Re: XFree86 (3.3.4), graphics cards, and BIOS weirdness.
On Sun, 8 Aug 1999, Nathan Duehr wrote:
> Is there a jumper on the motherboard (besides the BIOS setting) that
> physically disables the onboard video when you're not using it?
I doubt it very much. Certainly I was able to disable/enable it in BIOS
before and I don't think jumper leads have been touched in the meantime.
I think I'll double check this though -- I haven't got anything to lose.
Thanks,
Mark.
>
> On Mon, 9 Aug 1999, Mark Phillips wrote:
>
> > 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!"
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Unsubscribe? mail -s unsubscribe debian-user-request@lists.debian.org < /dev/null
> >
> >
>
> +-----------------------------------+--------------------------------+
> | Nate Duehr - nate@natetech.com | Support Amateur Radio & Linux! |
> | Private Pilot, Telephony Engineer | Ham Callsign: N0NTZ |
> | UNIX Hack, Perl Hack, Tech-Freak | Grid Square: DM79 |
> | | "May the Source be with you." |
> +-----------------------------------+--------------------------------+
> | HamRadio and Linux mailing lists available for interested parties: |
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> +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
>
>
_/~~~~~~~~\___/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________
____/~~\_____/~~\__/~~\__________________________Mark_Phillips____________
____/~~\_____/~~\________________________________mark@ist.flinders.edu.au_
____/~~\HE___/~~\__/~~\APTAIN_____________________________________________
____/~~\______/~~~~~~\____________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
"They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them!"
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