# Framebuffer with Intel 855 & LCD screen - impossible?

## 01mf02

I have a laptop with an Intel 855GM chipset and want to set up framebuffer for Qingy. But whenever I set kernel parameters like vga=0x314, I get an error when booting: "undefined mode number" - then I have to select how many colums and lines my terminal should have (this doesn't give me framebuffer).

I've tried to combine vga=0x314 with video=vesafb:mttr and things like that (I don't remember the exact parameters, although I've tried many), but I couldn't find a kernel parameter where the error message above didn't appear, so I tried the intelfb kernel module which didn't function too.

When I insert the Gentoo LiveCD, the "undefined mode number" message appears. Knoppix - the same.

So everybody who has an Intel 855 & an LCD screen: Have you got framebuffer running - and how?

Please also post if you were not able to get framebuffer running!

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## overkll

I read something re fbsplash on the i810 integrated graphics chip.  Do you have that?  If so see:

http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_fbsplash#I.27m_using_an_Intel_i810_video_device

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## 01mf02

Sorry I post back that late.

No, I don't think I have an Intel 810, lspci gives:

```

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)

0000:00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)

0000:00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corporation 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)

0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)

0000:00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)

0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)

0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)

0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)

0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)

0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 81)

0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)

0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 01)

0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)

0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corporation 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 01)

0000:01:01.0 CardBus bridge: O2 Micro, Inc. OZ601/6912/711E0 CardBus/SmartCardBus Controller

0000:01:03.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4306 802.11b/g Wireless LAN Controller (rev 02)

0000:01:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82801DB PRO/100 VE (MOB) Ethernet Controller (rev 81)

```

But your link gave me a hint: There was said that if you enabled the vesafb AND the intelfb driver there were problems.

Oops, just checked the link again, it says that with newer kernels you should NOT use intelfb nor vesafb, but the vga16fb driver. I will recompile my kernel ...

Sorry if this post is confusing, but I'm confused myself  :Wink: 

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## leo.the_zoo

 *01mf02 wrote:*   

>  (...)
> 
> Oops, just checked the link again, it says that with newer kernels you should NOT use intelfb nor vesafb, but the vga16fb driver. I will recompile my kernel ...
> 
> Sorry if this post is confusing, but I'm confused myself (...) 

 

Did you manage to configure and run vga16fb properly so that it worked with xorg? If you did it, please share your experience. I tried vesafb-tng (excellent, but crashes when ctrl+tab+backspace from xorg) and intelfb (does not work on LCD).

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## janwolff

vesafb-tng works for me, but only in standard modes, because vesa bios has to be patched to support 1280x768 mode of my latitude x1. (emerge 855resolution)

If you use the i810 driver for X, you can include the option vberestore (see man i810) to restore the state of the graphics card when switching back to the framebuffer consoles.

Here the relevant part of my xorg.conf:

Section "Device"

    Identifier  "intel915_single"

    Driver      "i810"

    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"

    Screen      0

    VideoRam    65536

    Option      "VBERestore"    "true"

EndSection

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## certocivitas

I just found this thread and thought I'd contribute what I could. My laptop is using the i810 driver for xorg and the framebuffer is working at 1280x768. I'm using the 2.6.12-suspend2-r6 kernel with vesa-tng and "video=vesafb:ypan,1280x768-32@60" in grub.conf.

Here is my lspci:

```
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)

0000:00:00.1 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)

0000:00:00.3 System peripheral: Intel Corp. 82852/82855 GM/GME/PM/GMV Processor to I/O Controller (rev 02)

0000:00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)

0000:00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corp. 82852/855GM Integrated Graphics Device (rev 02)

0000:00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)

0000:00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)

0000:00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)

0000:00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-M) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 03)

0000:00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 83)

0000:00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4-M) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 03)

0000:00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82801DBM (ICH4-M) IDE Controller (rev 03)

0000:00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) SMBus Controller (rev 03)

0000:00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 03)

0000:00:1f.6 Modem: Intel Corp. 82801DB/DBL/DBM (ICH4/ICH4-L/ICH4-M) AC'97 Modem Controller (rev 03)

0000:02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)

0000:02:06.0 Network controller: Intel Corp. PRO/Wireless 2200BG (rev 05)

0000:02:09.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments: Unknown device 8031

0000:02:09.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments: Unknown device 8032
```

The problem I have is that switching back to the VT's from xorg just results in a scrambled screen (mostly black with green and magenta blocks). Switching back to VT7 restores xorg. Using the suggested VBERestore option in xorg.conf has no effect.

Not sure where we can go from here. I wish there was a way to tell xorg to save the video settings before changing them so when switching VT's it would have something to work with.

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## certocivitas

One interesting thing I noticed was that for a split second when switching from one of the terminals back to xorg the terminal's login message is visable. If I login to a terminal blind and enter a command, when I switch back to xorg I can see the output for a split second too. 

This leads me to believe that xorg is switching back to the right video mode and should not be changing it in the first place.

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## LaMs

I have the same problem share your info if you found it please  :Smile: 

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## janwolff

Do you use the i810 driver from xorg ?

Maybe you want to try the driver from http://dri.freedesktop.org/snapshots.

I was able to get dri/glx running for my i915 based graphics adapter and i am able to return to the framebuffer console.

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## leo.the_zoo

Well, I found the OLD vesa driver working correctly. Try it.  :Very Happy: 

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## dundas

 *leo.the_zoo wrote:*   

> Well, I found the OLD vesa driver working correctly. Try it. 

 

me 2, but I always got the 

```
intelfb: Cannot reserve FB region.
```

but, everything else are fine, fadein...livecd splash wiz my 855GM integrated graphics.

I tried to eliminate that warning, but for ages...not a single clue from any where yet.

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## certocivitas

It's annoying that the LiveCD framebuffer works because it IS doable despite my fruitless hours of tinkering.   :Embarassed: 

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## leo.the_zoo

 *dundas wrote:*   

>  *leo.the_zoo wrote:*   Well, I found the OLD vesa driver working correctly. Try it.  
> 
> me 2, but I always got the 
> 
> ```
> ...

 

Does your line in Device Drivers->Graphics Support

```

< > Intel 830M/845G/852GM/855GM/865G support (EXPERIMENTAL)

```

looks like above?

You should get rid of the intelfb if you have vesafb enabled.

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## dundas

Dear leo.the_zoo:

Big Thank you for your help

I believe you are right, I recompiled kernel without that, and got rid of FB error, but got another one, which I googles and found few solutions to

```
hw_random: RNG not detected 
```

not sure if anyone knows where this leads to?seems to be related to hotplug?

[EDIT] according to https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-404852-highlight-hwrandom.html, I've this hw_random enabled in my kernel, I'm not sure if it is needed for my celerom-M IBM R50e 855GM machine, but let me try to eliminate it first and post back, thx

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## dundas

yes, that did the trick. not sure if hw_random stuff is really needed though.

Sorry about the self-questioning and self-answering here, thx.

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## leo.the_zoo

It's in Device Drivers->Character Devices:

```

< > Intel/AMD/VIA HW Random Number Generator support 

```

I have it disabled. I don't know whether we need it or not...

----------

## butters

I'm having this problem as well.  Inspiron 500m w/ i855GM, running 2.6.16-archck1.  I tried vesafb-tng and intelfb (not at the same time), and both have problems.  vesafb-tng works correctly until I start Xorg 7.0.  Then switching back to a console produces a corrupted frambuffer.  Still usable, but not pretty.  Then when I try to switch back to X, X restarts and I'm back to a gdm login.

When I run intelfb I don't even get a framebuffer initially:

```
intelfb: Framebuffer driver for Intel(R) 830M/845G/852GM/855GM/865G/915G/915GM chipsets

intelfb: Version 0.9.2

intelfb: 00:02.0: Intel(R) 855GM, aperture size 128MB, stolen memory 892kB

intelfb: Non-CRT device is enabled ( LVDS port ).  Disabling mode switching.

intelfb: Video mode must be programmed at boot time.
```

And even though the I'm running a standard 80x25 text console, when I switch to the console and back to X, X restarts.

I tried the Option "VBERestore" "true" and that doesn't work either.  And I'm running the i915 version of the i8x0 AGP driver.

And new ideas?

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## leo.the_zoo

My previous post should have helped... Disable intelfb. As you see, it is useless on laptop. Enable old vesa driver and set the video mode in your <bootloader>.conf It works for me  :Very Happy:  With vesafb-tng I had exactly the same problem, so maybe the solution is common...

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## butters

 *leo.the_zoo wrote:*   

> My previous post should have helped... Disable intelfb. As you see, it is useless on laptop. Enable old vesa driver and set the video mode in your <bootloader>.conf It works for me  With vesafb-tng I had exactly the same problem, so maybe the solution is common...

 

Well, I had the same problem with X restarting when I had no framebuffer console, so using old vesafb (not -tng) won't fix that.

----------

