8440p notebook intel graphics trouble

English Hardware
#1

my 8440p notebook has a fresh 11.3 installation on it.
When I click apply after enabling desktop effects I get an error dialog that states:

Failed to desktop effects using the given configuration options. Settings will be reverted to their previous state.
Check your X configuration You may also consider changing advanced options, especially changing the composting type.

I’ve read graphic card theory for intel and as far as I can tell fbdev & intel are in service. per oldcpu’s list of cat commands.

Why can’t I enable my desktop effects?

#2

I tried to use the sax2 command but it isn’t on my hard drive!

I even used dolphin ti search - it found some sax2.python files

Is there some way to fix this?

#3

sax2 was removed as of openSUSE-11.3.

Its not possible to be certain if my suggestions are good wrt your laptop without knowing more about exactly what graphics are in the 8440p. By only saying an 8440p, you are making it timeconsuming and difficult for anyone to help you. I assume this is an HP EliteBook. Thats important to specify ! I can NOT tell if your desktop is KDE or Gnome. That ‘may’ or ‘may not’ be relevant.

Looking here HP EliteBook 8440p [Linux Laptop Wiki] I assume then that your laptop has the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator HD (model WH255UT) graphics , but I can not tell if it is one of the newer line of notebooks that also has a second graphic device (such as the NVIDIA NVS 3100).

You may need to force loading of the VESA driver , or even FBDEV driver (ie try the boot code “nomodeset”).

There is a new graphic card configuration guide here: SDB:Configuring graphics cards - openSUSE

#4

I contacted HP about the notebook graphics yesterday and found out you can buy one of these notebooks with either Intel or nvidia, but not both. So this is strictly an Intel graphics pc. I tried to run Xorg -configure but it crashes, complaining about fbdev.

I don’t have an xorg.conf file in X11.

Since I loose video half way through the 11.3 install process (first reboot) it would be nice to force the install to stick with whatever video it uses throughout the install process. At least I could see what was going on until I logged in the first time.

11.2 looses video before the review page for install…last chance to change any install settings.

I try going through 11.3 graphic card instruction when I get home tonight.

#5

The install typically uses the FBDEV driver which is very basic. I would be surprised if that fails 1/2 way through the install.

Are you certain your installation CD or DVD is good ? Did you check the md5sum of the downloaded iso file against that posted on the web site?

Did you burn to a +R or -R CD (or DVD) and NOT to an RW CD/DVD at the slowest speed your burner allows ?

#6

Did you check the md5sum of the downloaded iso file against that posted on the web site?

No - I downloaded the iso on a windows box and burned a slow single layer dvd from there.

Guess I could download the iso to the notebook, do a checksum, burn it from there and try again…

I don’t know how to run the md5sum from windows…

#7

found a md5 windows tool. Gotta put the parts together and will reply with result.

#8

md5 vs iso image checksum match

#9

Can you explain what you mean by this? I confess it confuses me.

#10

All files from ftp://mirror.anl.gov/pub/opensuse/opensuse/distribution/11.3/iso/

I clicked on the md5 file (openSUSE-11.3-DVD-x86_64.iso.md5) that contains the checksum for the 11.3 64 bit download and got that string

Then I ran md5deep on the .iso file (openSUSE-11.3-DVD-x86_64.iso) that I had already downloaded, burnt and installed from and got that string.

md5 vs iso image checksum match

So, the string provided in the md5 file matches the output from md5deep.

#11

OK … and when you say you "burned a slow single layer dvd " , was that burned at the slowest speed your burner allows to a +R or a -R and NOT to an RW ?

#12

was that burned at the slowest speed your burner allows to a +R or a -R and NOT to an RW ?

I did not check the burn speed. possible for RW ( I don’t have any + or -R disks on hand.)

I’ll try installing again with another disk burnt at the slowest speed and will reply back.

#13

Definitely burn at the slowest speed to an RW.

I find if I burn to an RW that 1 out of every 10 burns will be bad, and its very difficult to tell if a boot problem on an RW is due to the burn or some other problem. Hence I no longer use RW’s to burn an OS.

#14

downloaded a fresh DVD ISO 11.3 64 bit and performed the checksum verification just like before - OK
Burned the ISO image to DVDR at 2x.
Reinstalled putting nomodeset in the boot prompt for install.
Everything looked good except I still can’t enable desktop effects and computer info says intel arrandale grapics installed, 3d accel disabled.

glxgears runs

I have no xorg.conf file

Going to try following the new graphics card instructions from SDB:Configuring_graphics_cards tonight.

#15

Last I remember you lost video 1/2 the way through the install proccess. … So this is an improvement ? No ?

#16

Last I remember you lost video 1/2 the way through the install proccess. … So this is an improvement ? No ?

nope

I’ve installed so many times and lost my video half way thru and I saw that once I got all done I still had to boot into failsafe and add nomodeset to the normal boot line in my grub.lst before I could boot normal that I thought the next time I install, I figured I’d add nomodeset at the boot prompt at the VERY BEGINNING, you know, where you can use F3 to set your video resolution or if you were trying to get to run level 3, you 'ld type a 3 and then continue. Well I found that if I am starting from scratch and I put nomodeset in the prompt I can complete the install and maintain video throughout the process. I still have to fix my grub.lst file

I figured this out before trying install with the new disc.

#17

deleted - comment not accurate nor helpful

#18

I think nomodeset will give you the basic FBDEV drivers. Poor performance but a sort of functional X window. Confirm you are using FBDEV by looking inside /var/log/Xorg.0.log file (or by clicking on your computer information icon on your desktop).

If using FBDEV, you could try an edit to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf file, and change it to read:

Section "Device"
  Identifier "Default Device"
   
  #Driver "radeon"
  Driver intel
 
  ## Required magic for radeon/radeonhd drivers; output name
  ## (here: "DVI-0") can be figured out via 'xrandr -q'
  #Option "monitor-DVI-0" "Default Monitor"
   
EndSection

and reboot and test. If that does not work, copy and paste the content of the following files, each to a separate page on Pastebin.com - #1 paste tool since 2002! and press submit for each and post here the output/address/url provided: /var/log/Xorg.0.log , .xsession-errors , /var/log/boot.msg

And then to get back to where you were where you could boot, change that file back to:

Section "Device"
  Identifier "Default Device"
   
  #Driver "radeon"

  ## Required magic for radeon/radeonhd drivers; output name
  ## (here: "DVI-0") can be figured out via 'xrandr -q'
  #Option "monitor-DVI-0" "Default Monitor"
   
EndSection

ie to no driver specified …

Another idea is to install xorg-x11-driver-video-intel-legacy and then reboot and test without nomodeset, with nomodeset, and with/without the above suggested edit.

The above are just speculative ideas. ie a wild guess.

#19

that does not work, copy and paste the content of the following files

What were the following files?
I don’t see a list…

#20

/var/log/Xorg.0.log , /home/your-user-name/.xsession-errors , /var/log/boot.msg

Don’t post them here - put them each on a separate http://pastebin.com page.