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#1 2016-04-20 16:08:11

130339
Member
Registered: 2016-04-20
Posts: 2

Installation hangs on old VIA Nehemiah board with 256-MB

Hi,

This might be a lost cause, but I thought I'd ask before giving up on this board.

The board is an OEM Gigabyte GA-PCV2-CSI/DSI with a VIA Centaur Nehemiah processor and 256-MB of ram.  The only reason I'm looking at this is because it's in a rackmount case.

The problem is that the installation hangs just before the login prompt, around the time that the screen changes resolution.

The last messages on the screen are

[  OK  ] Started udev Coldpluyg all devices.
[  OK  ] Created slice system-dhcpd.slice.
[   47.543074] longhaul: Option "enable" not set. Aborting.
[   48.536443] via-ircc 0000:00:11.0: can't enable device: BAR 13 [io  size 0x0080] not assigned
[  OK  ] Reached target Sound Card.

The screen resolution resets just after the via-ircc and before "Reached target sound card"

I haven't been able to find a way to stop the resolution from changing to eliminate the mode switch as the cause.  Is there a kernel boot parameter to run in plain 80x25 console?

So, is there any way to prevent the screen from switching resolutions?

Edit: I've been able to interrupt the boot process by adding systemd.unit=emergency.target to the kernel line.  I'm able to get a root prompt and I can check everything out.  As soon as I hit CTRL+D (or execute systemctl default) the screen changes resolution and hangs.

Last edited by 130339 (2016-04-20 20:00:11)

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#2 2016-04-21 03:46:47

pypi
Wiki Maintainer
Registered: 2014-04-22
Posts: 250

Re: Installation hangs on old VIA Nehemiah board with 256-MB

When you say that the "installation hangs", are you booting off a cdrom, or a previously created Arch install?
Looking at the wiki, you could try modprobing the viafb module, which should trigger the modeset. Otherwise, you can blacklist that module, but I'm unsure as to how that works from an emergency shell.

I can't imagine that board performing well, but it would be interesting if you get it going!

EDIT: Searching around suggests that vt8623fb may be loaded by default instead of viafb. You could try both...

Last edited by pypi (2016-04-21 03:50:40)

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#3 2016-04-21 12:05:21

130339
Member
Registered: 2016-04-20
Posts: 2

Re: Installation hangs on old VIA Nehemiah board with 256-MB

Thank-you!  I have login!

It tried `modprobe viafb` and hung the system!

I referenced https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ke … acklisting and on the next reboot, in the emergency shell, I created /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf containing "install viafb /bin/true" (/bin/false doesn't exist in the installer media) and was able to get to the login prompt and I can get started with learning ArchLinux.

As for the install, I'm actually PXE booting from NFS (with copytoram=n because it only has 256-MB).  This system doesn't have a CD-ROM and it only has USB 1.0 ports and takes forever to boot.

Where did you find the modeset?  I was trying to learn about how systemd starts up the system (first exposure to systemd too) but never found that.

Thank-you very much!

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#4 2016-04-21 12:22:03

Lone_Wolf
Member
From: Netherlands, Europe
Registered: 2005-10-04
Posts: 11,868

Re: Installation hangs on old VIA Nehemiah board with 256-MB

the resolution switch is NOT done by systemd, but by the linux kernel that enables Kernel Mode Setting at that point.

There's a simple way to disable KMS if needed :

add VGA=r as kernel parameter .

r designates a console text mode and can have several values . r=0 gives 80x25 display.


Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.


(A works at time B)  && (time C > time B ) ≠  (A works at time C)

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#5 2016-04-21 21:50:53

pypi
Wiki Maintainer
Registered: 2014-04-22
Posts: 250

Re: Installation hangs on old VIA Nehemiah board with 256-MB

Glad to have been able to help!

As Lone_Wolf notes, mode setting is done when loading the kernel module, by the kernel module - I'm not sure where I got that from, probably from experiments with getting a "nice" screen resolution early for splash screens.

Remember to mark the thread as solved big_smile

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