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Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system

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Tony Stoneley composed on 2017-03-30 17:12 (UTC+0100):

> Felix Miata wrote on Wed, 29 Mar 2017 16:44:01 -0400

>>> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/03/msg00895.html

>>Did you try other things suggested in that thread or the openSUSE bug
>>referenced there
>>https://bugzilla.opensuse.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1004453 ?

> To be honest, I'm way out of my depth in all that. I would be happy to
> try a particular experiment, given instructions...

>>e.g. disabling framebuffer?

> Er, how? xserver-xorg-video-fbdev isn't installed, nor for that matter
> xserver-xorg-video-modesetting. As I said, I'm out of my depth.

A framebuffer is historically how the boot messages get displayed on vtty1 by 
the kernel in other than 80x25 text mode. Plymouth can be and often is used to 
convert that process to a graphical mode. By disabling framebuffer I mean to 
ensure that you are booting in 80x25 mode. Matrox doesn't support all the usual 
standard VESA modes, so getting back to the most basic video output can be key 
to video problem solutions.

Your goal is to boot without Plymouth and without framebuffer, in 80x25 mode, to 
give Xorg the best possible chance to work as expect. If Plymouth is installed, 
purge it.

To proceed, hit the e key when the Grub menu appears, then remove any line that 
says "load_video", and from any line that includes "video=" or "vesa" or "vga=" 
or "quiet" or "splash", remove each whole such string. Optionally, if the string 
"text" appears, remove it too.

If all the above doesn't help, repeat it, but append "iomem=relaxed" to the line 
that included video and/or vesa and/or vga. If this works, and Grub2 is what you 
are using, then /etc/default/grub needs to be modified to match whatever worked, 
followed by running update-grub. If still using Grub, simply update menu.lst to 
match what worked.

>>Which is yours PCIe, or AGP?

> Ah! One I can answer:  AGP

That's what I have.

>>Which WM/DE(s) is/are you trying to use?

> xfce4 and all that goes with it, but I don't think it's getting that
> far. As previously remarked, that stuff does all work with the vesa
> driver (achieved by tweaking xorg.conf).

FBDEV and VESA Xorg drivers are creepy-crawly slow!!!

Are you using a greeter, or logging in on a vtty and using startx or equivalent?

What are the permissions on your /usr/bin/Xorg?

>>Can you see any other clues than Xorg.0.log shows by running
>>'journalctl -b -1'?

> Nope, though I might possibly not recognise a clue...

Doing something like 'journalctl -b -1 | grep -i failed' might be useful. There 
is an awful lot of stuff making particular points of interest hard to identify 
in the journal.

> Apologies for uselessness (and also btw for wrecking the thread
> structure with a completely inadvertent small subject change, the
> genesis of which is a complete mystery to me).

Don't be confused by the fact that some common video terms have multiple 
contexts. Using the VESA driver in Xorg has nothing directly to do with VESA 
modes being used by the kernel or the BIOS. Same goes for modesetting or KMS. 
Matrox gfxchips are not supported by KMS, so the modesetting Xorg driver is not 
an option for Matrox users. xserver-xorg-video-modesetting is appropriate only 
for Intel, ATI and NVidia hardware that is several years newer than your Matrox. 
xserver-xorg-video-fbdev would probably not work as well as xserver-xorg-video-vesa.

Lack of active Matrox support since KMS was introduced into the kernel around 8 
years ago is why were are going through this troubleshooting process. Devs are 
no longer Matrox users, so must rely on users who have problems reporting them 
with enough details that fixes can be implemented by devs who have no matching 
hardware to test on. It may be time for you to ask for help from the devs, using 
the debian-devel mailing list or one of the freedesktop.org Xorg mailing lists, 
or by filing a Debian bug.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/

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Thread

Re: Matrox G550   mga driver hangs system Tony Stoneley <ajms@ajms.ukfsn.org> - 2017-03-29 21:50 +0200
  Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-03-29 22:50 +0200
    Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system "Tony Stoneley" <ajms@ajms.ukfsn.org> - 2017-03-30 18:40 +0200
      Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-03-31 08:30 +0200
        Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-03-31 11:00 +0200
        Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system "Tony Stoneley" <ajms@ajms.ukfsn.org> - 2017-03-31 23:40 +0200
          Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-04-01 00:20 +0200
            Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system Felix Miata <mrmazda@earthlink.net> - 2017-04-02 00:40 +0200
            Re: Matrox G550 mga driver hangs system "Tony Stoneley" <ajms@ajms.ukfsn.org> - 2017-04-03 19:10 +0200

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