help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

sas · 2010-02-12 16:08:03

I had a fine Arch Linux system running on my Laptop, until yesterday's package upgrade - which pulled in xf86-video-intel-2.10.0-1. For some reason, this new version of the intel video driver now requires kernel modesetting being enabled. This puts me in the following peculiar situation:

- without the -nomodeset boot option, the screen turns blank at udev initialization and stays that way until reboot, making Arch unusable (see this thread)
- with the -nomodeset boot option, X now refuses to start due to the new intel video driver complaining about missing KMS
- the xf86-video-fbdev driver doesn't work, either
- the xf86-video-intel-stable driver from AUR fails to compile altogether
- I don't have an older binary of xf86-video-intel in my /var/cache/pacman anymore, either

So I have three questions now:

1) What other option do I have now to get a running Arch Linux system again?

2) Why on earth doesn't Arch Linux keep at least one stable/legacy version for such important and at the same time fragile/error-prone packages as the intel video driver in its official repos?

3) Who on earth decided to drop support for non-KMS-mode from the intel video driver? Was this an upstream decision, or do the Arch devs just not care about users for whom KMS doesn't work? (And the *are* many such users, see the link above...)

Last edited by sas (2010-06-23 18:52:24)

barzam · 2010-02-12 16:34:35

1) install the old intel driver, it is found in /var/cache/pacman/pkg and blacklist the package in pacman.conf, that way you can have a working system again. What did you do to remove the cached version? If I bet someone can mail it to you or maybe you can do a forum search for places to get older packages.

2) Maybe you should try Debian stable if that's what you need.

3) I'm sure it was an upstream decision.

sas · 2010-02-12 18:11:14

barzam wrote:

1) What did you do to remove the cached version?

"rm /var/cache/pacman/pkg/*" is what I did... Disk space was running out, and many gigabytes of packages had accumulated there...

barzam wrote:

If I bet someone can mail it to you or maybe you can do a forum search for places to get older packages.

Ok, I did a search, and finally I managed to download xf86-video-intel-2.9.1-1 from an out-of-sync mirror and downgraded to that... Everything works again...

barzam wrote:

2) Maybe you should try Debian stable if that's what you need.

No, that's *not* what I'm asking for, no need for sarcasm.
I like the rolling-release approach...
But *sometimes*, you *do* want to downgrade a specific package, and it would be nice if Arch would makes this possible without forcing you to go dumpster diving in out of sync mirror archives or some other ridiculously hackish approch (at least for a select set of critical packages, like the kernel and important drivers).

Edit: fixed quote

Last edited by sas (2010-02-12 22:20:11)

hatten · 2010-02-12 18:29:16

Vesa?

atordo · 2010-02-12 21:04:25

Just had the "no screens found" error with the last xf86-video-intel. I decided to give KMS another chance and enabled it, so far so good.

Nevertheless I keep all old related packages. Updating with an Intel graphics card is a risky sport these days.

sas · 2010-02-12 22:15:53

hatten wrote:

Vesa?

Didn't work either... X did run without complaining, but the screen stayed blank... On switching back to TTY and then back to X, it would show something for a split second, before turning blank again.

By the way, in found that fbdev actually did work with a fluxbox session (but not openbox), only everything looked unsharp/hazy and it looked like only 256 color mode or something and also the colors values were messed up in various places. But still not totally unusable.

Anyhow, with the old intel driver, everything works perfectly.

I just hope that KMS will be fixed to work with my hardware, before that old intel driver becomes incompatible with the rest of Arch...

jowilkin · 2010-02-12 22:23:44

Check out the arch rollback machine for your out of date package needs, I can always find what I need to downgrade there: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dow … er_Version

Also if your package cache is getting too large, consider using pacman -Sc to clean it out instead of removing everything with rm. pacman -Sc will leave the version of installed packages in the cache and remove everything else.

bjgordon · 2010-03-05 01:51:15

Just wanted to add I've got the same problem with fresh install of arch. Couldnt get KMS to work ( integrated Intel 945GME - always got a blank screen), so followed you and downgraded to xf86-video-intel-2.9.1-1 to get X to work.

sas · 2010-03-05 09:59:43

bjgordon wrote:

Just wanted to add I've got the same problem with fresh install of arch. Couldnt get KMS to work ( integrated Intel 945GME - always got a blank screen), so followed you and downgraded to xf86-video-intel-2.9.1-1 to get X to work.

Be sure to add xf86-video-intel to the IgnorePkg list in /etc/pacman.conf so that pacman doesn't undo your downgrade on every system upgrade...

Btw, if someone finds a way to get KMS to work on a Computer (with onboard Intel graphics chipset) where it doesn't work out of the box, please share your solution...

Proofrific · 2010-03-06 04:26:01

I have the same problem with Intel KMS on a Thinkpad T61. I also reverted back to version 2.9.1-1 and added to IgnorePkg. I wonder how many other people have this problem.

bostonvaulter · 2010-03-22 04:22:12

FWIW I had the same problem as you guys also, downgrading to xf86-video-intel-2.9.1-1 worked for me. Although I am 90% sure that I had KMS working for a while.

ngoonee · 2010-03-22 05:17:45

sas wrote:

barzam wrote:
2) Maybe you should try Debian stable if that's what you need.
No, that's *not* what I'm asking for, no need for sarcasm.
I like the rolling-release approach...
But *sometimes*, you *do* want to downgrade a specific package, and it would be nice if Arch would makes this possible without forcing you to go dumpster diving in out of sync mirror archives or some other ridiculously hackish approch (at least for a select set of critical packages, like the kernel and important drivers).

Quite odd that sarcasm is replied to with sarcasm .

Arch provides an easy way to downgrading, its called a package cache. If the user decides to empty that cache without making sure he won't need any of the packages there, all power to him. Its his system after all.

Ber · 2010-03-22 16:02:36

One quick work-around would have been to simply rebuild your kernel without the "Use KMS by default on intel" option selected...

.:B:. · 2010-03-22 16:56:56

KMS can be disabled on the fly. Just add modeset=0 to your GRUB config. All there's to it...

Rebuilding a kernel just for this is a bit of a waste of time . And it's certainly not quick .

bostonvaulter · 2010-03-22 19:02:03

.:B:. wrote:

KMS can be disabled on the fly. Just add modeset=0 to your GRUB config. All there's to it...
Rebuilding a kernel just for this is a bit of a waste of time . And it's certainly not quick .

But if you're using xf86-video-intel-2.10.0-1 you need to use KMS. At least as far as I can tell.

.:B:. · 2010-03-22 19:34:04

It seems your right... Kinda sucks.

On the other hand, seems modeset is still a module parameter, so it might work. Surely worth trying, at least:

[stijn@hermes ~]$ modinfo i915|grep parm
parm:           modeset:int
parm:           fbpercrtc:int
parm:           powersave:int
parm:           lvds_downclock:int

Ber · 2010-03-23 14:23:05

.:B:. wrote:

KMS can be disabled on the fly. Just add modeset=0 to your GRUB config. All there's to it...
Rebuilding a kernel just for this is a bit of a waste of time . And it's certainly not quick .

it depends, when doing it 5 times a week it can be become quite quick..

but you're totally right that adding a boot option is anyway quicker, I just didn't know the exact option for drivers other than mine (i915) and I didn't have time to find it, so I just shut up

EDIT : anyway it's useless in our case, should have read everything before replying. Maybe a package on AUR with UMS included could help?

Last edited by Ber (2010-03-23 14:27:10)

sas · 2010-06-23 18:52:01

Yay, problem finally solved!

After today's package upgrade, modesetting works on my Laptop for the first time, and hence I can use the newest versions of the xorg Intel driver again...
(In fact I have to, 'cause the old non-modesetting xf86-video-intel-2.9.1-1 doesn't seem to work with the new xorg-server 1.8, but who cares, now that it's not needed anymore.)

In case anybody else is still affected by this, maybe the newest "kernel + xorg + xf86-video-intel" combination will work for you too, give it a try...

Proofrific · 2010-06-23 22:46:03

sas wrote:

Yay, problem finally solved!
After today's package upgrade, modesetting works on my Laptop for the first time, and hence I can use the newest versions of the xorg Intel driver again...
(In fact I have to, 'cause the old non-modesetting xf86-video-intel-2.9.1-1 doesn't seem to work with the new xorg-server 1.8, but who cares, now that it's not needed anymore.)
In case anybody else is still affected by this, maybe the newest "kernel + xorg + xf86-video-intel" combination will work for you too, give it a try...

It works for me, now, too! Yay! I'm now using:

kernel26-2.6.34-2
xorg-server-1.8.1.902-1
xf86-video-intel-2.11.0-2

Arch Linux

#1 2010-02-12 16:08:03

help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#2 2010-02-12 16:34:35

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#3 2010-02-12 18:11:14

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#4 2010-02-12 18:29:16

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#5 2010-02-12 21:04:25

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#6 2010-02-12 22:15:53

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#7 2010-02-12 22:23:44

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#8 2010-03-05 01:51:15

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#9 2010-03-05 09:59:43

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#10 2010-03-06 04:26:01

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#11 2010-03-22 04:22:12

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#12 2010-03-22 05:17:45

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#13 2010-03-22 16:02:36

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#14 2010-03-22 16:56:56

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#15 2010-03-22 19:02:03

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#16 2010-03-22 19:34:04

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#17 2010-03-23 14:23:05

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#18 2010-06-23 18:52:01

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

#19 2010-06-23 22:46:03

Re: help - doesn't Arch support my computer anymore? [solved]

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