DRI-Problem with X on Thinpad T21 (was: "Re: Blank screen after using X")

[Christian Walther]

Hi there,

I poked around a bit, changing several settings and the modules to be
loaded in xorg.conf. It turns out that the error is caused by DRI. I'm
pretty sure I tried this before...
So, disabling DRI by commenting out the module in xorg.conf makes X
behave correctly, I can start and stop it without any problems.

But of course I would like to use DRI on my Laptop, should give a
speed bump, especially since I'm interested in using blender.

So, is there anybody out there who could give some advice of what to do?
I changed my kernel configuration so that drm and savagedrm are part
of it, no need for a module. But this doesn't anything, too (didn't
expect it to change anything, but anyway, it was worth a try...)

Regards
Christian


On 16/11/06, Ian Smith <smithi at nimnet.asn.au> wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Nov 2006, Christian Walther wrote:
>
>  > I edited /etc/sysctl.conf and /boot/loader.conf, adding the
>  > parameter/values you've given me, and rebooted the machine afterwards,
>  > but it didn't change anything.
>
> They might regarding suspend/resume video, but no, not for this one ..
>
>  > As long as X is running, I can switch between the text consoles and X
>  > without any problem. But as soon as I quit X the screen wents black
>  > and is unusable until I do a cold boot.
>  > I can switch to a console and start X again, thou, but the text
>  > consoles remain unusable.
>
> Sorry, I was mistaken .. I've still got this problem too.  Once I got
> suspend/resume going I hadn't quit X in more than a month.  Tonight I
> did, to check, and there was the blank screen again.
>
> So I resorted to my old workaround, which may also work for you; I just
> type 'fixme' at the unseen vty prompt:
>
> t23# cat ~/bin/fixme
> #!/bin/sh
> # strangely enough, this invalid mode restores vttyX with the error message:
> # vidcontrol: cannot activate raster display: Inappropriate ioctl for device
> vidcontrol VESA_800x600
>
> Bizarre, but the only way I found worked, by accident.  Valid vidcontrol
> commands failed to achieve this for me, but I know very little magic ..
>
> Earlier I'd found that setting one vty with 'vidcontrol VGA_80x30'
> before starting X helped if I switched back to that, but only running
> 'fixme' saved me tonight.  It's evil, but sure beats rebooting ..
>
>  > Sorry for repeating the issue, but maybe I mislead you, because this
>  > is just one problem (at least as far as I can tell). Trying to update
>  > to a new BIOS version might a solution, I should check if there is
>  > anything newer available.
>
> If you have access to a windows box to burn the floppies and a USB
> floppy drive, or Windows on the T23, you're set.  I have neither yet.
>
>  > I tried several configuration up to now, there are many location where
>  > you can download them. All of them had the same problem, so I'm not
>  > entirely convinced that this is an X configuration issue. But could
>  > you sent me your configuration, so I can give this a try? If it
>  > doesn't behave as my configuration does I might be able to locate the
>  > problem.
>
> Mailed separately.  At least X hasn't crashed on me yet with that conf.
>
> HTH, Ian
>
>