I have the same graphics [i830] and have been watching this thread to see if anything came up, while at the same time searching for things. I thought I’d comment although presently it won’t be of any comfort. But I’m working on it.
After lengthy searches on the Internet, I came to the conclusion that the xorg-intel driver seems not to work in almost any distro you’d like to mention, since about 2007. There seems to be blame apportioned to both Intel and the X.org group.
I actually got the i810 driver [previously mentioned by oldcpu] working in openSUSE 11.0, but that has been replaced by the intel driver, which of course, does not work.
I tried compiling the i810 driver from source but it didn’t work here: perhaps it will work for you?
Using the vesa driver here works, but window movement/placement was sluggish. I set the VideoRam in xorg.conf which seems to have done the trick: but if you want compositing * then perhaps the performance won’t be good enough.
I’m going to try and build an rpm from the tar package and let you know how I get on.*
As you can see from a previous message, I finally got it to work by changing the settings on the installation page… I then went to buy a new laptop, also with Intel video, but it works (with a few glitches). Ubuntu KK works fine on the i830.
My conclusion is that Intel video under Linux is a black art, or a lottery, for now. I’m not sure if Intel is to blame for that alone, I think a lot of it has to do with the fashion for “auto-detection” without using xorg.conf. Great in theory but doesn’t always work in practice, and openSUSE does markedly worse than Ubuntu. In my experience at least (but then I said it was a lottery).
What do you mean by a “single screen” configuration issue? Do mean you have never once had an install “just work” with a graphic card? Do you mean the capability to drive multiple screens? Or do you mean when the openSUSE installer failed, you were not able to recover with sax2?
I puzzled over this, and decided to seek clarification. I note graphics “just worked” on my PCs, for all openSUSE releases thus far, for my PCs with nVidia FX5200, 8400GS, and GTX260, and also for an ATI Radeon 3450HD (although the latter is still running 11.1). I also note mutliple screens work amazingly well on the ATI Radeon 3450 HD with openSUSE-11.1 as documented here: Laptop External Monitor Support - openSUSE Forums
My wife’s old Fujitsu-Siemens laptop, with a relatively ancient Intel graphic hardware, also has “just worked” on every openSUSE release since 9.2 (its now running 11.1). I don’t know the Intel hardware details for that laptop off the top of my head.
When it came time to purchase my Dell Studio 1537 laptop (in Nov-2008) I looked at the market, and the state of drivers, and elected to go with the ATI Radeon 3450HD graphics, and thus far I have not regretted that decision. Nvidia have had quality problems (upsetting MANY MS-Windows users with the hardware failures) and Intel drivers were known back in Oct-2007 to have major problems with graphics drivers for Linux for some of their newer graphic hardware.
Thats not to say there are not major issues that need to be solved with graphics drivers in Linux (as there are some big problems), but it is to say that many users never see any of the problems with the graphics being reported here in our forum, and hence the very valid complaints still need to be put in context as not directly impacting everyone.
What I meant was “no screen configuration problem”. It either worked or, if there was a problem, Sax2 was of little help. Admittedly, most of those problems were with dual-monitor configurations involving NVDIA cards. I found that hand-edited xorg.conf files were better than Sax2 versions, indeed required all Sax2 additions to be purged to make them work. Even in my recent struggles with Intel video, Sax2 has never been any use at all.
I’m not saying things don’t work. I’m not saying they cannot be made to work when they don’t. What I’m saying is that, in my experience, Sax2 makes no contribution either way.
ahh … indeed, … yes I found with dual-monitor, sax2 did not help me as much as I would like.
I’m rather happy with the xrandr implementation with the latest ATI driver proprietary driver on my 64-bit openSUSE-11.1 with KDE-4.3.2 and a Radeon 3450 (on my Dell Studio 1537 laptop). So much so, I may even skip putting 11.2 on that laptop, although the possibility that the 2.6.31 kernel may have a superior Intel 5300AGN wireless capability (over the 2.6.27) is tempting me to put 11.2 on that laptop.
I know sax2 has helped many users in the past, but it is gradually being depreciated, as both the custom tools from ATI and nVidia probably work better for creating a custom /etc/X11/xorg.conf file than sax2 (for their proprietary drivers). Plus the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file is gradually disappearing for open source drivers (although its not without its rather painful teething pains for some) and sax2 may eventually no longer be needed for graphics.
Too right it is - but if the driver actually worked here I wouldn’t have had to go through it. I should have stayed on 11.0 - that will teach my “ooh! shiny baubles” mentality.
hello there. i also tried the trick with 11.0 intel drivers otherwise my i845 card was occasionally hanging. but i couldn’t get i810 driver(which is much faster for i845 card) working. only intel driver works.
with i810 driver sax2 and xorg are configured correctly but Displa module in kde4 Personal Settings keeps changing resolution to a lower one. is there a workaround or a trick to get i810 to work?
tried all of the possible solutions but none worked.
take a look at this fragment from Xorg.0.log
it refuses to use several modes because according to it there are no modes of that name.
but there are. somewhere deep inside he must know it!
it also says that the monitor is CRT but it’s not. the thing has gone completely mad!
(II) I810(0): Currently active displays on Pipe A:
(II) I810(0): CRT
(==) I810(0): Display is using Pipe A
(--) I810(0): Maximum frambuffer space: 65368 kByte
(II) Loading sub module "ddc"
(II) LoadModule: "ddc"(II) Module "ddc" already built-in
(**) I810(0): Option "NoDDC"
(II) I810(0): Will use BIOS call 0x5f05 to set refresh rates for CRTs.
(--) I810(0): Maximum space available for video modes: 8000 kByte
*(II) I810(0): Not using mode "640x480" (vrefresh out of range)
Mode: 50 (640x480)
ModeAttributes: 0x9b
WinAAttributes: 0x7
WinBAttributes: 0x0
WinGranularity: 64
WinSize: 64
WinASegment: 0xa000
WinBSegment: 0x0
WinFuncPtr: 0xc0005d66
BytesPerScanline: 2560
XResolution: 640
YResolution: 480
XCharSize: 8
YCharSize: 16
NumberOfPlanes: 1
BitsPerPixel: 32
NumberOfBanks: 1
MemoryModel: 6
BankSize: 0
NumberOfImages: 5
RedMaskSize: 8
RedFieldPosition: 16
GreenMaskSize: 8
GreenFieldPosition: 8
BlueMaskSize: 8
BlueFieldPosition: 0
RsvdMaskSize: 8
RsvdFieldPosition: 24
DirectColorModeInfo: 0
PhysBasePtr: 0xd0000000
LinBytesPerScanLine: 2560
BnkNumberOfImagePages: 5
LinNumberOfImagePages: 5
LinRedMaskSize: 8
LinRedFieldPosition: 16
LinGreenMaskSize: 8
LinGreenFieldPosition: 8
LinBlueMaskSize: 8
LinBlueFieldPosition: 0
LinRsvdMaskSize: 8
LinRsvdFieldPosition: 24
MaxPixelClock: 230000000
*(II) I810(0): Not using mode "800x600" (vrefresh out of range)
Mode: 52 (800x600)
ModeAttributes: 0x9b
WinAAttributes: 0x7
WinBAttributes: 0x0
WinGranularity: 64
WinSize: 64
WinASegment: 0xa000
WinBSegment: 0x0
WinFuncPtr: 0xc0005d66
BytesPerScanline: 3200
XResolution: 800
YResolution: 600
XCharSize: 8
YCharSize: 16
NumberOfPlanes: 1
BitsPerPixel: 32
NumberOfBanks: 1
MemoryModel: 6
BankSize: 0
NumberOfImages: 3
RedMaskSize: 8
RedFieldPosition: 16
GreenMaskSize: 8
GreenFieldPosition: 8
BlueMaskSize: 8
BlueFieldPosition: 0
RsvdMaskSize: 8
RsvdFieldPosition: 24
DirectColorModeInfo: 0
PhysBasePtr: 0xd0000000
LinBytesPerScanLine: 3200
BnkNumberOfImagePages: 3
LinNumberOfImagePages: 3
LinRedMaskSize: 8
LinRedFieldPosition: 16
LinGreenMaskSize: 8
LinGreenFieldPosition: 8
LinBlueMaskSize: 8
LinBlueFieldPosition: 0
LinRsvdMaskSize: 8
LinRsvdFieldPosition: 24
MaxPixelClock: 230000000
*(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1024x768" (vrefresh out of range)
Mode: 54 (1024x768)
ModeAttributes: 0x9b
WinAAttributes: 0x7
WinBAttributes: 0x0
WinGranularity: 64
WinSize: 64
WinASegment: 0xa000
WinBSegment: 0x0
WinFuncPtr: 0xc0005d66
BytesPerScanline: 4096
XResolution: 1024
YResolution: 768
XCharSize: 8
YCharSize: 16
NumberOfPlanes: 1
BitsPerPixel: 32
NumberOfBanks: 1
MemoryModel: 6
BankSize: 0
NumberOfImages: 1
RedMaskSize: 8
RedFieldPosition: 16
GreenMaskSize: 8
GreenFieldPosition: 8
BlueMaskSize: 8
BlueFieldPosition: 0
RsvdMaskSize: 8
RsvdFieldPosition: 24
DirectColorModeInfo: 0
PhysBasePtr: 0xd0000000
LinBytesPerScanLine: 4096
BnkNumberOfImagePages: 1
LinNumberOfImagePages: 1
LinRedMaskSize: 8
LinRedFieldPosition: 16
LinGreenMaskSize: 8
LinGreenFieldPosition: 8
LinBlueMaskSize: 8
LinBlueFieldPosition: 0
LinRsvdMaskSize: 8
LinRsvdFieldPosition: 24
MaxPixelClock: 230000000
*(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1280x1024" (hsync out of range)
Mode: 58 (1280x1024)
ModeAttributes: 0x9b
WinAAttributes: 0x7
WinBAttributes: 0x0
WinGranularity: 64
WinSize: 64
WinASegment: 0xa000
WinBSegment: 0x0
WinFuncPtr: 0xc0005d66
BytesPerScanline: 5120
XResolution: 1280
YResolution: 1024
XCharSize: 8
YCharSize: 16
NumberOfPlanes: 1
BitsPerPixel: 32
NumberOfBanks: 1
MemoryModel: 6
BankSize: 0
NumberOfImages: 0
RedMaskSize: 8
RedFieldPosition: 16
GreenMaskSize: 8
GreenFieldPosition: 8
BlueMaskSize: 8
BlueFieldPosition: 0
RsvdMaskSize: 8
RsvdFieldPosition: 24
DirectColorModeInfo: 0
PhysBasePtr: 0xd0000000
LinBytesPerScanLine: 5120
BnkNumberOfImagePages: 0
LinNumberOfImagePages: 0
LinRedMaskSize: 8
LinRedFieldPosition: 16
LinGreenMaskSize: 8
LinGreenFieldPosition: 8
LinBlueMaskSize: 8
LinBlueFieldPosition: 0
LinRsvdMaskSize: 8
LinRsvdFieldPosition: 24
MaxPixelClock: 230000000
*(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1600x1200" (hsync out of range)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1600x1200" (hsync out of range)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1600x1200" (hsync out of range)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1600x1200" (hsync out of range)
Mode: 5a (1600x1200)
ModeAttributes: 0x9b
WinAAttributes: 0x7
WinBAttributes: 0x0
WinGranularity: 64
WinSize: 64
WinASegment: 0xa000
WinBSegment: 0x0
WinFuncPtr: 0xc0005d66
BytesPerScanline: 6400
XResolution: 1600
YResolution: 1200
XCharSize: 8
YCharSize: 16
NumberOfPlanes: 1
BitsPerPixel: 32
NumberOfBanks: 1
MemoryModel: 6
BankSize: 0
NumberOfImages: 0
RedMaskSize: 8
RedFieldPosition: 16
GreenMaskSize: 8
GreenFieldPosition: 8
BlueMaskSize: 8
BlueFieldPosition: 0
RsvdMaskSize: 8
RsvdFieldPosition: 24
DirectColorModeInfo: 0
PhysBasePtr: 0xd0000000
LinBytesPerScanLine: 6400
BnkNumberOfImagePages: 0
LinNumberOfImagePages: 0
LinRedMaskSize: 8
LinRedFieldPosition: 16
LinGreenMaskSize: 8
LinGreenFieldPosition: 8
LinBlueMaskSize: 8
LinBlueFieldPosition: 0
LinRsvdMaskSize: 8
LinRsvdFieldPosition: 24
MaxPixelClock: 230000000
Mode: 5c (2048x1536)
ModeAttributes: 0x9a
WinAAttributes: 0x7
WinBAttributes: 0x0
WinGranularity: 64
WinSize: 64
WinASegment: 0xa000
WinBSegment: 0x0
WinFuncPtr: 0xc0005d66
BytesPerScanline: 8192
XResolution: 2048
YResolution: 1536
XCharSize: 8
YCharSize: 16
NumberOfPlanes: 1
BitsPerPixel: 32
NumberOfBanks: 1
MemoryModel: 6
BankSize: 0
NumberOfImages: 0
RedMaskSize: 8
RedFieldPosition: 16
GreenMaskSize: 8
GreenFieldPosition: 8
BlueMaskSize: 8
BlueFieldPosition: 0
RsvdMaskSize: 8
RsvdFieldPosition: 24
DirectColorModeInfo: 0
PhysBasePtr: 0xd0000000
LinBytesPerScanLine: 8192
BnkNumberOfImagePages: 0
LinNumberOfImagePages: 0
LinRedMaskSize: 8
LinRedFieldPosition: 16
LinGreenMaskSize: 8
LinGreenFieldPosition: 8
LinBlueMaskSize: 8
LinBlueFieldPosition: 0
LinRsvdMaskSize: 8
LinRsvdFieldPosition: 24
MaxPixelClock: 230000000
(II) I810(0): Monitor[0]: Using hsync range of 30.00-80.00 kHz
(II) I810(0): Monitor[0]: Using vrefresh range of 43.00-75.00 Hz
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1920x1080" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1680x1050" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1600x1024" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1600x1000" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1400x1050" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1600x900" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1440x900" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1280x960" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1366x768" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1360x768" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1280x800" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1152x864" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1280x768" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1280x720" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1280x600" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "1024x600" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Not using mode "768x576" (no mode of this name)
(II) I810(0): Increasing the scanline pitch to allow tiling mode (1600 -> 2048).
(--) I810(0): Virtual size is 1600x1200 (pitch 2048)
(**) I810(0): *Built-in mode "1600x1200"
(**) I810(0): *Built-in mode "1280x1024"
(**) I810(0): *Built-in mode "1024x768"
(**) I810(0): *Built-in mode "800x600"
(**) I810(0): *Built-in mode "640x480"
(II) I810(0): Attempting to use 60.00Hz refresh for mode "1600x1200" (85a)
(II) I810(0): Attempting to use 75.02Hz refresh for mode "1280x1024" (858)
(II) I810(0): Attempting to use 75.03Hz refresh for mode "1024x768" (854)
(II) I810(0): Attempting to use 75.00Hz refresh for mode "800x600" (852)
(II) I810(0): Attempting to use 75.00Hz refresh for mode "640x480" (850)
(**) I810(0): Display dimensions: (521, 293) mm
(**) I810(0): DPI set to (78, 104)
Essentially, the modesetting can be done with a modprobe, or at boot time as a kernel parameter. For the i810/i830 sets of cards the correct module is i810fb, but it doesn’t have a modeset parameter: and setting the other parameters [found using [b]modinfo] didn’t work either: so I had no choice but to downgrade again.
I note other Intel graphic hardware has a problem with the 2.6.31 kernel. I encountered this on our old family laptop, which has an Intel 855GM graphics with openSUSE-11.2: Intel 855GM graphics problems w/openSUSE-11.2s 2.6.31 kernel - openSUSE Forums
In the end, in addition to the vesa graphic driver, a boot code “acpi=off” would work with the Intel driver, but that was not a solution that I wanted. Research indicated that this is an Intel driver problem with the 2.6.31 kernel, and not an openSUSE Linux problem per se (as Fedora and Ubuntu with same kernel have same problem).
In the end, for this laptop, I put openSUSE-11.1 on it, but I updated its desktop to the latest KDE-4.3.4. Not a solution I would normally adopt, but KDE4 has features I want that I can not get in KDE3.