencies to install...
yum install git xorg-x11-server-sdk gcc

# download driver source:
git clone git://anongit.freedesktop.org/git/xorg/driver/xf86-video-amd

./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr
make
make install


Write your xorg.conf file based on the example available on the AMD website:
http://www.amd.com/us-en/Connectivit...E11363,00.html
(Example config files in package: "Xorg Common Tarball for AMD Geode™ LX/GX Processors")


I've used the AMD Geode LX 800 board. The video drivers works perfectly here.

Good luck.

Regards,
Sander de Bruijne