so im not sure why my machine will not go past this 640X480 resolution that is useless to look at. im running opensuse 13.1 on a dell optiplex 160 with the stock on board VGA and have no further options for resolution size. can anybody help?
This usually means that the graphics hardware is running with a basic framebuffer driver. You should provide the graphics card details too. You can get that info from this command
/usr/sbin/hwinfo --gfxcard
Post back with the details, and enclose within
...[/CO..] tags (refer to the '#' icon provided by the forum editor)
Examine /var/log/Xorg.0.log, and if you want to share it with us, copy/paste/upload to http://paste.opensuse.org/, then share the link to it here.as requested, the results
18: PCI(AGP) 100.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA) [Created at pci.319]
Unique ID: VCu0.PY3ml8e7h23
Parent ID: vSkL.uvrveDpO5n6
SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:01.0/0000:01:00.0
SysFS BusID: 0000:01:00.0
Hardware Class: graphics card
Model: "Silicon Integrated 771/671 PCIE VGA Display Adapter"
Vendor: pci 0x1039 "Silicon Integrated Systems Corp."
Device: pci 0x6351 "771/671 PCIE VGA Display Adapter"
SubVendor: pci 0x1028 "Dell"
SubDevice: pci 0x02c3
Revision: 0x10
Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xdfffffff (ro,non-prefetchable)
Memory Range: 0xfe9e0000-0xfe9fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
I/O Ports: 0xec00-0xec7f (rw)
IRQ: 10 (no events)
I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
Module Alias: "pci:v00001039d00006351sv00001028sd000002C3bc03sc00i00"
Config Status: cfg=no, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
Attached to: #9 (PCI bridge)
Primary display adapter: #18
and the file
Don’t expect too much from this graphics card - its a legacy SiS graphics card. (I’m not sure if this model is supported by the sis driver or not.)
yikssssss i have about 300 of these devices that are getting our 13.1 update.
check my last post. i edited it and paste the file
You’re not even using the sis driver, but the generic fbdev. In this case it is normal that you’re “stuck” at 640x480.
I don’t even know whether sis works at all any more, I suppose not.
You should be able to change the resolution in YaST->System->Boot Loader->Kernel Parameters though (graphical console resolution, not the “VGA mode”).fbdev uses this even in hraphics mode
Well, the Xorg log shows that the sis driver is loaded but then later unloaded
18.593] (II) UnloadModule: "sis"
18.593] (II) Unloading sis
18.594] (II) UnloadModule: "vesa"
18.594] (II) Unloading vesa
and confirmed that the fbdev driver is in use.
This old thread might be relevant
https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/500746-SIS-mirage-3-graphics-card-on-opensuse-13-1-works-only-in-low-resolution
It might be possible to force the driver with an edit (as root) to /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf
Section "Device"
Identifier "Default Device"
#
Driver "sis"
#
EndSection
You’d need to restart the X-server with CTRL-ALT-Backspace (twice) when done. No promises though. If it fails to work, you can boot in safe mode and undo the changes made.
That is some seriously oddball hardware. You are never going to get great performance from it so you should consider simpler desktops and stay away from KDE and/or Gnome
If sis does not work you might try in the same way VGA. In theory all hardware should be VGA compatible and it should give a bit better resolutions.
Thanks Wolfi323, this partially worked. i now have a resolution of 1024X768 that is workable. BUT i am looking for a resolution around 1440x900 . i will check the other post and links provided and get back today
You can try to enter the resolution manually into that field, no need to select an existing one from the list.
No idea whether that particular resolution will work, though.
You could try to uninstall xf86-video-fbdev to use the vesa driver, maybe this one will be able to get the wanted resolution.
I think it’s unrealistic to hope getting the sis driver to work.
entering my desired resolution did not work 
how would i go about doing this?
i wish i could just trash all these devices as they are **** >:( but i don’t have an options (about 330+ devices need to obtain this 1440x900 resolution )
Like any other package, either with YaST->Software Management, “zypper rm”, or “rpm -e”.
Please note that you have to uninstall “xorg-x11-video” as well, but that’s just a meta-package that ensures that all video drivers are installed.
You could also create an xorg.conf.d snippet instead as already mentioned, but with a different driver (vesa):
Section "Device"
Identifier "Default Device"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection
It might even be possible to set the resolution you want in such an xorg.conf.d snippet as well, see here:
https://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Configuring_graphics_cards_and_monitor_settings
I don’t think vesa supports that 1440x900
vesa and fbdev are very limited to which res they will work
I know that in all the vesa tables I have seen 1440x900 is not in them
I know because I have a 1440x900 monitor and can’t really get grub to work at that res
But then I have a much better graphics card that I can use the proper driver for.
I’ve been reluctant to say anything in this thread, as those contributing do know much more than I on this question. I am curious thou, if the package xf86-video-sis is installed on the OP’s pc ? http://software.opensuse.org/package/xf86-video-sis. My assumption is that it is, and those contributing can tell it was installed by the earlier log messages ?
For my own edification, I note the following log entry from the OP’s e /var/log/Xorg.0.log file. Is this how you can tell that rpm was installed ?
18.564] (II) LoadModule: "sis"
18.569] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/sis_drv.so
18.570] (II) Module sis: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
18.570] compiled for 1.14.3, module version = 0.10.7
18.570] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
18.570] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 14.1
18.570] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
18.573] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so
18.573] (II) Module modesetting: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
18.573] compiled for 1.14.3, module version = 0.8.0
18.574] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
18.574] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 14.1
...
18.580] (II) SIS: driver for SiS chipsets: SIS5597/5598, SIS530/620,
SIS6326/AGP/DVD, SIS300/305, SIS630/730, SIS540, SIS315, SIS315H,
SIS315PRO/E, SIS550, SIS650/M650/651/740, SIS330(Xabre),
SIS660/[M]661[F|M]X/[M]670/[M]741[GX]/[M]760[GX]/[M]761[GX]/[M]770[GX],
SIS340
18.581] (II) SIS: driver for XGI chipsets: Volari Z7 (XG20),
Volari V3XT/V5/V8/Duo (XG40)
18.581] (II) modesetting: Driver for Modesetting Kernel Drivers: kms
....
18.582] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for sis
18.582] (--) Assigning device section with no busID to primary device
18.582] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
18.582] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for modesetting
and presumeably the sis driver has a problem with the latest DRI or modesetting ? (or something else ?
Yes, the user-space Xorg driver was loaded (following the kernel module loading).
Here would be an error message if the module couldn’t be loaded:
18.564] (II) LoadModule: "sis"
18.569] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/sis_drv.so
18.570] (II) Module sis: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
18.570] compiled for 1.14.3, module version = 0.10.7
18.570] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
18.570] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 14.1
And of course there wouldn’t be any information about the sis module (vendor, version), if the module couldn’t be loaded.
Those lines are printed by the driver itself, if it wouldn’t be installed, it couldn’t print those messages:
18.580] (II) SIS: driver for SiS chipsets: SIS5597/5598, SIS530/620,
SIS6326/AGP/DVD, SIS300/305, SIS630/730, SIS540, SIS315, SIS315H,
SIS315PRO/E, SIS550, SIS650/M650/651/740, SIS330(Xabre),
SIS660/[M]661[F|M]X/[M]670/[M]741[GX]/[M]760[GX]/[M]761[GX]/[M]770[GX],
SIS340
18.581] (II) SIS: driver for XGI chipsets: Volari Z7 (XG20),
Volari V3XT/V5/V8/Duo (XG40)
and presumeably the sis driver has a problem with the latest DRI or modesetting ? (or something else ?
Maybe it doesn’t support the chipset at hand, or it has some other problem, no idea.
The sis driver is basically unmaintained since years.
It might help to use “nomodeset” (as I suggested in that other thread), or maybe not.
Btw, “modesetting” is just another driver (xf86-video-modesetting), a generic one like vesa but it uses KMS.
So those messages about “modesetting” are not really related to KMS itself, and totally unrelated to the sis driver.
Ok thanks - I speculated as much … but I’ve never actually encountered this with any hardware I own.
I’m puzzling a bit on this. I note for example this archlinux page: https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/sis-dri/ with a recent sis DRI driver.
I note also a DRI error in the xorg.log file:
18.582] (WW) Falling back to old probe method for sis
18.582] (--) Assigning device section with no busID to primary device
18.582] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
If I was the OP with 300+ PCs affected, I would look to see if there was a way to disable modsetting, maybe disable DRI and see if I could get the sis driver to load with that disabled. I don’t know enough to know thou, if that idea even makes sense (it may make no sense). Failing that, I would take a hard look at the arch linux sis DRI driver and ask myself, why is arch linux packaging such for sis ?
Along these lines, and out of my own curiousity, I downloaded from the OSS directory the file xf86-video-sis-0.10.7-8.1.4.x86_64.rpm and extracted the contents with:
rpm2cpio xf86-video-sis-0.10.7-8.1.4.x86_64 | cpio -idmv
and then I looked inside the README document file that is included in that rpm:
1. Introduction
This driver is written by Thomas Winischhofer and is a (nearly)
complete re-write of a driver written for the SiS6326 and SiS530 by
Alan Hourihane and others.
It currently supports the following chipsets:
o old series: SiS 5597/5598, 6236/AGP/DVD, 530/620
o 300 series: SiS 300/305, 540, 630/730
o 315 series: SiS 315/E/PRO, 55x, 650, 651, M650, 740,
[M]661&[F/M/G]X, [M]741[GX]
o 330 series: SiS 330 ("Xabre"), [M]760[GX], [M]761[GX]
o 340 series: SiS 34x, XGI Volari Z7, V3XT, V5, V8
Among other features, the driver supports
o 8/16/24 bits color depth; old series also 15
o Hardware cursor; 315/330/340 series: Color HW cursor
o XAA; EXA; XVideo (Xv); RENDER and other extensions
o 6326: TV output
o 300/315/330/340 series: TV output via Chrontel TV encoders or SiS
video bridges
o 300/315/330/340 series: LCD output via LVDS transmitters or SiS
video bridges
o 300/315/330/340 series: Dual head mode; Xinerama; Merged
framebuffer mode
o 300/315/330/340 series: Interface for SiSCtrl (see below)
From that it reads that the user’s hardware is not supported, where the user’s hardware is:
Model: "Silicon Integrated 771/671 PCIE VGA Display Adapter"
Vendor: pci 0x1039 "Silicon Integrated Systems Corp."
Device: pci 0x6351 "771/671 PCIE VGA Display Adapter
.
Having typed the above (wrt the hardware likely not being supported) I note this arch linux wiki for configuring X for SiS hardware: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SiS and they give some Xorg suggestions:
They reference 671 support. They recommend installing sisctrl to help configure the graphics (and I note openSUSE has packaged http://software.opensuse.org/package/sisctrl ) . They also note some cards not supported by sis driver package can work with xf86-video-sisusb (packaged by openSUSE) and xf86-video-sisimedia (not packaged by openSUSE). They also suggest one check xf86-video-sis671](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/xf86-video-sis671/) (not packaged by openSUSE) from AUR. Those come from an archlinux page and possibly not relevant to openSUSE.
Hence without the xf86-video-sis671 packaged for openSUSE (URL: https://gitorious.org/xf86-video-sis671 ) , I don’t think the subsequent recommendations in the https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SiS relevant. It could be there are good reasons (such as a lack of compatibility with latest X ) why the xf86-video-sis671 is not packaged for openSUSE.
.
My last post on this, as I can see even more clearly the difficulty with this legacy hardware. There is an old thread here of one user’s efforts trying to get this to work on openSUSE-12.2 !!
https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/478096-SIS-771-671-PCIE-Display-Adapter-Driver-openSUSE-12-2