Setting Up a Laptop on Top of Pappys Seeds

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 7:57 pm Post subject:

Moriah,

agpgart is in the kernel.

You will also want its intel suboption. I've always used built in but modules should work.

Just below agpgart is Direct Render Manager. Pappy suggests that you use the emerge, so this should be off or module, so you can unload it.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Mike Hunt · Watchman Joined: 19 Jul 2009 Posts: 5287

Lets have a look, post the output of the following command please

Moriah · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 9:19 pm Post subject:

I will post that grep a bit later, as I have the windoze disk in the laptop right now.

I may have to use the ATI video after all. I cannot figure out how to get the external display (VGA connector) to work with the Intel video adapter, at least not under windoze XP. If the intel adapter only works with the internal monitor, I will not be able to use it, as I always plug into my 24 inch external display when I am working in my own office.

The BIOS has a setting for "switchable graphics", which means run-time software can switch between the Intel and the ATI video adapters, but it says only use it if you are running Vista. Is there a way to perform this switch under gentoo? It would still be nice to use the intel adapter when I am running on batteries because of the longer batery life.

But unless there is a way to get the Intel adapter to drive the external VGA connector, I will not be able to use the Intel exclusively, which means I probably ought be concentrating on the ATI video at this point. I cannot reboot and switch the video in the bios everytime I change between desktop and portable use, as I have context to maintain across the switch.

Under windoze xp and the ATI adapter, I can switch between just the internal, just the external, or both displays. I do not use the 2 display like a dual-headed setup because I have to be able to grab the laptop and go with it without changing the display setup -- the running context issue again. This is also why I run both the internal and external displays in 1920x1200 mode, so the display dimensions are the same whether I am home or away. Oh yes, I should mention that I do *NOT* use a docking station; I just plug in the video cable, a usb keyboard, and the power supply when I am home.
_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Moriah · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 10:53 pm Post subject:

Here's the requested grep. This was done with ATI graphics (discrete) selected in the BIOS, per the post above...

Moriah · Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2010 11:04 pm Post subject:

Well suprise suprise!

I tried starting X and the screen went blank. Typing Alt-Ctl-F1 would not get tty1, so I tried starting xterm on DISPLAY=:0 via ssh, and Voila! I had X running on the ATI, and it was even in 1920x1200 pixel mode!

So now the only issue is how to get my psuedo-terminal virtual consoles working at the same time as X.

Oh yes, it even displayed on the external VGA as well as the internal laptop display. Plus, the laptop keyboard and the USB keyboard both worked.

Only the boot console would not show on the external display, as it was set to the internal display in the BIOS. I can live with that,but I cannot live without those 6 virtual consoles. I need them especially in portable mode, when there might not be another machine handy I can ssh in from.

After the virtual consoles work, I need to get the bluetoth mouse working.

Speaking of virtual consoles, I should mention that I frequently run multiple instances of the X-server concurrently, accessed by alt-ctl-F7 thru alt-ctl-F12. This is especially handy when I run vncviewer in full screen mode and do not want a local window manager running on the local X-server that the vncviewer is displaying on. This keeps the window manager from intercepting keystrokes aimed at the remote window manager.

Hopefully, we can get both the 6 virtual text consoles as well as the 6 X-servers all workable on this laptop.
_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Moriah · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 12:31 am Post subject:

While I was waiting for a response to the above post, I emerged mozilla-firefox (not the binary, but from the source). I figured this would help keep the cpu warm and cozy on this cold January evening. Total emerge time including other needed packages was about 45 minutes. Not bad for a little laptop, and that was with a 320 GB 7500 RPM drive, not the speedy SSD.

_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Moriah · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 2:30 am Post subject:

I just shut down all the stuff running under X, then killed the X-server, and I still couldn't get tty1 thru tty6 to work. :evil:

Then I had a brainstorm! :idea:

I think maybe when I start X, it turns off the backlight when I am not in X; that might be why I do not see any console virtual terminals.

Any feedback on this? :?:

_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:36 am Post subject:

Looks more like there remain other video drivers.

a. emerge -s xf86-video to find out which ones are installed.
b. emerge -C anything that isn't xf86-video-intel.
c. retry. If you still get weirdness, use the xorg.conf I posted earlier.

Blessed be!
Pappy
_________________
This space left intentionally blank, except for these ASCII symbols.

Moriah · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:44 am Post subject:

Thanks, Pappy! It will have to be tomorow, as the laptop has the xp drive in it right now.

I was just getting ready to hit the sack when the email bell dinged with notice you had posted.

The real issues for me are:

1. getting the virtual terminals working again while X is running,

2. getting the additional X instances working,

3 and getting the bluetooth mouse working.

Once I have that, then I need to get wifi working. After that, the bootable USB. Only then will I be ready to re-install with encryption via LUKS and snapshots on the root filesystem via LVM.

That is, of course, assuming the genkernel bug is fixed so I can generate the initrd. I've done them by hand before, but I do not want the hassle potential every time there is an update, so genkernel is a better way to go for me. I have been building my kernels since this summer with:

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2010 10:26 am Post subject:

Gotcha!

BB!
P
_________________
This space left intentionally blank, except for these ASCII symbols.

Moriah · Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:37 am Post subject:

I am able to get the X-server to run in 1920x1200 mode with 24 bit color, but I still can't switch back to the virtual terminals.

I unmerged all the display drivers, and then emerged:

x11-drivers/xf86-video-ati,
x11-drivers/xf86-video-vesa,
and x11-drivers/xf86-video-fbdev,

as the log showed that the X-server was trying to load them. I then added the xorg.conf file and changed the resolution to 1920x1200.

Why do you suppose the virtual teminals fail to come back after starting X? It looks like the video hardware is not getting re-initialized to the proper mode after being in graphics mode to me.

Here is the xorg.conf file:

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 5:40 am Post subject:

I thought you were moving to Intel. That's the assumption I've been using. If this is so, the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file with ati won't work.

Blessed be!
Pappy
_________________
This space left intentionally blank, except for these ASCII symbols.

Moriah · Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:22 am Post subject:

No, I've decided I must use the ATI hardware, since the Intel won't drive the external monitor as well as the internal one. See my post above: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-6120150.html#6118475

Unless you know how to get the intel to drive both internal and external monitors. I would like to use the Intel for the longer battery life, but I can't even get it to work with the external monitor under windoze xp.

_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 7:16 am Post subject:

No. I don't know that machine, and frankly, I don't want to. If I had one of my own to play with and practice on, yeah, I'd be all about it. However, that's not the case, and it's not likely to become the case any time in the near future.

Anyway, to get back to where you were:

a. Change the BIOS back, if you haven't already.

b. Change your /etc/make.conf VIDEO_CARDS="(radeon, radeonhd, or fglrx (eek)))(choose only one)" whatever you were using as your native X driver. Unmerge all xf86-video drivers, then emerge the desired ati driver.

c. Use emerge -1 libdrm && emerge -1 mesa && emerge -1 xorg-server && emerge -1 $(qlist -IC x11-drivers) to fix X.

d. You may have to add the ati frame buffer if the <alt><f-key> change isn't working. The vesa vga frame buffer works ok for nvidia and intel. I guess I never tried it on my web server, which runs an old radeon device.

Blessed be!
Pappy
_________________
This space left intentionally blank, except for these ASCII symbols.

Moriah · Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 12:52 pm Post subject:

Thanks. I will get right on it hopefully this afternoon. This morning I have a meeting with the owner of the consulting firm, and then a meeting with my client. It seems there were some personel changes at the start of the new year.

_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

pappy_mcfae · Posted: Tue Jan 05, 2010 8:16 pm Post subject:

Keep me posted.

BB!
P
_________________
This space left intentionally blank, except for these ASCII symbols.

Moriah · Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:03 am Post subject:

I tried all the video drivers you listed, and the radeon is the one. Unfortunately, the alt-ctl-F# switch back to the virtual consoles is stilll not working.

I am assuming the ati-framebuffer you mentioned is something I build into the kernel, so I will start looking into that.

I just wanted to keep you posted.

Unfortunately, my whole day was spent pacifying my client and putting out a fire with some 8051 code, so I did not get to start on project getoo laptop until 8:30 EST this evening. :evil:

_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Mike Hunt · Watchman Joined: 19 Jul 2009 Posts: 5287

Are you using a login manager? If so which one?

Moriah · Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:32 am Post subject:

No, I am starting X on full manual. I boot up to a virtual console (/dev/tty1) login prompt. After I login and get the bash shell prompt, I type X & to start the X-server. Then I type DISPLAY=:0 xterm & to get a terminal window. Finally, in the terminal window I start a window manager, typically twm, by typing twm &. After that, I have a workable X session running.

I tried building radeon framebuffer support into my kernel, but it still starts in 80x24 char terminal mode, and it still won't switch back to virtual terminal after starting X.

Actuall, since I loose touch with the vertual terminal after start X itself, the above commands are currently being typed from another machine logged into the laptop via ssh.
_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Moriah · Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:35 am Post subject:

Oh cute! I just noticed I crossed the threshold and I am now a veteran instead of a l33t. For joy, for joy! :roll:

_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

cach0rr0 · Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:37 am Post subject:

Moriah · Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 4:40 am Post subject:

Mike Hunt · Watchman Joined: 19 Jul 2009 Posts: 5287

Have you seen the Xorg 1.6 Upgrade Guide :?:

There is also an Xorg 1.5 Upgrade Guide.

You could also try Option "DontVTSwitch" "off" in the ServerFlags section of xorg.conf. It's supposed to be off by default, so that shouldn't do anything.

Moriah · Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 5:11 am Post subject:

Yes, Pappy pointed me to the xorg upgrade guides, and I did read and follow them.

I just verified that I can start 2 X-servers and switch between them using alt-ctl-F7 and alt-ctl-F8. Apparently the vt problem is related to either video mode switching, or (less likely) the backlight not turning on.
_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.

Moriah · Posted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 6:18 am Post subject:

I don't want to get hung up on this vt switching issue just yet.

If I could get my bluetooth mouse working, and wifi working, I would have a much easier time getting everything else working. I am currently using the touchpad and the little trackpoint joystick thingie as a pointint device, and I miss my mouse. I am tied to a wire for ethernet, so wifi would let me become mobile, at least to the point of being able to work wherever I could find a wireless acces point. Since I am on the road a lot in my work, that would be a big help.

I would like to start with the mouse, as this touchpad is driving me bonkers!

We can come back to the framebuffer and virtual terminal switching issue later...
_________________
The MyWord KJV Bible tool is at http://www.elilabs.com/~myword

Foghorn Leghorn is a Warner Bros. cartoon character.