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Huey1
n00b
Joined: 23 Dec 2004
Posts: 44
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 Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 1:32 pm Post subject: Are framebuffers mandatory? |
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Hi Gentoo folk
I don't understand "framebuffer support", so...
Are they mandatory?
Can you have more than a 25-line VGA screen without them?
What are the circumstances / motivations for having them?
Does the presence of a framebuffer scheme inhibit or clash with Xserver GUIs like Gnome, KDE, Fluxbox, etc.?
Should a n00b trying to get a working Gentoo to run KDE try to lose "framebuffer support" as a prerequisite? If so.. what exactly does one do to remove framebuffers such that all the parts that might complain are taken care of?
I would be happy with a pointer to any reasonably friendly How-To. I can believe that this stuff is likely to lead to opaque non-understanding while wading through a geek X.org FAQ!
Huey1 |
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Arainach
l33t
Joined: 08 Jul 2004
Posts: 609
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| Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 2:51 pm Post subject: |
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Framebuffers are used because they look nicer than a white on black console. I ran many years without one, so I can assure you that they're not necessary. I use one now because it looks nice, but they're not mandatory by any means.
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Gentoo: Stage3 w/ NPTL & udev, gcc 3.4.4 full rebuild
Kernel: 2.6.15-gentoo-r1 w/ 1G-Lowmem Patch
System: Athlon XP 2.2Ghz/1GB Corsair Value/160GB, 250GB WD IDE/128MB GeForce 6800/Sony 17" Trinitron G200 @ 1280x1024x75Hz |
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adsmith
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Joined: 26 Sep 2004
Posts: 1386
Location: NC, USA
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| Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 2:57 pm Post subject: |
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I've never run framebuffers... just plain console and X. I never really saw the point of console eye-candy...
If FrameBuffer-mode X ever really works, I might use that, but since xorg is rapidly improving tradtional X, I don't really see the point there, either.
So, no, FB is never needed. IMHO, it's mostly a gimmick. |
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mhodak
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Joined: 15 Nov 2003
Posts: 1218
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| Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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Framebuffer is not only for eye candy, with it one can get higher resolutions (i.e. fit more text onto screen). Also it allows to run certain applications in graphics mode without having X running (graphical links web browser, mplayer etc.). You can also have graphics background (tux sitting in the corner of the screen is nice).
So, FB is not needed, but is not used for eye candy only. |
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Archangel1
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Joined: 21 Apr 2004
Posts: 1212
Location: Work
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| Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 8:37 pm Post subject: Re: Are framebuffers mandatory? |
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| Huey1 wrote: | Hi Gentoo folk
I don't understand "framebuffer support", so...
Are they mandatory?
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Nope, which is lucky since my oldest machine doesn't have one 
| Huey1 wrote: | | Can you have more than a 25-line VGA screen without them? |
No
| Huey1 wrote: | | What are the circumstances / motivations for having them? |
Getting a decent amount of text on a console screen. On LCD's, getting it to the native resolution - it's much prettier that way
| Huey1 wrote: | | Does the presence of a framebuffer scheme inhibit or clash with Xserver GUIs like Gnome, KDE, Fluxbox, etc.? |
Not really.
I have heard of issues with video drivers (ATi or Nvidia I think) complaining a bit if you swap between the two, but I think those have been ironed out - works fine for me.
| Huey1 wrote: | | Should a n00b trying to get a working Gentoo to run KDE try to lose "framebuffer support" as a prerequisite? If so.. what exactly does one do to remove framebuffers such that all the parts that might complain are taken care of? |
No. First thing I do when configuring a system is to set up framebuffer so I can see what I'm doing; I don't turn it off to get X going.
To turn it off, you remove the vga= and video= parameters in grub.conf. If you're using vesafb-tng then it may use vesa= rather than vga= - can't confirm that, I don't use it 'cos it's got a horrible deadly bug with my laptop.
| Huey1 wrote: | | I would be happy with a pointer to any reasonably friendly How-To. I can believe that this stuff is likely to lead to opaque non-understanding while wading through a geek X.org FAQ! |
Have a look at http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_fbsplash - hope it's what you're looking for
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What are you, stupid? |
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Huey1
n00b
Joined: 23 Dec 2004
Posts: 44
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| Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 11:01 pm Post subject: |
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My thanks to you Archangel1.
Still .. I had better come clean about the motivation for the questions. This is my first Gentoo system, and also my first real Linux install that was anything more than a curious adventure with a distro disc. I am set on not messing up what I have invested such time and learning in.
But I am faced with some problems. It starts with ..
Much time passes...  Xorg arrives as a dependancy.
Try and we get
| Quote: | Fatal server error:
Cannot run in framebuffer mode. Please specify bus IDs
for all framebuffer devices |
Further information I have from noticing the stuff that now exists
I now have a /root/xorg.conf.new
I understand from the Gentoo KDE Install guide that this is first edited using nano, then tested with | Code: | | X -config /root/xorg.conf.new |
Then moved to the standard location with.. | Code: | cp/root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
startx |
Its at that test stage we get the error message. I have not so far meddled with anything, but you can see why I thought framebuffers maybe should be ditched. Is it just possible that a "start kde" will automatically switch off framebuffers before we invoke "startx"?
Do we have to get "startx" good and working before we go for | Code: | $ echo "exec startkde" > ~/.xinitrc
$ env-update; source /etc/profile
$ startx
$ exit
# ls /etc/X11/Sessions
# nano -w /etc/rc.conf
# rc-update add xdm default
# reboot |
??
Huey1 |
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mhodak
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Joined: 15 Nov 2003
Posts: 1218
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| Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2005 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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| You can try disabling FB stuff in your grub config file and see if that helps. |
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transient
l33t
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 759
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| Posted: Mon Feb 07, 2005 12:19 am Post subject: |
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What those errors look like are that the X server cant find your graphics card's framebuffer.
Every card has one of these, the framebuffer devices in the kernel are slightly different in that theyre an abstraction...
Do you happen to have multiple graphics cards?
It would help greatly if you could post your xorg.conf file |
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Archangel1
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Joined: 21 Apr 2004
Posts: 1212
Location: Work
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| Posted: Tue Feb 08, 2005 11:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Huey1 wrote: |
Try and we get
| Quote: | Fatal server error:
Cannot run in framebuffer mode. Please specify bus IDs
for all framebuffer devices |
Further information I have from noticing the stuff that now exists
I now have a /root/xorg.conf.new |
That's officially weird - I've never seen that error before.
Your conclusion seemed pretty logical - as mhodak has suggested, disabling FB stuff sounds like it's worth a shot.
| Huey1 wrote: |
Do we have to get "startx" good and working before we go for | Code: | $ echo "exec startkde" > ~/.xinitrc
$ env-update; source /etc/profile
$ startx
$ exit
# ls /etc/X11/Sessions
# nano -w /etc/rc.conf
# rc-update add xdm default
# reboot |
??
Huey1 |
Yes.
Well, you don't _have_ to, but it's obviously a bad idea to have X running at boot if it's not working properly.
I haven't bothered putting startkde in ~/.xinitrc; setting it in rc.conf seemed to be enough for me.
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hoggbottom59
n00b
Joined: 14 Mar 2005
Posts: 16
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| Posted: Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:13 pm Post subject: |
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I an error of:
'Fatal Server Error Cannot run in Framebuffer mode. Please specify bus IDs for all fb devices'
Have tried using a vga arg with the kernel but still didn't work. But Knoppix boots into a full-fledged gui with correct res and depth.
Leon. |
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transient
l33t
Joined: 13 Jan 2005
Posts: 759
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| Posted: Fri Apr 01, 2005 12:06 am Post subject: |
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Post the output of these commands, and put each in code tags:
| Code: | | grep -v '#' /etc/xorg.conf |
and | Code: | | cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log |
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gentoo_x64_n00b
n00b
Joined: 02 Apr 2005
Posts: 1
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 12:02 am Post subject: |
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Just wanted to pipe in and say I'm having the same problem as the thread creator, so I will be watching this one.
I'm only using one video card (AGP Radeon 9700 Pro)
I'll post the stuff the guy above me asked for as soon as I get a chance |
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xkalibur1554
Apprentice
Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 206
Location: USA
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| Posted: Sat Apr 02, 2005 2:31 am Post subject: |
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| i have this same problem, using enlightenment, i get the same frame buffer error, doesn anyone know how to fix it? It just happened after the last reboot, it all worked fine before. |
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kimchi_sg
Advocate
Joined: 26 Nov 2004
Posts: 3038
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Desktop Environments
