thinkpad 600 display problem

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

I have a Thinkpad 600 and I can't seem to get the display to go full screen. On the livecd it works perfect, it takes up the entire screen area. However, after I compile my own kernel and install it the screen only takes up about half the area it should. For those who have thinkpads and other laptops this is usually what happens if you press Fn+F7, the screen jumps back and forth between this tiny little size and the normal larger one. I tried debian and again, the livecd works, but even the default debian kernel installed to the HD gives the same results as compiling my own. Knoppix works fine, full screen. An HD installed Redhat kernel also works. This all leads me to believe that it's a kernel option I'm missing somewhere. There are no options in the bios that seem to be related to this.

I'm using the 2.6 kernel but the same happens with 2.4.

Has anyone experienced something similar?

SnEptUne · l33t Joined: 23 Aug 2004 Posts: 656

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

console. i don't have X installed at all. when i boot up with a kernel that works, it becomes full screen immediately. when i boot up with a kernel that doesn't, i get about 5 inches of black space around the screen. im almost positive its going to be a kernel option im missing.

dirk_salewski · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:52 am Post subject:

You should 1) check whether You included the VESA framebuffer drivers, 2) exclude the neomagic driver (somebody said it's crap) and 3) add a statement to Your grub.conf kernel line like "vga=791". That should fix it. Before You do that, make a second boot entry without the new option (just in case).

Please report back if it works.

Greetings,

Dirk

hw-tph · Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2005 11:06 am Post subject:

On my 600E I used the same method as dirk here described all the time. Worked like a charm - but remember, do not enable the neomagic driver. It will corrupt the console when switching between the console and X.

Håkan

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

thank you. ill try it later today. :-D

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

i disabled the neomagic driver in the kernel and just left the VESA driver compiled in. all i got was a black screen on restart. adding vga=791 didn't do anything.

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

i'm not going into X at all, just the console. so the X neomagic driver shouldn't affect anything because i'm not even using X.

dirk_salewski · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:48 pm Post subject:

Could You post Your grub.conf and the relevant part of Your kernel config, please?

Dirk

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

i actually gave up, tried debian, and found that debian had the same problem even with their default kernel. im going to reinstall gentoo today because it's what i wanted in the first place. i will post the configs when i get them. thank you.

dirk_salewski · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2005 10:44 pm Post subject:

Don't give up, it's definitely possible. I have a TP600 here and it's working (installing mysql, apache2 and firefox at the moment).

Some tips:

1) Do not use ACPI. Use apm instead, and maybe soft suspend. ACPI screws up Your PCMCIA-Network Card (if You have one).

2) You will need the alsa-module "snd-cs4236". Put (at the very least) this into Your /etc/modules.d/alsa (or wherever You store this kind of data):

alias snd-card-0 snd-cs4236
alias snd-slot-0 snd-cs4236
options snd-cs4236 port=0x530 cport=0x538 isapnp=0 dma1=1 dma2=0 irq=5

This will save You a lot of new grey hair.

3) For a decent music player that saves You from installing half of GNOME/KDE, check out mpd and ncmpc.

Greetings,

Dirk

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

I'm getting really close. I got the kernel to boot up with the display at full screen. I put fbcon in my USE flag. I included the vesafb-tng driver and the neomagic framebuffer driver in the kernel. However, as soon as the kernel loads those parts, it halts. This is what it looks like:

neofb: mapped io at c8880000
Autodetected internal display
Panel is a 1024x768 color TFT display
neofb: mapped framebuffer at c8b00000
neofb v0.4.2: 2048kB VRAM, using 1024x768, 48.364kHz, 60Hz
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48
fb0: MagicGraph 128XD frame buffer device
vesafb: Neomagic, MagicGraph 128XV, 01.0 (OEM: MagicGraph 128XD 40K SVGA BIOS)
vesafb: VBE version 2.0

It just stops right after the VBE line. In grub I tried calling the kernel two different ways:
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3 video:video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1024x768-24@60
kernel /vmlinuz root=/dev/hda3

Both came up with the same result. Any ideas?

While I'm waiting for a response, I'll recompile without the neomagic fb driver...

dirk_salewski · Posted: Mon Mar 14, 2005 10:58 pm Post subject:

Hmmm, let's see...

The following config is working here (everything compiled in, omitted things disabled):

[*] Support for frame buffer devices
[*] VESA VGA Graphics Support
Vesa driver type (vesafb)
Console display driver support -->
[*] Video mode selection support
<*> Framebuffer console support
Logo configuration -->
[*] Bootup logo
[*] Standard 16 color
[*] Standard 224 color

and in /boot/grub/grub.conf:

title Linux
root (hd0,[n])
kernel /boot/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda[n+1] vga=791

The "vesafb-tng"-thing didn't work for me either, so You really should try it like described. Could You give this a shot and report back?

Dirk

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

Hey everything worked after I took out the neomagic fb driver and switched to vesafb. :-)

Thanks.

Another quick question if someone just knows off the top of their head: what exact kernel option do I choose to enable sound. I know I have to pass a ridiculous amount of options to it to get it to work. Is it:
<>Cirrus Logic (Sound Fusion) CS4280/CS461x/CS462x/CS463x
<>Cirrus Logic (Sound Fusion) CS4281

or something else I'm missing? I saw the previous post with cs4236 in it and I'm fairly certain that's the correct module, I've had to do this before a few years ago.

dirk_salewski · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 7:30 am Post subject:

The module You have to enable is in the "alsa legacy modules" section (can't remember the correct section name right now, might be isa, but the module is right below snd-cs4232). If You display the help it will tell You whether You are looking at the right one (help says: blablabla, can compile it as a module, module is called snd-cs4236, blablabla). Make sure to compile it as module and use the options from my previous post. Do not enable the CS428xx modules - they are the wrong ones.

Greetings,

Dirk

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

I can't find that in 2.6.11. I'll keep looking.

dirk_salewski · Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2005 5:37 pm Post subject:

Go into Drivers --> Plug and Play support

[*] Plug and Play support
[*] ISA Plug and Play support

Then go into Drivers --> Sound --> ALSA --> ISA devices

[M] Generic Cirrus Logic CS4236+ driver

That's it. I think that "ISA devices" doesn't show up if You don't enable it beforehand.

Greetings,

Dirk

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

got it, thank you. you're pretty good haha.

I think I'm going to post my kernel config and other relevant configuration material on my webpage when I'm done. Linux Laptops could use a Gentoo link for a Thinkpad 600.

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

i can't seem to get the cs4236 module to load correctly. its gives me errors on startup after I modified the alsa config file. modprobing it manually doesnt work either. if i look in dmesg it says this: snd_cs4236: Unknown parameter 'isapnp'. i took that parameter out and tried again. i got unknown parameter 'cport' that time. then again with 'port'. I changed 'port' to 'io'. same problem.

ah here we go, the error on starting alsasound looks like this:
FATAL: error inserting snd_cs4236 (path to module): unknown symbol in module, or unknown parameter (see dmesg)
ERROR: failed to load neccessary drivers

Do you have a thinkpad 600 or a 600X? i think they use different sound cards. i might try using the cs4232 driver instead and see how that goes.

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

this loaded cleanly:

modprobe cs4232 port=0x530 cport=0x538 mpu_port=-1 fm_port=0x388 irq=5 dma1=1 dma2=0

I haven't got any mp3s to test it with yet. but i will later today.

dirk_salewski · Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2005 8:23 pm Post subject:

They changed the soundcard within the TP600-Series (I have a 600, no X, no E). I thought that cs4263 was more common, and it worked for me, that's why I told You to take 4236.

Nice You got it working.

Dirk

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

I've just got a string of little tiny problems here...

i see when i run alsamixer it says at the top:
Card: CS4236
Chip: CS4236
.....

That should read CS4232 at the top right? Is that a problem?

my modules.conf includes the following in the ALSA section:
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias snd-card-0 snd-cs4232
alias sound-slot-0 snd-cs4232
options snd-cs4232 port=0x530 cport=0x538 mpu_port=-1 fm_port=0x388 irq=5 dma1=1 dma2=0
# OSS/Free Portion - card #1
.....
alias /dev/mixer snd-mixer-oss
alias /dev/dsp snd-pcm-oss
alias /dev/midi snd-seq-oss
options snd cards_limit=1

my kernel was ONLY compiled with the cs4232 module. I recompiled it after I realized I was using the wrong module. I also set the ALSA_CARDS="cs4232" in my make.conf. I'm not using the alsa-driver ebuild, as ALSA was built into the kernel. I re-emerged alsa-utils after changing all of this.

infiniteedge · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 03 Mar 2004 Posts: 149

oh and my microphone doesn't work, I think. alsamixer shows PCM, Line, Mic Boost, Aux, Aux 1, Mono, Mono Out, and a second Mono Out. The Mic Boost, Mono Out, and second Mono Out all do not have slider bars. The others do have slider bars. My basis for this is coming from unmuting all the interfaces in alsamixer, then running cat on /dev/dsp into a file. Is there another way I can test the microphone?