I have an HP G6-1257sa laptop with Windows 7, and want to dual boot with OpenSUSE 12.1 64-bit.
I started by trying to boot from the OpenSUSE 12.1 Live DVD, but the screen remains blank. It seems to have loaded the OS,
and at one point the expected screen image ‘blinked past’, but generally the screen is blank. I assume there is some issue
with the graphics driver; the graphics h/w in this laptop is the integrated Intel HD.
I also tried the Ubuntu 11.04 64-bit with the same result - the screen was blank. An earlier version of Ubuntu worked OK,
at least as far as the installer was concerned - that DVD didn’t have the ‘Live’ capability.
Is this a known issue ? Is there a workaround ?
Thanks,
AM
Try booting with the boot code ‘nomodeset’ . Does that help ? How about with safesettings ? What happens if you remove the VGA=xxxx code when booting ?
Exactly what Integrated graphics does your HP G6-1257sa laptop have ?
Thanks, the ‘nomodeset’ option seems to work OK - i’m installing now. The screen format is slightly wrong, in that the RHS of the screen is missing, but I don’t think that will cause a problem.
Not sure how to try your other suggestions, if I needed to (looks like I don’t, but just in case…). Could you explain how I would do those things ?
The integrated graphics is ‘Intel HD’ - I don’t have a more specific ID than that. I think it’s integrated in the CPU chip.
Thanks for the tip - I probably should have seen that before, but hadn’t.
AM
The nomodeset boot code will likely mean you install using the low performance/highly-compatible fbdev graphic driver and its possible until we sort the problem you will need to specify that boot code every boot.
After install is complete you will encounter a grub boot manager selection menu every boot at the start of you pc boot efforts. You will see in that menu vga=xxxxxxx where xxxxxxx is some value. The question was does removing the vga=xxxxxxx help the boot (ie work without nomodeset)?
After installing open a konsole/terminal and type:
/sbin/lspci -nnk | grep VGA -A2
and post here the output. It will tell us exactly what graphic device is on your pc.
The ‘lspci’ command gave this result:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor
Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09)
Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Device [103c:166f]
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series
Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1c3a] (rev 04)
The ‘vga=xxxxxxx’ doesn’t appear in the Grub menu. I happen to have installed Ubuntu 11.10 first, and am using
it’s Grub. The section in ‘grub.cfg’ for Ubuntu is this:
menuentry ‘Ubuntu, with Linux 3.0.0-14-generic’ --class ubuntu --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
recordfail
set gfxpayload=$linux_gfx_mode
insmod gzio
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root=’(hd1,msdos1)’
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root 09caa29c-25d0-4891-9787-35c2408494d0
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.0.0-14-generic root=UUID=09caa29c-25d0-4891-9787-35c2408494d0 ro quiet splash nomodeset vt.handoff=7
initrd /boot/initrd.img-3.0.0-14-generic
}
and the entry for OpenSUSE 12.1 is this:
menuentry “openSUSE 12.1 (x86_64) (on /dev/sdb3)” --class gnu-linux --class gnu --class os {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ext2
set root=’(hd1,msdos3)’
search --no-floppy --fs-uuid --set=root f4641385-fc3f-4bb4-acd8-74c25d0ada92
linux /boot/vmlinuz-3.1.0-1.2-desktop root=/dev/sdb3 nomodeset
initrd /boot/initrd-3.1.0-1.2-desktop
}
and as I said, removing the ‘nomodeset’ results in a blank screen after boot up into OS 12.1.
Maybe the ‘set gfxpayload’ line that Ubuntu has included is relevant ? Outside my current expertise…!
HTH…; thanks !
AM
I am not familiar with the Ubuntu boot manager.
The 0806:0116 suggests SandyBridge graphics, and I am surprised that does not work without the nomodeset boot code, as I installed openSUSE-12.1 on my wife’s Lenovo X220 laptop yesterday, and her Lenovo has Sandybridge graphics. I had no such problem. I guess there are different implementations of Sandybridge by the various hardware suppliers.
wrt openSUSE-12.1, by default it typically tries to configure the graphics using Kernel Mode Setting (KMS). Since you can only get the graphics to work with the ‘nomodeset’ boot code, clearly KMS did not work. By specifying nomodeset, not only do you disable KMS, but you also tell openSUSE to boot to the very low performance (but highly compatible) fbdev graphic driver. It would be nice to get better graphic performance than having to use that primative fbdev graphic driver. 
First, before attempting anything, install (if not already installed) the application Midnight Commander (mc) which is a full screen text mode/ascii text editor that is very user friendly via its menu and the Function keys. That is important to have in place in case a configuration file change that you do should break your graphics, and you may need to edit in a text mode. It can be run as a regular user, or as root, with the simple command ‘mc’.
What you could try is to see if you can get X to go configure your graphics automatically (as opposed to the kernel automatically with KMS). My guess is that won’t work, but it can be attempted. To attempt that go to “yast” (you can run yast in text mode with root permissions if X window not available) and navigate to yast > System > /etc/sysconfig Editor > System > Kernel > NO_KMS_IN_INITRD and change it to “yes”. This takes a minute or two to save once changed is submitted. Then reboot without the ‘nomodeset’ boot code. My guess is that won’t work, so no worries, restart again and use the ‘nomodeset’ boot code.
If that also will not work (my guess is it won’t) then that shows that X also can not automatically configure your Intel graphics.
So next is to try User Mode Setting (UMS) where you attempt to force a graphic mode upon booting. To do that, you need to edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf file. Change that file with root permissions (removing many of the comment settings) such that it looks like each of the following (trying one at a time):
- For Intel graphic driver
change /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf
# Having multiple "Device" sections is known to be problematic. Make
# sure you don't have in use another one laying around e.g. in another
# xorg.conf.d file or even a generic xorg.conf file. More details can
# be found in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430.
#
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 then save the change and reboot without and also with the ‘nomodeset’ boot code to see if either work. You may end up with no boot working, and have to use the ‘fail safe settings’ or the boot code ‘x11failsafe’ … If you end up in a full screen text mode, you can run the program ‘mc’ and edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf file to restore things.
- With the vesa graphic driver
If the ‘intel’ driver does not work, with root permissions edit the same /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf file, but this time use the vesa graphic driver (which has worse performance than the intel driver but better performance than the fbdev driver):
change /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf
# Having multiple "Device" sections is known to be problematic. Make
# sure you don't have in use another one laying around e.g. in another
# xorg.conf.d file or even a generic xorg.conf file. More details can
# be found in https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=32430.
#
Section "Device"
Identifier "Default Device"
#
# #Driver "radeon"
Driver "vesa"
#
# ## 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
again reboot and try that with and without the ‘nomodeset’ boot code.
Good luck, and let us know how this works out.
OK, here’s what happened:
- NO_KMS_IN_INITRD set to “yes”, no “nomodeset” -> screen still blank.
So set this parameter back to “no”. - Changed ‘50-device.conf’ to enable “intel”:
With “nomodeset” -> Lots of X failures, so it reverted to text mode.
Without “nomodeset” -> blank screen. - Changed ‘50-device.conf’ to enable “vesa”:
With “nomodeset” -> blank screen.
Without “nomodeset” -> works OK.
I’ll leave it like that for now. Thanks for the help ! I’ll keep an eye on the forum to see if anything changes later. I might also poke around in Ubuntu 11.10 on the same h/w to see if I can see what they are doing wrt the driver.
Another question: during the installation of OS 12.1 the installer warned me that the graphics driver wan’t able to support the newest Gnome UI style - but I assume that is working OK on Ubuntu. Is it possible to try to switch to the new UI now we might have improved the driver ? Alternatively, if I reinstall, is there a way to instruct it to use this driver configuration ?
Thanks,
AM
You may wish to read http://forums.opensuse.org/english/get-technical-help-here/hardware/468893-graphics-drivers-intel-intergrated-graphics.html, and, in particular, the posts regarding acpi_backlight=vendor and acpi_osi=Linux. The environment in that thread is quite similar to yours.
Ok … still … I’m a bit surprised the Intel driver does not work with your Sandybridge hardware. It DOES work with my wife’s Lenovo X220 Sandybridge hardware. So what is it that Lenovo are doing with their hardware that HP is not doing ? IMHO you need to give SeanMc98’s suggestions wrt acpi_backlight=vendor and *acpi_osi=Linux *some thought, as they might hold a solution for you.
OK, thats good to know you have the vesa driver working. Its faster than the fbdev driver, but its still pathetic in comparison to the Intel driver.
Its too bad the Intel driver does not work for your HP Sandybridge implementation.
I don’t know. I’m not a Gnome user.
wrt your Ubuntu boot manager, are you 100% certain it is not applying a VGA=something somewhere that is not readily observable? Can that VGA=something upon boot be tuned in the Ubuntu boot manager (surely it MUST be possible) ? If I was in your shoes, I would be checking out that possibility.
I have a HP Pavilion G6 with 2xAMD A4-3300M APU Radeon Dual Graphics. Some days ago I tried with no success to run Live KDE 12.1 on that machine. By using “Installation” mode and boot option “nomodeset” I was able to install the software. After installation the program boots with default settings. There is still lots of work to do but I install newer versions of opensuse in case I have to abandon ver. 10.3. Both me and the hardware like that version and a couple of repos are still open so start using ver. 12.1 is postponed.