Another thin client awaits a TC install

[Triophile]

OK, tried again...

One thing first, slightly off-thread: on this machine, with a replacement USB CD drive which throws up none of the error messages generated during boot that the old drive caused, I can still only run the Frugal install successfully under a particular set of circumstances:

1) If the DOM is NTFS formatted, the install will fail, even if I opt to format to ext4
2) If I format the DOM to ext4 with gparted from a live install, the install will fail if I choose the 'Use existing file system' option in the installer
3) The install will only succeed (or appear to succeed) if the DOM is already ext4 formatted, AND I choose to format to ext4 during the installation process.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong, but the hardware always works perfectly with XPe, both during installation and use.

Anyway, back to Xorg. I tried 7.5 with 3d, exited to prompt, 'startx', and got a similar message to the one I mentioned above about 'ERROR: Could not map MMIO area' and 'ERROR: SiSMapMem() failed'. It also said, 'Fatal server error: AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0'
Other error messages listed included: '(EE) Failed to load module "via" (no error, 0)', and the same again for the module "openchrome"
Below those two lines it said, '(++) Using config file: "/root/xorg.conf.new"'

It's late now, but I can post screenshots tomorrow to show all the details. Once this problem has occurred, however, I am no longer able to run a live install - it too fails to the 'tc@box' prompt. In order to get a usable TC, with my limited command line knowledge, I have to reinstall XPe, and then reinstall TC without Xorg. I tried the suggestions above again ('echo Xvesa', etc), and they failed again, so I can't seem to get at the log, unles someone can tell me how to do it via the command line some other way.

Cheers, Jon.

[curaga]

It's at /var/log/Xorg.0.log. Though it just may be that the sis driver is buggy too.

[Triophile]

Sigh, if the driver's buggy, I presume there's nothing I can do about it.

Is there any way to get a look at the log via the command line from the tc@box or root prompts once Xorg has failed to start properly?

Cheers, Jon.

[Rich]

Hi Triophile
Try  less /var/log/Xorg.0.log
PageUp and PageDn to navigate.

[Triophile]

Hi Rich.

Thanks for that. I'll try it when I get back from work later.

Just tried Racy Puppy linux, and that auto-detected the SiS graphics and loaded a SiS driver for Xorg. Seems to work OK, but it's slightly slower in Flash than both TC and XPe, depressingly enough. So far, XPe is the best all-rounder, now that I've uninstalled some useless stuff and turned off some pointless services.

On Puppy, the small graph in the bottom right corner appears to show CPU usage at 50% when playing Flash, so maybe the SiS GFX really are that bad. Still, I get the feeling that TC with a functional driver could make all the difference :-) Here's hoping!

Cheers, Jon.

[curaga]

Sadly, you likely wouldn't get much better performance on TC if the sis driver is like that on Puppy.

[Triophile]

Might still be wortha go, curaga, says he desperately :-)

+1 to Rich - I have the log.
-1 to me for not knowing how to copy and paste from the command line. Apologies for the formatting, as the parts of the log appear in four separate posts:



Just hope there's nothing in there that means I have no option but to add a PCI graphics card.

Cheers, Jon.

[Triophile]

Xorg log Pt2

[Triophile]

Xorg log Pt3

[Triophile]

Xorg log Pt4

[Rich]

Hi Triophile
Next time try this:

Code: [Select]

ls /mnt
# Plug in a USB thumb and wait 10 seconds
ls /mnt
# Make a note of the new directory entry
sudo mount /dev/NewEntry /mnt/NewEntry
cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log /mnt/NewEntry
umount /mnt/NewEntryNow you will have the log file on your USB drive. The lines starting with # are just comments, do not
type them. Replace where it says  NewEntry  with the new name that shows up the second time you
run the  ls /mnt  command.

[curaga]

OK, looks like the latest released sis driver has this bug, but the git version would not. The git ver would require newer libpciaccess than we have in Xorg-7.6 though.

[curaga]

Please try the updated sis driver (with Xorg-7.6). If it works, good, if not, nothing more I can do.

[Triophile]

I re-installed TC and downloaded Xorg 7.6 again just now, and no luck - same old same old.

I'll put this 5720 back on eBay and keep an eye out for a 5730, as that has ATI X1250 graphics, which I hope will do a better job of Flash replay under Xvesa.

Thanks for all the help and input guys - much appreciated.

Cheers, Jon.

[Triophile]

Heh, heh. Just fired up some old parts from the spares bin, and the performance couldn't be more different: old MSI MS-7184 mobo with a socket-939 Athlon 64 at 2GHz and 512MB of DDR RAM. The HDD's from a PS3, and only half formatted as it has some bad sectors.

Works very well with TC straight out of the box - streaming 720p Flash is slightly choppy, but once it's 100% buffered, replay is good with the built-in ATI graphics. Averages about 60watts from the wall socket playing Flash, which is slightly more than double what the T5720 used, but it's soooo much faster all round. Might have to try and box it up, as I treated myself to a Dremel a month ago and haven't really put it to proper use yet making a custom case.

Cheers, Jon.