Re: d-i beta & x configuration
On Fri, 2004-05-21 at 15:06, Branden Robinson wrote:
> On Sun, May 02, 2004 at 12:36:32PM +1000, Andree Leidenfrost wrote:
> > I've just done a testrun of d-i installer beta4 which worked just fine.
> >
> > There were three issues with the x windows setup though:
> >
> > Apparently, if one only has one video card, the PCI ID field must be
> > empty for things to work.
>
> Not true. At least with earlier versions of XFree86 (and maybe still
> today), some machines need this parameter just to work with a single
> video card. Most, however, do not.
>
> > I did not find this obvious from the dialog and it was prefilled with
> > the ID from my videocard. It took me some experimenting to realise it
> > had to be empty for things to work.
>
> Unfortunately, I cannot offer the user much guidance in the dialog box,
> as I do not myself know exactly when the PCI ID field is required. I
> know only that sometimes you need it, as I do with my Blue&White
> Macintosh G3.
>
> It puzzles me that the autodetected value did not work, however.
>
> Could you try purging and reinstalling the XFree86 package, or running
> through d-i again, and leaving the pre-filled value in, so that you can
> file a bug report against xserver-xfree86 with "reportbug"? That will
> automatically include the config file and server logs so we can take a
> closer look at the problem.
Done. I've reinstalled from scratch using d-i daily 040528. Bug number
is 251568.
> > Secondly, the setup offered to auto-detect my monitor which apparently
> > worked as I got the correct monitor description prefilled when doing a
> > dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86 later on. However, the initial setup
> > configures a suboptimal resolution. Shouldn't the auto-detection see
> > that the monitor is an LCD and therefore operate it @ 60Hz with the
> > monitor's native resolution?
>
> In a word, yes. This is being worked on as part of the "debconf
> overhaul".
Cool. As an intermediate measure, would it be possible to add an entry
1280x1024@60HZ to the Medium monitor configuration screen?
> > Last thing I'd like to bring up is the fact that I had to to specify the
> > brand of my videocard. Can this not be autodetected? (lspci knows that
> > vendor ID 1002 is 'ATI Technologies Inc', maybe that could be used? But
> > maybe it's not as simple...)
>
> The config script *does* make an attempt to autodetect the video card's
> brand:
>
> # card identifier; try to set a sensible default
> DEFAULT=
> if [ -n "$(echo $NDRIVERS)" ] && [ $NDRIVERS -eq 1 -a $NCARDS -eq 1 ]; then
> if which discover > /dev/null 2>&1; then
> if [ "$AUTODETECT_VIDEO_CARD" = "true" ]; then
> DEFAULT=$(echo "$DISCOVERED_VIDEO" | awk 'BEGIN { FS="\t" } {print $1}')
> fi
> fi
> fi
> if [ -z "$DEFAULT" ]; then
> # fall back to some language-specific generic text
> case "${LC_ALL:-${LC_MESSAGES:-$LANG}}" in
> ca_*) DEFAULT="Targeta de vídeo genèrica" ;;
> # da
> de_*) DEFAULT="Standardgrafikkarte" ;;
> es_*) DEFAULT="Tarjeta de vídeo genérica" ;;
> fr_*) DEFAULT="Carte vidéo générique" ;;
> gl_*) DEFAULT="Tarxeta de Video Xenérica" ;;
> it_*) DEFAULT="Scheda video generica" ;;
> # ja
> # nl
> pt_BR) DEFAULT="Placa de Vídeo Genérica" ;;
> # ru
> # sv
> *) DEFAULT="Generic Video Card" ;;
> esac
> fi
> # this question requires input validation
> MAY_BE_NULL= auto_answer validate_string_db_input "$(priority_ceil low)" xserver-xfree86/config/device/identifier "$DEFAULT"
>
> Needless to say, this only works if discover is installed, and
> recognizes the video card. You might try installing the discover
> package and running the "discover" command without arguments.
Right. d-i currently comes with discover1 as far as I can tell. When I
run the discover command I get no output at all, this is both as root
and as a normal user. What am I supposed to see/do? The manpage sounds
like running discover should produce output. Then again, the manpage
mentions optins -h and -v which don't seem to exist...hm.
> > Other than that I completely acknowledge that it must be incredibly
> > hard to support a complex system like x windows on so many platforms.
> > So maybe it is just not possible. But from a user experience it would
> > probably be quite helpful.
>
> I think we can probably make some improvements in all three of the areas
> you noted.
Sounds good. Is there any other information I can gather that would
possibly help?
Cheers
Andree
--
Andree Leidenfrost
Sydney - Australia
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