X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

Wantoast · 2013-08-07 20:48:54

Hi!
I have just finished installing Arch, and now I'm trying to install a graphic interface: I've choosen Openbox without any DE.
I have a Acer Aspire 5750G, which has two video cards:

Intel Corportaion 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller
NVIDIA Corporation GF119M [GeForce GT 520M]

I think X would use Intel as primary card, so I downloaded the "xf86-video-intel" driver and I modified the xinit file adding "exec openbox-session".
The problem is:

If I type "startx" or "xinit" it stops at

 modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'i915': No such device

Then "no screeens found", "server error" and it doesn't open.
So what should I do to make it work?

Thanks in advance!

Last edited by Wantoast (2013-11-02 14:38:06)

cfr · 2013-08-07 22:19:59

Did you follow the Beginners' Guide? In particular, did you follow the section on installing and testing X? If not, start there and post your results.

Is your system up to date (pacman -Syu)? Did you reboot following the kernel upgrade?

Wantoast · 2013-08-09 15:34:51

So:
I've reinstalled Arch, following the guide (installed X,then loaded a test interface) but same result.
"Could not insert 'i915'

I have to say that in order to start Arch I must set "apci=off" or the pc would lock at certain point of the boot. Maybe this is relevant.

Anyway, how can I update the kernel?
And what about updating the system? I read that after the update I should set up some .conf files.
Does an update could really solve the problem?

Thanks again!

EDIT: Kernel is up to date and I have updated the system too. Problem persists.

Last edited by Wantoast (2013-08-09 17:13:04)

ron9 · 2013-08-09 20:07:37

I googled your error and found: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 61#p785061

cfr · 2013-08-09 21:43:39

@ron9,
That thread is rather old. Although it might contain something relevant, I wouldn't bet on it - notice it still talks about the 2.6 kernel series.

Wantoast wrote:

So:
I've reinstalled Arch, following the guide (installed X,then loaded a test interface) but same result.
"Could not insert 'i915'

Are you saying that when you try to start X with twm, you get that error?

Have you tried adding i915 to the MODULES array in mkinitcpio.conf? You would need to regenerate the initramfs and then reboot for the change to be effective. Some people need to load the module early in the boot sequence as they cannot load it later.

Wantoast · 2013-11-02 14:37:22

Well, I'm resuming this quite-old thread becuase after some time spent on Gentoo I decided to try Arch again, but I haven't solved this problem yet.
Anyway, this time I can start X, but only at low resolution. I guess it's just because I've installed the "vesa" driver, which it loads now.
I also tried, as the last post says, to add "i915" in the "MODULES" array and to regenerate initramfs, but it didn't work.

Trying to add resolution settings in xorg.conf.d, or creating xorg.conf leads to the same error that I described in the first post.
What should I do?
Thanks in advance, again.

EDIT: As I thought, removing vesa brings back to the initial problem.

[Maybe this should be moved to the Kernel & Hardware section. I suppose the problem is there.]

Last edited by Wantoast (2013-11-02 15:21:47)

ewaller · 2013-11-02 20:40:34

Moved.

cfr · 2013-11-02 22:29:20

What doesn't work? Regenerating the initramfs? Or do you mean you regenerate that but something else doesn't work?

What is the content of /proc/cmdline?

Make sure you don't have an xorg.conf.

Is the i915 module loaded at all? What happens if you modprobe it?

Wantoast · 2013-11-03 17:14:46

You're right, it wasn't so clear.
What I have is a fresh Arch install with just Xorg and the Intel driver. Startx gives:

 modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'i915': No such device

If I manually modprobe "i915", same thing:

modprobe i915
modprobe: ERROR: could not insert 'i915': No such device

No, there's no xorg.conf and "lsmod" doesn't show i915, so the module isn't loaded.
Looking for something online I found this (from an user who has my same pc), which brings here.
And they say it's a problem related to the "Optimus" Nvidia technology, which can be solved installing Bumblebee.

But, reading the Arch Wiki, it seems to be caused by KMS, instead: the driver needs KMS, KMS needs i915, Arch can't load i915 --> fail.
So I don't get it.

Also, this is the content of that cmdline file:

BOOT_IMAGE=../vmlinuz-linux root=/dev/sda1 rw initrd=../initramfs-linux.img acpi=off

ewaller · 2013-11-03 17:57:21

As a sanity check, what are the output of uname -a and of pacman -Qi linux
??

Wantoast · 2013-11-03 18:08:31

uname -a:

Linux arch 3.11.6-1-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Fri Oct 18 23:22:36 CEST 2013 x86_64 GNU/Linux

pacman -Qi linux:

Name: linux
Version: 3.11.6-1
Description: The Linux kernel and modules
Architecture: x86_64
URL: http://www.kernel.org/
Licenses: GPL2
Groups: base
Provides: kernel26=3.11.6
Depends On: coreutils linux-firmware kmod mkinitcpio>=0.7
Optional Deps: crda: to set the correct wireless channels of your country
Required By: None
Optional For: None
Conflicts With: kernel26
Replaces: kernel26
Installed Size: 64493.00 KiB
Packager: Thomas Bächler <thomas@archlinux.org>
Build Date: Fri 18 Oct 2013 11:25:12 PM CEST
Install Date: Sun 03 Nov 2013 04:22:16 PM CET
Install Reason: Explicity installed
Install Script: Yes
Validated By: Signature

Last edited by Wantoast (2013-11-03 18:11:30)

ewaller · 2013-11-03 18:15:25

Well, that looks sane
does the file /usr/lib/modules/3.11.6-1-ARCH/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko.gz exist?

Edit: BTW, sane means that the kernel you are actually running matches the version that pacman installed, including the module versions.

Last edited by ewaller (2013-11-03 18:16:55)

Wantoast · 2013-11-03 18:20:47

Yes, is there.

ewaller · 2013-11-03 18:24:11

Can you post the output of lspci -nn

Note: that is two n's, not an m.

Wantoast · 2013-11-03 18:36:00

Here it is:

00:00.0 Host bridge [0600]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family DRAM Controller [8086:0104] (rev 09)
00:01.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation Xeon E3-1200/2nd Generation Core Processor Family PCI Express Root Port [8086:0101] (rev 09)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09)
00:16.0 Communication controller [0780]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family MEI Controller #1 [8086:1c3a] (rev 04)
00:1a.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #2 [8086:1c2d] (rev 04)
00:1b.0 Audio device [0403]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Controller [8086:1c20] (rev 04)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 1 [8086:1c10] (rev b4)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 2 [8086:1c12] (rev b4)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge [0604]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family PCI Express Root Port 4 [8086:1c16] (rev b4)
00:1d.0 USB controller [0c03]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family USB Enhanced Host Controller #1 [8086:1c26] (rev 04)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge [0601]: Intel Corporation HM65 Express Chipset Family LPC Controller [8086:1c49] (rev 04)
00:1f.2 SATA controller [0106]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family 6 port SATA AHCI Controller [8086:1c03] (rev 04)
00:1f.3 SMBus [0c05]: Intel Corporation 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family SMBus Controller [8086:1c22] (rev 04)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF119M [GeForce GT 520M] [10de:1050] (rev a1)
02:00.0 Ethernet controller [0200]: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM57785 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe [14e4:16b5] (rev 10)
02:00.1 SD Host controller [0805]: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM57765 Memory Card Reader [14e4:16bc] (rev 10)
02:00.2 System peripheral [0880]: Broadcom Corporation Device [14e4:16be] (rev 10)
02:00.3 System peripheral [0880]: Broadcom Corporation Device [14e4:16bf] (rev 10)
03:00.0 Network controller [0280]: Qualcomm Atheros AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) [168c:002e] (rev 01)
05:00.0 USB controller [0c03]: NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller [1033:0194] (rev 04)

ewaller · 2013-11-03 18:48:26

I'm stumped. I'll try and look at this a bit more later today.

Edit: I just read the i915 source, and the 0x8086:0x0116 is supported by the driver. Is it possible there is a BIOS setting that is interfering with the operation?

Last edited by ewaller (2013-11-03 21:03:11)

cfr · 2013-11-04 00:45:10

Wantoast wrote:

Here it is:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09)

For whatever it is worth, I have identical output. So not only the documentation says it works, it really does work. I do not, however, have this complication:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF119M [GeForce GT 520M] [10de:1050] (rev a1)

The threads you linked to suggest that you should be able to get this working without acpi=off (which you probably don't want).

Have you tried installing bumblebee? Or can you, temporarily, disable the nvidia card in your bios?

Why do you think the wiki says it is caused by KMS?

KMS doesn't need i915, by the way. i915 needs KMS in order to run X.

What is the output of

pacman -Qs | grep xf86-video

?

Last edited by cfr (2013-11-04 00:46:11)

Wantoast · 2013-11-04 15:46:04

cfr wrote:

Wantoast wrote:
Here it is:
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller [8086:0116] (rev 09)
For whatever it is worth, I have identical output. So not only the documentation says it works, it really does work. I do not, however, have this complication:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GF119M [GeForce GT 520M] [10de:1050] (rev a1)

So this Nvidia fact means something.

ewaller wrote:

I'm stumped. I'll try and look at this a bit more later today.
Edit: I just read the i915 source, and the 0x8086:0x0116 is supported by the driver. Is it possible there is a BIOS setting that is interfering with the operation?

cfr wrote:

The threads you linked to suggest that you should be able to get this working without acpi=off (which you probably don't want).
Have you tried installing bumblebee? Or can you, temporarily, disable the nvidia card in your bios?

I checked the BIOS, but there's no option for that. And I haven't tried Bumblebee yet, just because I couldn't understand what it has to do with my problem. Anyway, I'll try and I'll post here the results.

cfr wrote:

What is the output of
pacman -Qs | grep xf86-video
?

local/xf86-video-intel 2.21.15-1 (xorg-drivers xorg)

Wantoast · 2013-11-04 18:06:53

Well. Provided that what I have to do is disabling the secondary GPU, this is what I've done:

- Installed Bumblebee, bbswitch and the "Nouveau" drivers (already had the "Intel" one, obviously);
- Reboot;
- And then, according to the wiki "The bumblebeed daemon will, by default, instruct bbswitch to turn off the card when it starts". So I did:

systemctl start bumblebeed

And it gave:

[34.399322] bbswitch: No discrete VGA device found

Am I missing something?

cfr · 2013-11-05 01:15:40

Check the nouveau site to make sure your card is supported and, if so, how well.

Arch Linux

#1 2013-08-07 20:48:54

X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#2 2013-08-07 22:19:59

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#3 2013-08-09 15:34:51

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#4 2013-08-09 20:07:37

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#5 2013-08-09 21:43:39

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#6 2013-11-02 14:37:22

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#7 2013-11-02 20:40:34

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#8 2013-11-02 22:29:20

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#9 2013-11-03 17:14:46

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#10 2013-11-03 17:57:21

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#11 2013-11-03 18:08:31

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#12 2013-11-03 18:15:25

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#13 2013-11-03 18:20:47

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#14 2013-11-03 18:24:11

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#15 2013-11-03 18:36:00

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#16 2013-11-03 18:48:26

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#17 2013-11-04 00:45:10

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#18 2013-11-04 15:46:04

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#19 2013-11-04 18:06:53

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

#20 2013-11-05 01:15:40

Re: X: "Could not insert 'i915': No such device"

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