Tiny Core Linux

Off-Topic => Off-Topic - Tiny Core Lounge => Topic started by: cast-fish on November 07, 2014, 01:00:03 AM

Title: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 07, 2014, 01:00:03 AM
Please can you tell the basics of graphics wih tinycore?

my laptop has a reasonable graphics chip.....ATI radeon mobility 7500 with DDR of 64 megs ram. and AGP 4x.

How does any of the above specs relate to using XORG with TCL......?..... and relate to things such as 3D...?

will XORG use the 64 megs of graphics card ram?.......XVESA wont?

i just wondered....



Earlier laptops of mine have only had standard graphics chips which SHARE some of the laptops
RAM...say 16 megs.

THis laptop is different. As mentioned above

thanks

Vince.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: curaga on November 07, 2014, 01:27:13 AM
Xvesa/Xfbdev will only use a standard amount, which is usually 4-16mb. To use it all you need Xorg with a suitable driver.

Xorg is also needed for any 2d and 3d accel.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 07, 2014, 06:11:57 AM
right


So XORG loaded and seems to be working...so then i guesse xorg is already using some suitable
driver by default?...Xorg?.....therefor it's using all 64 megs is it?


how would i know?...and how could i force it to use all Graphics chip ram?


Vince.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: curaga on November 07, 2014, 10:51:36 AM
Read Xorg.0.log to find out.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 12, 2014, 07:04:31 AM
OK Curaga...

back to square one

1) My laptop has a "ATI" radeon 7500 graphics chip with DDR 64 megs of ram.
2) As mentioned earlier in the post Tinycore does not  wholly use this graphics chip properly
by default.
3) You say it may be possible to force TCL to use the whole chip by using XORG
and an appropriate linux driver. 
4) As i mentioned earlier, XORG seems to work fine ok but i am unsure if it's seeing  the full graphics chip properly
5) Look at the XORG  org file you say.  That file seems to have thousands of  lines of text. You never thought to mention WHAT one would be looking for as an indication of the topic issue?
6) I see that TCL apps browser indeed contains x86 graphics drivers and indeed they have one for ATI chips, TCL also has a firmware tool for Radeon. 
7)  Considering the above info, my question is simple and repeated again.

 Is it possible to make this chip work right with TCL and what should be loaded, how?....and when?

Vince.

ps
http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php/topic,15950.msg94051.html#msg94051

This is the same problem i got here as the above after loading the Radeon firmware and ATI driver.  "Wait for X failed" error......so how do i put in a wait loop?

Vince
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 12, 2014, 07:28:46 AM
Use one of the tc tools to download/install the Xorg-7.7, xf86-video-ati and firmware-radeon extensions.

If you are already in the gui using Xvesa or Xfbdev, exit to the command prompt. If you are at the command prompt, enter "startx"

You'll need to search through /var/log/Xorg.0.log for messages about memory and firmware - something like the following might help:
Code: [Select]
$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i ram
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Misalf on November 12, 2014, 07:32:42 AM
I asked the webs about VRAM and throw this together real quick:
Code: [Select]
sudo lspci -v -s `lspci | grep -m 1 -i vga | awk '{ print $1 }'`
Look out for stuff like  [size=256M] .

This is what I get:
Code: [Select]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 0110
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at dfe80000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
        I/O ports at d100 [size=8]
        Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Memory at dff00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
        Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915



About the wait loop, maybe something like this:
Code: [Select]
SEC=60
while [ $SEC -gt 0 ]; do
dmesg | tail -5 | grep "Initialized radeon"
echo -ne "Waiting for VGA... $((SEC--)) \r"
done
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 12, 2014, 07:49:11 AM
right...many thanks for the reply's

I don't want to labour your forum people. Perhaps the radeon card
contains non typical ram called VRAM?...DDR 64 megs....

perhaps giving  the chip all the right drivers and everything may ONLY affect
the 3D performance of the machine under XORG.....and i don't really play
games much.....


in essence, i don't want to waste your time ....on something that isn't
necessary worth the hasstle...


a side note below

Please ignore the fact this Xsession screen GRAB mentions Xvesa......but aside from
that is there infact something WRONG with the "wait x" stuff anyhow?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/usr/local/bin/Xvesa -br -screen 640x480x16 -shadow -2button -mouse /dev/input/mice -nolisten tcp -I >/dev/null 2>&1 &
export XPID=$!
waitforX || ! echo failed in waitforX || exit
"$DESKTOP" 2>/tmp/wm_errors &
export WM_PID=$!
[ -x ./.setbackground ] && ./.setbackground
[ -x ./.mouse_config ] && ./.mouse_config &
[ $(which "$ICONS".sh) ] && ${ICONS}.sh &
[ -d ".X.d" ] && find ".X.d" -type f -print | while read F; do . "$F"; done
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 12, 2014, 07:58:27 AM
tc@box:~$ sudo lspci -v -s `lspci | grep -m 1 -i vga | awk '{ print $1 }'`
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility M7 LW [R               adeon Mobility 7500] (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Compaq Computer Corporation Device 004a
        Flags: stepping, 66MHz, medium devsel, IRQ 11
        Memory at 88000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=128M]
        I/O ports at 3000 [size=256]
        Memory at 80380000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
        [virtual] Expansion ROM at 90000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
        Capabilities: [58] AGP version 2.0
        Capabilities: [50] Power Management version 2



that is what mine shows under Xvesa?

seems to be indicating 128 megs of ram?....not the 64 megs i originally thought

Vince.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Misalf on November 12, 2014, 08:03:06 AM
Maybe it's 64MB dedicated + 64MB shared?

VRAM isn't non-typical, it's just video memory. Actually I asked the webs about "linux video memory".

As you can see, my netbook's integrated intel graphics chip is able to use 256MB RAM, yet it's performance is quite poor. Thats because the linux drivers for those video cards don't support all the available features. It's sufficient fore 2D things, though.

Your  .xsession  looks correct.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 12, 2014, 08:16:19 AM
you may be right

Compaq laptops indeed often have embedded features......

that is to say it could be 64 vram and 64 system shared Ram. (making 128)

The radeon chip is certainly only 64 meg VRAM according to google.
"Radeon mobility 7500"


I remember my other older compaq laptop here....actually had 128 megs of RAM hard
soldered onto the motherboard. THen next to that is a spare RAM slot where
you can put another 256 max card or lower.

This newer laptop here is a very similar compaq....same era also
but with better graphics chip.

Vince
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 13, 2014, 03:18:40 AM
I asked the webs about VRAM and throw this together real quick:
Code: [Select]
sudo lspci -v -s `lspci | grep -m 1 -i vga | awk '{ print $1 }'`
Look out for stuff like  [size=256M] .

This is what I get:
Code: [Select]
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GME Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 0110
        Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 16
        Memory at dfe80000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512K]
        I/O ports at d100 [size=8]
        Memory at c0000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        Memory at dff00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256K]
        Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
        Capabilities: [90] MSI: Enable- Count=1/1 Maskable- 64bit-
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 2
        Kernel driver in use: i915
        Kernel modules: i915



About the wait loop, maybe something like this:
Code: [Select]
SEC=60
while [ $SEC -gt 0 ]; do
dmesg | tail -5 | grep "Initialized radeon"
echo -ne "Waiting for VGA... $((SEC--)) \r"
done


again, where does this code go?

after the Wait command?
Before the Wait command?
Before everything in the xsession file?

Vince
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 13, 2014, 03:30:35 AM
In re-reading the link above, it looks like the delay loop is only needed if you boot directly into the Xorg gui.

If you boot with Xvesa loaded then load Xorg (and the ati/radeon driver and firmware), exit to the command prompt and "startx", the loop shouldn't be required?

If you boot directly to the gui with Xorg (and the ati/radeon driver and firmware) loaded "onboot", then I guess the delay loop will need to come before the first line in ~/.xsession - make sure you use the Xorg command string and not the Xvesa command string.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 13, 2014, 03:34:30 AM
ok Juanto thanks

Vince
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 13, 2014, 03:41:06 AM
edited my post immediately above
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 13, 2014, 03:44:39 AM
uh

i am trying all ways.

Vince.

Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 13, 2014, 03:57:20 AM
it did not work.  THe instructions.

It just gets caught in a loop....issuing the same command line after line

dmz....radeon initialized.....at minor 0
dmr....radeon initialized """"""

30 times


then  FAILED in wait for x


seems the code is wrong

VInce.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 13, 2014, 04:18:28 AM
it seems to be working right ...

like Juanto says...from a cold boot (without any "waiting" edits on the .xsession file)  the computer boots
up and then the graphics jumps to a special font as it loads both "x86-ati-driver" and the "radeon firmware".

They are both correctly loaded and running at the TCL gui desktop.


The earlier commands for checking your graphics card sub system do NOT work in Xorg. (at least not here now
so how can i check the machine is indeed using the 128 megs and correct ati driver?)

thanks

VInce.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 13, 2014, 04:26:48 AM
You could replace the loop by "sleep 15" or similar, but for testing purposes, maybe it would be easier to add Xorg, the ati/radeon driver and radeon firmware "onboot", remove Xvesa from "onboot" and add the bootcode "text" to prevent tc from booting to the gui.

This would enable to you check dmesg for radeon firmware messages before issuing the "startx" command.

In /var/log/Xorg.0.log you will see that Xorg decides which drivers it thinks it could use and then tries to load them one by one before selecting the best one. This is for intel hardware, but you should see something analogous:
Code: [Select]
[   191.464] (==) Matched intel as autoconfigured driver 0
[   191.464] (==) Matched intel as autoconfigured driver 1
[   191.464] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 2
[   191.464] (==) Matched fbdev as autoconfigured driver 3
[   191.464] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 4
[   191.464] (==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
[   191.464] (II) LoadModule: "intel"
[   191.464] (II) Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so
[   191.472] (II) Module intel: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[   191.472] compiled for 1.16.1, module version = 2.99.916
[   191.472] Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[   191.472] ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 18.0
[   191.472] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"
[   191.473] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module modesetting
[   191.473] (II) UnloadModule: "modesetting"
[   191.473] (II) Unloading modesetting
[   191.473] (EE) Failed to load module "modesetting" (module does not exist, 0)
[   191.473] (II) LoadModule: "fbdev"
[   191.473] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module fbdev
[   191.473] (II) UnloadModule: "fbdev"
[   191.473] (II) Unloading fbdev
[   191.473] (EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
[   191.473] (II) LoadModule: "vesa"
[   191.473] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module vesa
[   191.473] (II) UnloadModule: "vesa"
[   191.473] (II) Unloading vesa
[   191.473] (EE) Failed to load module "vesa" (module does not exist, 0)
[   191.473] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Integrated Graphics Chipsets:
i810, i810-dc100, i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 854, 852GM/855GM, 865G,
915G, E7221 (i915), 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 945GME, Pineview GM,
Pineview G, 965G, G35, 965Q, 946GZ, 965GM, 965GME/GLE, G33, Q35, Q33,
GM45, 4 Series, G45/G43, Q45/Q43, G41, B43
[   191.473] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) HD Graphics: 2000-6000
[   191.473] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Iris(TM) Graphics: 5100, 6100
[   191.473] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Iris(TM) Pro Graphics: 5200, 6200, P6300
[   191.473] (--) using VT number 2
[   191.477] (II) intel(0): Using Kernel Mode Setting driver: i915, version 1.6.0 20080730
[   191.478] (--) intel(0): Integrated Graphics Chipset: Intel(R) HD Graphics 4400
[   191.479] (--) intel(0): CPU: x86-64, sse2, sse3, ssse3, sse4.1, sse4.2, avx, avx2
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 13, 2014, 05:19:16 AM
Juanto

so i your example it used (i915)


so i am looking for what?  (ati driver).....used....?


Vince.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 13, 2014, 05:30:17 AM
You're looking for:

"matched ati as autoconfigured driver.."
"matched radeon as autoconfigured driver.."
"Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/ati_drv.so"
"Loading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/radeon_drv.so"
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 13, 2014, 05:40:53 AM
hmmm Juanrto...ok

uh.....i never knew the difference between "firmware" and a "driver"....

anyhow...i will check for what you said.


but i am no good at the terminal for finding , opening and reading a file.

Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 13, 2014, 05:44:49 AM
Code: [Select]
$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i autoconfigured
$ cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i drv.so
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 13, 2014, 01:01:59 PM
ye

had to start completely from scratch and it still got me foxed

xorg.0.log   seems to appear only once  then after rebooting even with backup its gone?

is there a more simple check than what you describe

also Xvesa is nowhere to be found in Onboot.  It's never listed no matter what..... so can't be removed like you say above.
(a clean fresh "base" TCL boot....does not even list Xvesa in Onboot. It just shows that Xvesa is installed
that's all.   TCL  4.3.1

V
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 13, 2014, 09:22:04 PM
Xorg.0.log is only written when Xorg runs and is not saved across boots unless you added it to your backup.

You can look at Xorg.0.log with any text editor (for example, beaver) from the gui.

What do you mean by "shows that Xvesa is installed"? If Xvesa is not in onboot.lst and you didn't load it manually, then it should not be installed.

Even if Xvesa is installed, Xorg will run as long as it was installed after Xvesa.

Edit: btw, ~/.xsession should look like this with Xorg-7.7:
Code: [Select]
$ cat .xsession
/usr/local/bin/Xorg -nolisten tcp &
export XPID=$!
waitforX || ! echo failed in waitforX || exit
"$DESKTOP" 2>/tmp/wm_errors &
export WM_PID=$!
[ -x $HOME/.setbackground ] && $HOME/.setbackground
[ -x $HOME/.mouse_config ] && $HOME/.mouse_config &
[ $(which "$ICONS".sh) ] && ${ICONS}.sh &
[ -d "$HOME/.X.d" ] && find "$HOME/.X.d" -type f -print | while read F; do . "$F"; done
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 14, 2014, 01:03:35 AM
Yeah

Confusing.

The "what do you mean" bit is exactly as i stated Juanto. That is what it means. It Can't be
anymore semantic than it describes.  Read it again.  I will repeat it below.
******On a raw boot of TCL 4.3.1 CD disc with no drives involved just ram.....Xvesa is
never listed in Onboot. Xvesa only shows as "installed" via system stats "installed"
button from control panel.******

I appreciate that running Xorg would over-ride Xvesa....so your instructions are kind
of in conflict........... but parallel.

The instructions about a text boot........... don't make sense to me. The LOG file does
not seem to stick around.  I only do the backup offered at the TCL exit prompt.....The instructions are missing something?

Several hours on this and boots etc. No progress.


V



ps

in essence forget about everything above.

1) assume a raw boot of TCL 4.3.1 and an empty TCE directory on thumb ready to recieve and virgin.
2) We are talking about 3 things here.  Xorg 7.6, the radeon FW and the ATI driver.
3) How difficult is it to explain HOW to install these 3 things and get a graphics driver
running and check it's running on subsequent booting of the machine?.....the end objective.

This thread advice has not yet worked properly....is there something missing?

you could model this RAW approach and surely it would just then be a list of DO's....in a proper
order. Assume i know nothing.

thanks for trying. 

V







Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 14, 2014, 01:33:44 AM
Ah - you're using tc-4.x and Xorg-7.6...

Assuming you can boot tc-4.x with an empty /tce folder and with an internet connection:
Code: [Select]
$ tce-load -w Xorg-7.6 xf86-video-all firmware-radeon
$ tce-load -i Xorg-7.6 xf86-video-all firmware-radeon
$ startx

Once the gui starts, you can use the apps browser to install a text editor like beaver to look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 14, 2014, 07:44:20 AM
Hello,

uh is it a can of worms coming?


what am i suppossed to use with TCL 4.3.1,,,,    Xorg 7.4,....... 5, 6..... ?  (3D or not?)

i will try what your last post stated.


thanks

Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 14, 2014, 10:55:11 PM
I chose Xorg-7.6 because it was the most recent extension for tc-4.x...
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 15, 2014, 06:05:13 PM
ok
i followed your instructions by booting a virgin TCL into the text prompt......... and then following your
code lines........the xorg log file is attached here....
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

is it right?

i notice that the machine also has Xvesa installed.

If this data above proves that indeed the ati drivers and radeon drv are working right ........then how can i lower the
screen rez of Xorg to 800 600....?

thx

V

thanks

V
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 15, 2014, 08:57:45 PM
From the attached:
Code: [Select]
(--) RADEON(0): Chipset: "ATI Radeon Mobility M7 LW (AGP)" (ChipID = 0x4c57)
(II) RADEON(0): Output LVDS using initial mode 1024x768
(II) RADEON(0): Front buffer size: 3072K
(II) RADEON(0): VRAM usage limit set to 25804K
..it looks like the radeon driver is being used.

..but:
Code: [Select]
(EE) AIGLX error: dlopen of /usr/local/lib/X11/modules/dri/radeon_dri.so failed (/usr/local/lib/X11/modules/dri/radeon_dri.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
(II) AIGLX: Screen 0 is not DRI capable
I guess this is because Xorg-7.6-3d is not loaded - what does the following give:
Code: [Select]
$ ldd /usr/local/lib/X11/modules/dri/radeon_dri.so | grep found
I forget the exact format required in xorg.conf to change the resolution from 1024x768 to 800x600, but you should find an example in these forums or the xorg man pages.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 15, 2014, 09:35:56 PM
Something like this perhaps:
Code: [Select]
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device     "Card0"
Monitor    "LVDS"
SubSection "Display"
Depth     24
Modes     "800x600"
EndSubSection
EndSection
..but googling on xorg.conf and "ATI Radeon Mobility M7 LW (AGP)" is probably better
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: cast-fish on November 16, 2014, 03:44:00 AM
yes Juanto

thanks for your continued interest...

i will try the 3D version maybe...

i wonder why it's limiting VRAM to 25 megs when the card
has 64 megs

Also you notes of screen rez...is exactly what i already tried
but doing a text boot the way you described and pulling down
the drivers and starting the gui up means i can't find an Xorg conf
file....the one i did find in etc x11 would not let me EDIT it......permissions denied

when i dropped down back to the text prompt became a super user
and ran "Xorg -configure" it gave outputs and an error at the saying
screen amounts do not match the amount of screens available etc

this above activity generated a file calld Xorg.conf.new which again
could not be edited...

Vince.
Title: Re: graphics cards and chips
Post by: Juanito on November 16, 2014, 05:05:35 AM
you need root privileges to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

You can start whatever text editor you're using as root by using the running man icon, entering your text editor name and checking the "run with sudo" box.

Alternately you can use "sudo vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf" from a terminal window.