Intel/i915 issues

kahrn · 2012-02-18 16:08:39

Hi all,

I have been having a lot of trouble getting my Intel video to work under Arch (and other distros) and was wondering if anyone could point me in the right direction.

Originally, running under the 3.x kernel was giving me huge issues -- I couldn't boot, and when I finally managed to load the driver it would mess with my USB bus causing my mouse to lag, or anything I plugged into the USB. Without adding i915.broken=1 I was unable to even get a console login.

I have downgraded to 2.6.33.20 and it seems a lot more stable. No USB issues and I am able to login, etc..
Now I'm trying to load the intel drivers and also have Xorg use them. So far I have had no luck.

$ modprobe i915
FATAL: Module i915 not found.

Everytime I try to load it, it does not load. I have xf86-video-intel installed.

eldragon · 2012-02-18 16:43:20

modules are kernel domain.

i915 is a kernel module, provided by your kernel, so how did you get to boot with 2.6.33 ? did you build it yourself? check with makemenuconfig if i915 is being built as a module or into the kernel.

whats your hardware? intel i915 has been really stable as of late here. but this is an older chipset (945gm)

post lspci to see what you actually have.

karol · 2012-02-18 16:46:51

Have you rebooted after changing (upgrading / downgrading) your kernel?

kahrn · 2012-02-18 16:55:07

Interesting, taking a look at `make menuconfig`.. When I go to Device Drivers -> Graphics Support -> Direct Rendering Manager... Intel is NOT checked at all. Is this potentially the problem? Forgive my lack of knowledge about how the kernel works!

lspci

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Memory Controller Hub (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 09)
00:1a.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 03)
00:1a.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) HD Audio Controller (rev 03)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 03)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 2 (rev 03)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) PCI Express Port 3 (rev 03)
00:1d.0 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1d.1 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 03)
00:1d.2 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 03)
00:1d.3 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 (rev 03)
00:1d.7 USB controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 (rev 03)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev 93)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation ICH9M LPC Interface Controller (rev 03)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801IBM/IEM (ICH9M/ICH9M-E) 4 port SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 03)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 03)
04:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR928X Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)
05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR8132 Fast Ethernet (rev c0)

hwinfo --gfxcard

08: PCI 02.0: 0300 VGA compatible controller (VGA)
  [Created at pci.319]
  Unique ID: _Znp.Bg2Pelut2yD
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.0
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x2a42 "Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller"
  SubVendor: pci 0x1025 "Acer Incorporated [ALI]"
  SubDevice: pci 0x0212 
  Revision: 0x09
  Memory Range: 0xd0000000-0xd03fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Memory Range: 0xc0000000-0xcfffffff (rw,prefetchable)
  I/O Ports: 0x50f0-0x50f7 (rw)
  IRQ: 11 (no events)
  I/O Ports: 0x3c0-0x3df (rw)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00002A42sv00001025sd00000212bc03sc00i00"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

09: PCI 02.1: 0380 Display controller
  [Created at pci.319]
  Unique ID: ruGf.i6Q1YbBYKZ3
  SysFS ID: /devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.1
  SysFS BusID: 0000:00:02.1
  Hardware Class: graphics card
  Model: "Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller"
  Vendor: pci 0x8086 "Intel Corporation"
  Device: pci 0x2a43 "Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics Controller"
  SubVendor: pci 0x1025 "Acer Incorporated [ALI]"
  SubDevice: pci 0x0212 
  Revision: 0x09
  Memory Range: 0xd3400000-0xd34fffff (rw,non-prefetchable)
  Module Alias: "pci:v00008086d00002A43sv00001025sd00000212bc03sc80i00"
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown

Primary display adapter: #8

Edit: Karol -- Yes, I have rebooted.

Last edited by kahrn (2012-02-18 16:56:47)

Gusar · 2012-02-18 17:14:50

kahrn wrote:

Forgive my lack of knowledge about how the kernel works!

Considering you're compiling your own kernel, such things are actually not forgivable. You *should* know very well what you're doing. You need I915_DRM and I915_DRM_KMS=y

Last edited by Gusar (2012-02-18 17:21:54)

karol · 2012-02-18 17:17:54

Gusar wrote:

kahrn wrote:
Forgive my lack of knowledge about how the kernel works!
Considering you're compiling your own kernel

I may be wrong, but A.R.M. still has kernels that old, so he might be using the stock Arch one.

Gusar · 2012-02-18 17:21:32

karol wrote:

I may be wrong, but A.R.M. still has kernels that old, so he might be using the stock Arch one.

Hmm, that the official Arch kernel would not have i915? I very much doubt that. Also, if you check the highest 2.6.33 Arch had was 2.6.33.4

karol · 2012-02-18 17:25:20

@Gusar
Ah indeed, I've focused on the '2.6.33' part. Sorry.

@kahrn
Reading https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … ompilation should help.

eldragon · 2012-02-18 17:30:29

getting back on topic, yes, you need your kernel module built for your kernel, either as a module or compiled in. ( choosing Y vs Choosing M)

i see no problem in compiling in the kernel module since its likely you will not use any other display driver.

hardware drivers come in the form of kernel modules, usually the kernel source includes these modules for you to pick. most distros distribute all display drivers as modules so that many different configurations can work with the same kernel module. (they get loaded as needed by udev).

still, on the topic at hand, i would suggest building kernel 3.3-rc3 instead of rolling to an older kernel. and if you feel confident enough. find which kernel version starts breaking your system (if 3.3-rc3 doesnt work for you either). so that you can find what is going on, and maybe have the problem fixed.

good luck!

EDIT: a good idea is to just use the config file for the arch stock kernel

Last edited by eldragon (2012-02-18 17:36:24)

kahrn · 2012-02-18 17:41:47

Gusar wrote:

kahrn wrote:
Forgive my lack of knowledge about how the kernel works!
Considering you're compiling your own kernel, such things are actually not forgivable. You *should* know very well what you're doing. You need I915_DRM and I915_DRM_KMS=y

While my knowledge of exactly how the kernel works, and how the kernel utilizes modules is pretty basic, I'm still learning. I was under the impression that when I run

zcat /proc/config.gz > .config

It would preserve my config from the original Arch kernel. I was merely following the guide over at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … raditional. I was under the assumption that I would be keeping the same config, and thus the same drivers and settings would have been carried over. Why is it that the Intel modules were disabled?

eldragon wrote:

getting back on topic, yes, you need your kernel module built for your kernel, either as a module or compiled in. ( choosing Y vs Choosing M)...

Thanks for the advice. I am going to continue compiling my new 2.6.x kernel, and if I can get it to work then I may consider using a 3.x kernel in the future. I have a few additional problems when attempting to run the 3.x kernel relating to being unable to use my mouse and keyboard at the same time, and the same issues I'm having right now with video.

kahrn · 2012-02-19 20:08:59

Hi all,

I can confim I have managed to solve my problem by downgrading my kernel to 2.6.33.20 and making a few changes to my rc.conf.

rc.conf

MODULES=(intel_agp drm i915)

/etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf

options i915 modeset=1

I have compiled kernel 3.2 and attempted to get it to work with no luck so far. I will take a look at some previous versions and see if I can figure out why/where things started to go wrong.

Thanks,
Ricky

Last edited by kahrn (2012-02-20 01:49:15)

karol · 2012-02-19 20:16:24

Are you getting any errors about 'i915.modeset=1'? It's a kernel commandline argument, not a module.

kahrn · 2012-02-20 01:49:51

karol wrote:

Are you getting any errors about 'i915.modeset=1'? It's a kernel commandline argument, not a module.

Previous post has been corrected/edited.

kahrn · 2012-02-21 19:18:14

Just thought I would post an update.. I have booted with kernel 2.6.39.4 and various 3.x kernels and the problem persists.

I have attempted to modify the backlight using the command "vbetool dpms on", but this only works in my working kernel (2.6.33.20 or lower). I have also attempted to change the backlight using setpci, which also fails in the newer kernels I have tried.

I'm going to take a look at a few more kernels and see if they work, specifically 2.6.36 and 2.6.37 and see where the problem occurs -- unless anybody has any more advice.

Thanks.

kahrn · 2012-02-22 21:57:49

Ok, I have checked kernel 2.6.36 and kernel 2.6.37 and it seems the bug was introduced in 2.6.37.

I'm not entirely sure what to do at this point. Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction? Perhaps I need to file a bug report some other place..? I have attempted quite a few fixes and none seem to have worked.

Thanks again.

kahrn · 2012-03-14 10:48:18

I have recently had some success with kernel 3.2.10, released a few days ago. Using setpci with this kernel seems to work, although that is not ideal for the following reasons:

Backlight controls (xbacklight, etc) remain useless.. Which means the display cannot be dimmed.
The display is still off until /etc/rc.local is finished executing.
If the display is switched off/disabled by ACPI (for instance, display timeout, etc.. then it is not possible to switch it back on.

If anyone has any workarounds for the above solutions, please let me know. Thanks again.

Arch Linux

#1 2012-02-18 16:08:39

Intel/i915 issues

#2 2012-02-18 16:43:20

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#3 2012-02-18 16:46:51

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#4 2012-02-18 16:55:07

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#5 2012-02-18 17:14:50

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#6 2012-02-18 17:17:54

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#7 2012-02-18 17:21:32

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#8 2012-02-18 17:25:20

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#9 2012-02-18 17:30:29

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#10 2012-02-18 17:41:47

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#11 2012-02-19 20:08:59

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#12 2012-02-19 20:16:24

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#13 2012-02-20 01:49:51

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#14 2012-02-21 19:18:14

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#15 2012-02-22 21:57:49

Re: Intel/i915 issues

#16 2012-03-14 10:48:18

Re: Intel/i915 issues

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