Lots of hardware problems with openSUSE 12.1 on HP Pavilion g6-1216ex

killy9999 · January 22, 2012, 9:43pm

Hi guys,

I just installed openSUSE 12.1 on a brand new HP Pavilion g6-1216ex and I have lots of hardware problems.

There’s tons of error messages during the boot. See this picture: http://img28.imageshack.us/img28/6931/img0907j.jpg
I tried changing systemd to sysvinit as advised in another thread, but that didn’t help.
There are some problems with graphics - most likely related to the problems during boot. The GUI (XFCE) starts fine, but some windows, tray icons, etc. get garbled and the mouse cursor flickers from time to time. I also can’t change brightness of the display. I wanted to upgrade drivers to the ones available in X11:/XOrg repo, but I cannot install xorg-x11-driver-video and xorg-x11-libs due to missing libxcb-aux.0.so… which is in the xorg-x11-libs package. I’m not sure how to check which graphics driver is loaded (I mean I know that I should use lsmod, but I don’t know which of the modules handles the graphics).
Wireless not working. nm-applet says that wireless is disabled by hardware switch, but pressing Fn+F12 (this should enable the WiFi) has no effect. acpi_listen does not report that the combination is being pressed (the same for key combinations that should change brightness). The card is a Broadcom card and mac80211 module is loaded. In the /var/log/NetworkManager there are messages that suggest that the WiFi is being disabled:

WiFi disabled by radio killswitch; enabled by state file

I checked /var/lib/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.state and WiFi enabled is set to true.

I can’t change the speed of the CPU. It’s operating at maximum speed all the time, although acpi_cpufreq module is loaded. I remember that on another laptop (ThinkPad) with openSUSE 11.4 I had a lot of work to enable cpufreq. It required changing some access policies in either Polikit or D-Bus, but that was because of me using KDE 3.5 which requires access to hal, which has been deprecated. It shouldn’t happen in a brand new XFCE shipped with latest Suse.

Any help will be much appreciated since this is not my laptop and either I will make all that stuff work or I will have to install Windows - which is something none of us wants, right?

DenverD · January 22, 2012, 10:04pm

On 01/22/2012 09:46 PM, killy9999 wrote:
> HP Pavilion g6-1216ex

according to this page
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03000267&cc=ad&dlc=en&lc=en&jumpid=reg_r1002_usen>
the machine is sold/delivered with Genuine Windows 7 Home Basic 64 and
nowhere does the HP info mention that it supports Linux…

HP and others sell laptops either with Linux installed or certified to
run certain distros…i do not know if those will also run Windows or
not…but, if the owner of this HP wants a Linux laptop the way to have
that is to buy one which runs well on linux…(like the one i’m using
now–see my sig)

the box it came in, did it have a Tux Penguin icon next to the flying
windows icon?

–
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Hardware
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobiles” of operating systems!

killy9999 · January 22, 2012, 10:16pm

Well, that’s a good point. This laptop was bought through an online shop that imports laptops from abroad (I live in Poland). The laptop does have Windows 7 sticker, but it was sold to me with preinstalled SLED (it even has recovery partition with SLED), which raises a justified suspicion that someone at some point has broke the law. Anyway, even if this laptop came with Windows 7 preinstalled I would still install Linux on it (as I did with two of my ThinkPads).

martin_helm · January 22, 2012, 10:23pm

Am 22.01.2012 21:46, schrieb killy9999:
> I’m not sure
> how to check which graphics driver is loaded
Run


/sbin/lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A 2

in a terminal and post the output here.

killy9999 · January 22, 2012, 10:41pm

martin_helm:

Am 22.01.2012 21:46, schrieb killy9999:
> I’m not sure
> how to check which graphics driver is loaded
Run
/sbin/lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A 2
in a terminal and post the output here.

The output is:

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 list of problems has extended to not working USB’s. One denoted as usb-1-1.1 works fine, the remaining two don’t.

DenverD · January 22, 2012, 10:59pm

On 01/22/2012 10:26 PM, killy9999 wrote:
>
> but it was sold to me with preinstalled SLED (it
> even has recovery partition with SLED)

maybe it is a factory refurbished machine?

does (did?) the installed SLED work with all the hardware? if so, why
not just leave it???

and, you are having SO many problems…makes me wonder if maybe you have
a bad install disk!

did you check the iso’s md5sum prior to burning the disk, and then after
burning did you proof test the disk like: http://tinyurl.com/3qde66h

if not, don’t do anything else until you have tested that install media.

–
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobiles” of operating systems!

martin_helm · January 22, 2012, 11:04pm

Am 22.01.2012 22:46, schrieb killy9999:
>
> martin_helm;2433103 Wrote:
>> Am 22.01.2012 21:46, schrieb killy9999:
>>> I’m not sure
>>> how to check which graphics driver is loaded
>> Run
>>>
> Code:
> --------------------
> > >
> > /sbin/lspci -nnk | grep -i vga -A 2
> >
> --------------------
>>>
>> in a terminal and post the output here.
>>
>
> The output is:
>
>> 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 list of problems has extended to not working USB’s. One denoted as
> usb-1-1.1 works fine, the remaining two don’t.
>
>
That means there is no kernel module loaded at all for this graphics
card, from your photo I guess it tried to load the i915 and failed to do
that.
I cannot help with that (seems to me its the embedded i5 graphics), I
can only recommend to open one thread per problem with a descriptive
title which mentions the Intel VGA you have and so on for the network
problem also a separate thread to get the attention of people who have a
stronger knowledge about your hardware (I use almost only nvidia).

hendersj · January 23, 2012, 3:09am

On Sun, 22 Jan 2012 21:46:02 +0000, killy9999 wrote:

>> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd
>> Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
>> [8086:0116] (rev 09)

I can tell you that this controller does work - it’s what’s in my Dell
Inspiron 17R (down to the 8086:0116 identifier, so it’s the same chipset)
and it generally works fine here. I didn’t do anything special with the
installation, and the i915 kernel module is loaded.

I installed the x86_64 12.1 on my system - are you doing that or the 32-
bit version?

I would second the suggestion of doing a media check to make sure your
media isn’t hosed.

Jim

–
Jim Henderson
openSUSE Forums Administrator
Forum Use Terms & Conditions at http://tinyurl.com/openSUSE-T-C

oldcpu · January 23, 2012, 7:10am

killy9999:

The output is:


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)

I note from that the PCI ID is 8086:0116 which according to this site indicates a Sandy Bridge Integrated Graphics Controller.

I know that the Sandy Bridge Integrated Graphics Controller implementation on my wife’s Lenovo X220 works fine (I blogged about it here). You will note in her case the ‘lspci -nnk’ command yields:


00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09)
Subsystem: Lenovo Device [17aa:21da]
Kernel driver in use: i915

so that, plus the error messages in the boot screen shot clearly indicate problems with the i915 on your HP hardware. Probably your PC needs to use the FBDEV or VESA driver as an interim until we can sort why the HP hardware with the Sandybridge Graphics is not working well.

As DenverD noted, one thing that would save all of us from wasting a LOT of time would be for you to confirm the quality of your boot CD/DVD … ie (1) confirm the checksum of the downloaded ISO file matches the checksum posted on the download website, and (2) confirm you are using high quality media (not some bargain basement special and NOT a +RW/-RW but rather a +R or -R) and (3) confirm you burned the CD/DVD at the absolute slowest speed your burner will allow using a burner of similar age to your HP PC’s CD/DVD reader.

If that checks out then we will know we are not wasting time trying to sort problems that are due to a bad install.

Now I have read that some SandyBridge users found it necessary to remove vga=0x317 from the boot options, and after that their boot was ok. You could try that please.

And I note some HP PC users with Intel graphics found it necessary to use the boot code option " i915.semaphores=1 " (no quotes) and you could also try that please.

What would help would be for you to boot WITH and WITHOUT the various boot codes I noted, including trying with and without the ‘nomodeset’ boot code and post the content of /var/log/Xorg.0.log and /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old into separate SUSE Paste pages and press create and post here the various URL/web addresses from each config file instance, with a brief explanation as to what the boot loading circumstances were of each, so we can get a better handle on this.

Good luck

oldcpu · January 23, 2012, 7:14am

You can check which graphics driver is loaded by looking inside the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file.

Trying to install xorg-x11-driver-video and xorg-x11-libs is a really bad idea, really bad … unless you really know what you are doing. I have borked a PC’s X on one occasion some years back trying same, and it is NOT something I recommend for an average user (like myself). Rather try the ‘i915.semaphores=1’ boot code I suggested, and try removing the ‘vga=0x317’ boot code like I suggested and see if that helps.

killy9999 · January 24, 2012, 10:20pm

Thanks for contributing and sorry for not responding promptly - I’ve been quite busy at work and was taking some efforts to solve my problems. So, here goes:

DenverD >> The installed SLED worked even worse - it wasn’t able to set a proper screen resolution. I think I’ve solved the mystery of missing Windows. This laptop has been imported somewhere from the Middle East - it has Arabic letter along with the Latin ones and according to HP web page the nearest retailer is somewhere in Cairo. So I guess the installed Win7 was in Arabic language and the importer simply replaced it with Linux.

I checked the md5 sum after downloading the image and later verified that the DVD recorded OK. To be absolutely certain that my problems are not caused by bad install I forced upgrade of all packages on the system, but without any effect. My system is x86_64.

The first error message that appears during boot (about ifup scripts) also appears on a system installed in VirtualBox, so I guess that’s not hardware specific, but a general bug.

I tried different configurations od kernel options during boot: vga=0x317, nomodeset and i915.semaphores=1. None of them offered improvement.

oldcpu >> why do you consider upgrading x11 driver packages a bad idea? I’ve been doing that for years. There’s always a risk that an upgrade will damage something, but if you have access to the command line (and thanks to the rescue CD you always have it) you can reinstall the old packages.

As another option I tried latest release of Fedora. I had problems booting the LiveCD, as the screen was simply turning off (the same with Suse installation, I had to use safe mode). Eventually I got it running. No i915 and USB problems, but the WiFi and cpufreq still weren’t working. Anyway, I still want Suse or Debian.

At the moment I am considering returning the laptop and getting the money back since I was convinced that Linux is preinstalled by HP and it is a Linux-capable hardware. If the laptop gets returned my problems can be considered as solved. If not, then I will start separate threads for each problem, so I’m not pasting any output now.

On the other hand this laptop has no hardware that is unsupported under Linux, maybe except for the wireless card (Broadcom…). This makes me very disappointed with Suse. I’ve been using Suse since 9.3 version, which is almost 7 years of Suse experience. I’ve installed this distro many times on many different hardware configurations and I never had a single installation where everything worked out-of-the-box. In older versions sound card was a standard issue. With laptops the problems are usually cpufreq and acpi, sometimes wifi. Suse is a real pleasure to use, but a real nightmare to resolve all the hardware issues. I do appreciate the fast development pace and quick incorporation of the latest software, but not at the expense of stability and hardware compatibility.

oldcpu · January 25, 2012, 6:37am

I think my exact words were: " Trying to install xorg-x11-driver-video and xorg-x11-libs is a really bad idea, really bad … unless you really know what you are doing." … I think that already answers your question and it states all that need be said here and no need for me to repeat.

Wrt your ‘general’ statement on openSUSE, I’ve been using it since 7.3 and I’ve seen no major issues specific to SuSE-Pro, nor later openSUSE. Sound has NEVER been a problem for me. It has ‘just worked’ most of the time. Perhaps I’ve installed SuSE-Pro and later openSUSE on over 30 different hardware platforms over the years. The ONLY time I had a major sound hiccup was with the mic on my Dell Studio 1537 which was GNU/Linux wide, and a bug report on this to bugzilla (and to SuSE-GmbH) resulted in a fix within a week (by the SuSE-GmbH sound packager) which resulted in ALL GNU/Linux distributions benefiting from the work of someone employed by SuSE-GmbH. And later with the introduction of pulse audio I had to learn how to use it - no big issue there but sometimes learning something new can be painful (in all walks of life).

Note we are a support forum of unpaid volunteers who give up of our own free time to try and assist users with openSUSE. We don’t package openSUSE. We don’t develope packages for openSUSE. We don’t decide what goes in openSUSE. We DO try to help with specific problems as volunteers.

General comments on the quality of the openSUSE distribution, if intended to raise it to someone’s attention to have something addressed, belong in the mailing lists. We are not going to change the distribution here in the forum as support volunteers. All one succeeds doing by putting down openSUSE here on the forum is to punish those who try to volunteer of their own time. I assume you know that already and are just venting some frustration.

I can also state unequivocally , my having used GNU/Linux since 1998, that if one does not raise bug report themselves, then the odds of anything being fixed in any GNU/Linux distribution is significantly reduced (and openSUSE is no different). Relying on ‘others’ to raise bug reports often does NOT work. Our GNU/Linux community is NOT that large (and I include MORE than openSUSE here). So it would help not only others, but also yourself (and all GNU/Linux distros) if you raised bug reports on the issues you have encountered.

DenverD · January 25, 2012, 5:54pm

On 01/24/2012 10:26 PM, killy9999 wrote:
> This makes me very disappointed with Suse.

i think most of your problems can be attributed to the 3.x kernel, and
systemd…

suggest you try installing 11.4 <http://software.opensuse.org/114/en>
which is supported until September 15th 2012, by which time 12.1 (or
12.2) might be suitable for your hardware (i’m on 11.4 because i also
“appreciate the fast development pace and quick incorporation of the
latest software, but” have decided to wait until the dang thing gets
stable and reliable…and, then move up)

or, if you need to jump to Debian, go for it!

in any case i always advise: Use what works, i do. (and, i’ve not had to
stoop to Windows since i left it in '95, ymmv)

–
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat http://tinyurl.com/DD-Hardware
http://tinyurl.com/DD-Software
openSUSE®, the “German Engineered Automobiles” of operating systems!

killy9999 · January 25, 2012, 7:53pm

oldcpu >> I was complaining about some aspects of Suse development, not about help that I received on this forum so please don’t take my post personal. I didn’t mean to offend anyone. You’re right, perhaps the mailing list would be more suitable for such complaints.

I also don’t expect anyone to fill bug reports for me and I’m not filling bug reports for my problems until I’m certain that they are bugs, not some configuration issues that can be resolved.

> i think most of your problems can be attributed to the 3.x kernel, and
> systemd…

Quite likely. I also tried Fedora 16, unfortunately also based on 3.1 kernel. The biggest problem with the laptop was the fact that I wasn’t able to activate the wireless card. I verified that it’s supported, but all 3 systems that I tried seen the card as disabled by a hardware switch. The problem is that there is no hardware switch in this laptop (in BIOS neither) and rfkill was unable to unlock it. So the laptop was returned to the retailer - today was the last day to do it, so I didn’t want to take the risk of having a laptop without a WiFi. I’ll be looking for something different, perhaps a ThinkPad, since I have some relatively good experience with them.

DenverD · January 25, 2012, 8:00pm

On 01/25/2012 07:56 PM, killy9999 wrote:
> perhaps a ThinkPad, since I have some
> relatively good experience with them.

yes, but since the production moved east there seems to have been a move
to design to cost (and one operating system family)…

IBM was just FULL of folks very busy with AIX and it made sense to them
to have a higher level of hardware…

but, you can forget that now.

–
DD http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat
READ all the neat stuff about openSUSE here http://tinyurl.com/SUSEonDW