XFree86 (3.3.4), graphics cards, and BIOS weirdness.
Hi all,
Let me tell you about strange happenings on my computer. Any
suggestions/ideas would be most appreciated, though could you please cc a
copy to me directly as I am currently reading the list on the web which
usually has a day or two delay.
I currently use a PCI graphics card on my computer, even though my
motherboard has a built in graphics card. The reason for this is that X
did not support the onboard chipset. This has changed however --- I
believe it is now supported. I decided to bite the bullet and get my
onboard card working. Let me tell you my strange and twisted story.
0. I should first mention that I have just done a very minimal upgrade to
a few potato packages - basically just enough to get the latest apt
working, as well as the XFree86 version 3.3.4 packages to install. This
could possibly be relevant --- potato being unstable and all.
1. Having downloaded the latest XFree86 (version 3.3.4), I tried it on my
existing setup (with my PCI graphics card) and it seemed to work fine.
2. I rebooted, got into BIOS setup, and tried to turn on my onboard
graphics card. I found the BIOS option to do this, but the option was
shadowed --- so that I was unable to change it from disabled to enabled.
This was strange because the onboard card was turned on when I first got
the new motherboard and I had been able to turn it off. I figured I
needed to change some other option before it would allow me to turn the
graphics card on. I fiddled with all sorts of things, but nothing would
let me do it.
3. I tried physically removing the PCI graphics card, in the hope that
then it would be forced to use the onboard card, but when I turned it on,
it just beeped wildly at me.
4. One action of the BIOS setup menu is to choose "optimal settings", I
tried this to see what it would do, and it actually turned the onboard
graphics card setting to "enabled", though it was still in shadow so that
I couldn't ajust this or any of the associated settings (such as how much
memory to give the onboard card). I didn't actually keep these settings
on exiting BIOS setup, for fear of nasty things happening, like neither
graphics card working.
5. I gave up on changing graphics cards for the time being, so returned my
PCI graphics card, and rebooted. I went to start up X and the screen went
black. I tried changing back to a console and though at first it didn't
work, eventually it did go back to console mode. I then switched back to
X. This time the background and cursor came up properly, but the mouse
wouldn't move. No response. I tried going back to consoles, but this
time it wouldn't work. I tried kiling X through Ctr-Alt-Backspace but
this didn't work, something did happen (see aside below), but X didn't die
and the screen remained unchanged. Eventually I had to turn the
machine off and on to get back.
Aside: in the past (with this motherboard) when I have tried to exit X via
Ctr-Alt-Backspace, something weird has happened. The harddrives have
suddenly shutdown, then a few seconds later they start powering up again.
It's a bit worrying and I don't know why it happens. I usually avoid this
problem by getting out via a menu. Anyway, this time when I pressed
Ctr-Alt-Backspace the disks powered down as has happened previously, but
the was no exiting X! In fact when I did it a second time, the powering
down happened again -- and still no change on the screen.
So that's where I am now. X doesn't work anymore and I don't know why.
Was it something to do with me fiddling with BIOS, or pulling the card out
and back in again? Or was it something to do with the new XFree86 (3.3.4)
that only showed up after a reboot? Or is the hardware playing up? Or is
it something to do with moving to some potato packages? Or what?
And why can't I select the onboard graphics card??? Are the BIOS options
faulty? Or do I need to turn something else on/off before it works? Or
is the graphics card hardware onboard dead or something? Or what?
If any ideas spring to mind, I'd appreciate hearing them.
Thanks,
Mark.
_/~~~~~~~~\___/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________
____/~~\_____/~~\__/~~\__________________________Mark_Phillips____________
____/~~\_____/~~\________________________________mark@ist.flinders.edu.au_
____/~~\HE___/~~\__/~~\APTAIN_____________________________________________
____/~~\______/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
"They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them!"
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