Fails to write out sync ranges on G3 iBook video (ati rage 128)

I had similar behaviour on a Thinkpad A22p with an ATI Rage 128 video card with the Flight-4 Live CD. The display was very messed up and unusable.

I compared the xorg.conf file from Dapper with my Breezy version and the significant differences are that the Horizontal Sync and Vertical Refresh are
missing.

86,87d77
< HorizSync 28-80
< VertRefresh 43-60

Breezy was also loading GLCore
32d29
< Load "GLcore"

I booted the live Dapper FLight-4 CD. Went to a virtual console. Modified
the xorg.conf file to contain the above 2 parameters and load "GLCore". Killed
X via the command line and it worked fine

I tried this again and found I needed to go into VGA at boot time and select
1600x1200x24 to be able to get to the virtual console.
This time I only set the HorizSync and VertRefresh and it worked.

I've upgraded this problem to major since the desktop is unusable without this fix.

 Might be the same issue as Bug #29992.

Can somebody please confirm that it is still the case with Flight5?

Fabio

Yes. Still the case. I only booted it to see if it was still the case.
I didn't check the xorg.conf file - just assumed it was the same. I've been hoping to get a chance to look into it properly.

I have had a good look at this with the Flight5 Live CD. The same behaviour as before. The xorg.conf is generated without HorizSync and VertRefresh. I've been running Flight5 with the persistent kernel option and a USB memory stick. So I upgraded xserver-xorg to 7.0.0-0ubuntu23 and the problem still occured.

After that here is what I did

1. Booted with VGA option 1600x1200x24 (and persistent)
2. Broken X display finished rendering
3. Got virtual console
4. Edit xorg.conf and put in HorizSync and VertRefresh.
5. ps -ef | grep X and kill the process

X is fine and Dapper completely usable.

Then on another box I looked at the Live CD and worked out how it works. I unpacked the initrd cpio arechive and followed on the configuration stuff through.

It calls

dpkg-reconfigure -fnoninteractive xserver-xorg

After experimenting without -fnoninteractive and using the medium option and setting the monitor config to 1600x1200@60Hz I ended up with an xorg.conf file that worked fine (had HorizSync and VertRefresh settings - and they worked fine).

With the -fnoninteractive option the xorg.config file was generated without the HorizSync and VertRefresh settings.

Maybe this bug should be refiled under a Subject like
"No HorizSync and VertRefresh for ati rage 128 on live CD"

Had also updated the xserver-xorg-driver-ati to 6.5.7.3-0ubuntu3

Witht he Flight 5 LiveCD, my iBook 2 Rev. 2 (600MHz 16VRAM) only starts at 640x480 as well. By running "sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" from Terminal (in Gnome) and letting it detecht the hardware go to write a good xorg.conf file. Then I restarted the Xserver with "Ctrl-Opt-Del" and it came back up in 1024x768.

I made a about it and other problems here: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=867294&postcount=43

I verify that I have the same problem when installing the 2006-03-29 daily builds of Ubuntu and Kubuntu with my 12" iBook G3-500. My friend's 15" iBook G3-800 does NOT, oddly enough, with a build from a couple weeks ago.

Adding the line
HorizSync 28-49
to the "Montior" section of xorg.conf fixes the problem.

This is discussed in Bug #27254 and mentioned in Bug #26938

I just booted the Flight 6 LiveCD (iBook 500 Rage128), and the issue is still there. Poorly mapped 1/3 of the screen is all that's viewable.

Running sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg and specifying the horizontal refresh rate to 28-49 fixed the issue.

I spent some time looking at this and following the config script for Dapper and Breezy.

I ran it with DEBUG_XORG_DEBCONF=1 and DEBCONF_DEBUG="developer"

It is detecting the ranges but not writing them out

debconf (developer): <-- GET xserver-xorg/config/monitor/horiz-sync
debconf (developer): --> 0 28-80
debconf (developer): <-- GET xserver-xorg/config/monitor/vert-refresh
debconf (developer): --> 0 43-60
debconf (developer): <-- GET xserver-xorg/config/monitor/use_sync_ranges
debconf (developer): --> 0

I suspect this is because xserver-xorg/config/monitor/use_sync_ranges

is off. It is on in Breezy. I read somewhere that xserver-xorg/config/monitor/use_sync_ranges controls whether the sync ranges are written to the config file.

However, that setting would be off on all boxes.... Admitedly, I have only tried The Dapper flights on the A22p.

I haven't worked the preseeding out yet (if there is a way of doing it without building up a CD image).

I'll attach the log of the reconfigure and the debconf-show.

Log of noninteractive reconfigure of the the package

debconf-show output of the xserver-xorg package

Found the bug and fixed in my local tree. Will upload today :)

The fix has been uploaded (by Fabio). Please test when you get a chance. Thanks.

- Henrik

It doesn't help in the case of the Thinkpad A22P (Intel hardware) as describe above.

1. Booted with Flight-6
2. Put the ranges in the xorg.conf file
3. upgraded to the 7.0.0-0ubuntu27 version.

Then ran dpkg-reconfigure -fnoninteractive xserver-xorg like the live
CD would. The new config file has no ranges.
I had set dpkg-reconfigure -fnoninteractive xserver-xorg as above and compared the output of the log with the previous one. No differences apart from version numbers.

Is the fact that dpkg-reconfigure -fnoninteractive xserver-xorg is 0 a clue?

The bug is about powerpc hw and you are reporting another bug into the wrong one making this one just a complete mess. Please report it into a new one.

Fabio

I tested the daily install for 20060408 and it did not work. It still had the same problem. Perhaps the change hasn't hit the daily CD yet. Anyway, I'll try again at the next dapper flight release.

Would it be possible for someone to post their fully working xorg.conf file for their 600mhz rage based ibook...I can't seem to get the thing to work properly at all with the built in lcd.

I have taken Fabio's advice and reported this as Bug #39762.

I tested using Dapper Beta and the problem still exists.

Can those still having the problem please generate a log of a noninteractive dpkg-reconfigure and post it here with your /etc/X11/xorg.conf xorg. You'll need to set
DEBUG_XORG_DEBCONF=1 and
DEBCONF_DEBUG="developer"

I've attached a reconf.sh script that outlines the steps for you. It will
1. Saves you xorg.conf file
2. Sets the environment variables
3. Copies back your original xorg.conf file
4. Tell you the names of the files to upload. I've added the scripts pid to the file names so that all your file names (hopefully) won't conflict

The script assumes you have sudo set up.

Script showing how to generate dpkg-reconfigure log.

I installed Kubuntu Dapper Final 6.06 LTS live CD and the correct resolution was detected in both the live environment and installed environment. BUG IS FIXED!!!