Linux - video driver for old computer.

[GraemeM]

Alright well my Linux installation is going half decent so far, but now I have a problem with video. The refresh rate is decent, but everything is blurry and it won't go above 800x600.

The problem is that the computer is an old PIII 700mhz with onboard vidoe and I have no idea what video driver I need to download. Any ideas how I could find this out or any generic video drivers?

Thanks,
Graeme

[glc]

See if this applies:

http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=162552

[GraemeM]

not really, that post is moreso explaining how to change the resolution, cus I don't think KDE has this option anywhere.

If I use Gnome I found the option to change resolution and it only has 2 listed (800 x 600 being the larger of the two).

Does anyone know a command that will tell me at least what my graphics chip is called, the thing may be too old to find a driver, but at least it's a start?

[glc]

What I'm saying is you may need to edit your xorg.conf file.

[kilgoretrout]

Which distro are you running? Different distros have different graphics configuration utilities available. To find out what graphics adapter you have run this in a console:

$ lspci

The command is available on most distros and lists everything on the pci and agp bus. Look for a line that starts with "VGA compatible controller". You are probably now running with a basic VESA driver which is what most distros default to if they can't figure out what graphics card you have, i.e. that is the generic driver with limited functionality. If you can determine the graphics chipset you may be able to do better.

[GraemeM]

Originally Posted by kilgoretrout Which distro are you running? Different distros have different graphics configuration utilities available. To find out what graphics adapter you have run this in a console: $ lspci The command is available on most distros and lists everything on the pci and agp bus. Look for a line that starts with "VGA compatible controller". You are probably now running with a basic VESA driver which is what most distros default to if they can't figure out what graphics card you have, i.e. that is the generic driver with limited functionality. If you can determine the graphics chipset you may be able to do better.

Okay thanks, It's Suse 10.1 running KDE.

And I'll try that command tomorrow Wednesday, but the graphics card is onboard, so from what you said it doesn't sound like it will work.

[kilgoretrout]

Suse has a pretty sophisticated configuration suite called yast. I'm not that familiar with it but you can try resetting your graphics configuration in there which will probably be easier than hand editing xorg.conf file. You can probably also get a pretty good printout of all your hardware in yast as well in the event that lspci gives you problems.

[GraemeM]

Originally Posted by glc What I'm saying is you may need to edit your xorg.conf file.

but if I don't have the drivers that isn't going to do anything

Originally Posted by kilgoretrout Suse has a pretty sophisticated configuration suite called yast. I'm not that familiar with it but you can try resetting your graphics configuration in there which will probably be easier than hand editing xorg.conf file. You can probably also get a pretty good printout of all your hardware in yast as well in the event that lspci gives you problems.

alrite thanks, I found it in yast.

It's just 82810E CGC (Chipset Graphics Controller)

Of course I can only find Windows drivers for it

So am I just stuck with this horrible looking display? I want to start using Linux more, but all these compatibility prolbems make it really difficult.

[kilgoretrout]

I think that's an intel i810 motherboard with intel integrated graphics. I'm pretty sure there are native linux drivers for that board. See this link:

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-009486.htm

However, don't try to install that driver. The article is old and IIRC those intel graphics drivers are now incorporated in the kernel so no need to go through a complicated install/kernel recompile. The graphics driver module you need to load is "i810". First let's check to see if the driver is already loaded. Open a console and run:

$ su
[enter root password]
# lsmod | grep i810

lsmod lists all modules loaded and the grep part restricts the output to lines containing "i810". If you get nothing the module isn't loaded. Go back to yast and try to designate your graphics card as intel i810. Post back you results and we can go from there.

[GraemeM]

Thanks for your help, the output is:
i2c_i810 4868 0
i2c_algo_bit 8200 1 i2c_i810

Also, for some weird reason when I try to open the graphics card and monitor settings in Yast, the screen just goes blank.

[kilgoretrout]

I think those i2c modules are the drivers for the sensors on the motherboard, not the graphics driver. Here's one thing you can try. Open a console and run:

$ su
[enter root password]
# init 3

That will kill the gui and take you to a command line login. Login as root and then try running:

# Yast2

That is a framebuffer version of yast that runs even in a command line environment. Actually, I'm not sure whether it's "Yast2" or "yast2" and linux is case sensitive so try the other if the first doesn't launch anything. Try resetting your graphics driver to i810 in yast2. It shouldn't crash on you like the yast version in the gui but it's a lot more awkward to use.

[GraemeM]

thanks, that got me into the menu. Although the right graphics card was selected strangely. I tried changing the resolution and that just made things look even worse.

I'm getting ready to give up on this, or maybe i'll try kubuntu instead, see if that makes any difference. But thanks for your help.

[kilgoretrout]

The driver you should be using, i810, is not loading. There could be a lot of reasons for that and you could force it to load and use that driver by hand editing some text configuration files, namely /etc/X11/xorg.conf and /etc/modprobe.preload. If it doesn't work, you will be in a non-gui environment at the command line.

Before doing anything further, I'd try some live cds and see if you get better graphics support. One in particular I would recommend is kanotix as it has some of the best automatic hardware detection I've seen. Go here:

http://kanotix.com/index.php?&newlang=eng

and download "kanotix-2006, easter-rc4" as it's the most recent and pretty solid even though it is labelled a preview release.

[GraemeM]

thanks again

I finally got around to trying that LiveCD and the video looks excellent, so it is something with Suse. I'll try installing Kubuntu in the next couple of days and see if that makes any difference.

[h2s04]

For what it's worth, I have dived into linux full-bore in the last week- installed Ubuntu, then Kubuntu and was able to set my video settings just fine in KDE. I too have an older comp- Optiplex 250 P4 1.6, 512 RAM, onboard video. Pretty sure it is an nVidia of some sort. No editing of the xorg file. KDE is easy that way.

[glc]

It's not quite that easy - I had to edit my xorg.conf to get Kubuntu into the resolution and refresh rate I wanted with a Matrox video card.

[GraemeM]

Thanks for everyone's help.

Anyways I tried Kubuntu and the video works great. It also runs faster. I would suggest avoiding Suse Linux on weaker computers after my expericne

I installed Suse on my home computer and it runs great though.