[oi-dev] Error from the vesa driver (Was: libdrm-2.4.75 is too old)

[Gary Mills]

On Wed, Jun 03, 2020 at 09:43:15PM -0500, Gary Mills wrote:
> 
> It's actually the int10 sub-module of the vesa driver that failed.
> Xorg always tries two video drivers.  The first is a vendor-specific
> driver.  If that driver rejects the video device, Xorg falls back to
> the vesa driver.  This driver should always work because it uses a
> standard BIOS built-in to the video device.  In this case, the vesa
> driver fails, leaving no working driver, and of course no graphics.
> 
> As a test, I installed an old Nvidia card (GT-730) in the system.
> Everything worked.  I got the graphic desktop including the GUI
> installer.  In this case, the nvidia driver was able to support the
> card.  The vesa driver was not needed at all.
> 
> I'm guessing that the vesa driver does not handle 64-bit PCI-E
> addresses correctly.  Certainly 31-bit variables are too short.  Does
> anyone know if this problem has been fixed in a later version of the
> int10 sub-module?  Fixing this problem should make the vesa driver
> work with the Intel built-in graphics device, or with other devices
> that use long addresses.

I found that I had to enable CSM (BIOS emulation) in the BIOS setup
before the disk on which I had installed OI showed up in the boot
menu.  After that change, it booted normally and gave me the usual
desktop GUI on the Nvidia device, using the nvidia driver.

I just tried another test: I changed the BIOS setup to make the
built-in Intel graphics the primary video device.  When I rebooted the
system, it came up with the desktop GUI on the Intel device, using the
vesa driver.  There was no error from the vesa driver this time.

With a bit more experimentation, I discovered that I only get the
error from the vesa driver when I boot the USB image in UEFI mode with
CSM disabled.  Even when I boot it in UEFI mode with CSM enabled, I
get the desktop GUI on the Intel device.  With CSM enabled, the USB
image shows up twice in the boot menu, once marked with UEFI and once
without.  

I was wrong about that error from the vesa driver.  It's only when the
image is booted without a system BIOS available that it reports the
error and quits, leaving the console in text mode.


-- 
-Gary Mills-		-refurb-		-Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada-