Screen resolution: openSUSE 11.1 lets me down completely

English Hardware
1

On my 15,4 inch laptop, openSUSE 11.1 only allows a 800x600 screen resolution at 75 Hz. Which should be 1280x800 at 60 Hz.

After processing the available updates, it gets even worse: I end up with a command line interface. Only booting failsafe gets me into 800x600 again.

This problem is new in openSUSE 11.1. I had no such problem with 10.3 and 11.0. These previous versions detected my video hardware properly and set the resolution automatically right, i.e. at 1280x800.

What can I do about it? Please help me, because I really want to use 11.1 on that laptop.

These are the hardware specifications of my laptop:
Sony Vaio VGN-BX296VP
Pentium M 1,6 Ghz
1 Gb RAM
Intel 915 chipset (using 256 MB shared memory)
15,4 inch screen

Any help is welcome.

Thanks in advance, Pjotr.

2

Try re-configuring the video with the method outlined in post #3 of this thread:
Startup Option - openSUSE Forums

3

Thanks for replying.

I tried sax2, but it didn’t help: it gave an error message.

Sax.log says this:

Hopefully you can help me.

4

No, I can’t see what’s wrong. Seems to go OK except for the very end where it just falls over without a diagnosis.

If you have any of the older versions (where it worked) still bootable, you could look in Sax2 config screen in Yast and note the video card, monitor and settings that work and then apply those in 11.1.

Apart from that, you might have to rely on someone with xserver skills looking at your attached log and seeing the real problem in the detail there.

5

I tried copying the xorg.conf of openSUSE 11.0. This didn’t help. I think I’ll stay with 11.0, at least until 11.2 becomes available.

6

I’ve made a bug report of it:
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=486643

7

Good luck…

8

A developer on Bugzilla has tipped me with an effective workaround (thanks, Stefan Dirsch):

  • install openSUSE 11.1 normally
  • process all available updates, causing X to break after you reboot :frowning:
  • reboot in failsafe mode; this will give you some sort of graphical environment
  • downgrade the package xorg-x11-driver-video to the version that’s included in the installation DVD
  • run sax2
  • reboot normally.

Done! Your graphical environment works fine again. :slight_smile:

Note: (duh…) don’t upgrade xorg-x11-driver-video again, at least until a fixed version has been made available.

9

Note: the update that does the damage, is called
*Mesa
X.org: various critical fixes
*

Don’t install it until Bugzilla bug 486643 is fixed. At least when you have an Intel 915 video chipset.

10

Thanks for that info and sorry for your troubles.