Arch Linux

Leye

Member

From: Heidelberg, Germany

Registered: 2008-09-03

Posts: 96

Xorg Keyboard-Layout broken + ever-lasting dimmed screen

Hello,

these two problems came up when I installed Xorg and xf86-video-intel from Testing. I have to use those ones because of an issue described in another topic. They actually work well, but there are 2 things that annoy me:

1. I use the German keyboard-layout. Thus, I added

        Option  "XkbLayout"     "de"

to my xorg.conf (the German locale in rc.conf works fine). However, when using GNOME, the keyboard-layout is still in English! I'm able to change the layout within GNOME, but I wonder how I set the keyboard-layout system-wide.

2. I'm using a notebook that has some function-keys for dimming and lightening the screen. When I start the notebook, the screen is bright, but as soon as X/GNOME shows up, it gets very dimmed. I always have to use the function-keys to lighten the screen again. I've never experienced this proble, does anyone know how I can solve it?

Here's my xorg.conf; yell if you need something else:

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "X.org Configured"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
    ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi:unscaled"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
    FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load  "dbe"
    Load  "glx"
    Load  "dri"
    Load  "xtrap"
    Load  "extmod"
    Load  "freetype"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Keyboard0"
    Driver      "kbd"
    Option    "XkbLayout"    "de"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
    Identifier  "Mouse0"
    Driver      "mouse"
    Option        "Protocol" "auto"
    Option        "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
    Option        "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    #DisplaySize      260   160    # mm
    Identifier   "Monitor0"
    VendorName   "LPL"
    ModelName    "b600"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        ### Available Driver options are:-
        ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False",
        ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz"
        ### [arg]: arg optional
        #Option     "NoAccel"                # [<bool>]
        #Option     "SWcursor"               # [<bool>]
        #Option     "ColorKey"               # <i>
        #Option     "CacheLines"             # <i>
        #Option     "Dac6Bit"                # [<bool>]
        #Option     "DRI"                    # [<bool>]
        #Option     "NoDDC"                  # [<bool>]
        #Option     "ShowCache"              # [<bool>]
        #Option     "XvMCSurfaces"           # <i>
        #Option     "PageFlip"               # [<bool>]
    Identifier  "Card0"
    Driver      "intel"
    VendorName  "Intel Corporation"
    BoardName   "Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller"
    BusID       "PCI:0:2:0"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Card0"
    Monitor    "Monitor0"
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     1
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     4
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     8
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     15
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     16
    EndSubSection
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
        Modes    "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
    EndSubSection
EndSection

my64

Member

From: France

Registered: 2007-12-30

Posts: 88

Re: Xorg Keyboard-Layout broken + ever-lasting dimmed screen

You may find some answer to your questions on this thread:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php? … 36#p450236

Inkaine

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2008-07-14

Posts: 88

Re: Xorg Keyboard-Layout broken + ever-lasting dimmed screen

I'm sorry if I get into a ranting mode here now. But why ***** do you guys use testing and then NOT EVEN READ INSTALL MESSAGES? The link I provided in the other thread is clearly given out by pacman after installation of xserver 1.5. Testing is - as the name clearly says - for testing. Everyone is welcome to use that and report bugs. But just using testing as a regular repo and not even checking about possible flaws or not reading install outputs...

Regarding the intel driver I compiled both 2.4.2 and 2.5.0 two weeks ago from ABS with just a little change of the version number (and md5 sum of course) in the PKGBUILD. Worked like charm on xserver 1.4. The intel driver is in no way dependent on the latest xserver. Didn't try their latest updates but would be surprised if they didn't work as well.

Leye

Member

From: Heidelberg, Germany

Registered: 2008-09-03

Posts: 96

Re: Xorg Keyboard-Layout broken + ever-lasting dimmed screen

Hello,

I'm aware of Xorg's new hotplugging feature, but I didn't know that this was the problem. I was just wondering why the keyboard layout didn't change, even though I did so in xorg.conf. However, when I added to xorg.conf not to auto-configure the devices, the layout is correct, thanks for the hint.

However, when I installed Archlinux the last time, I was also using Testing Xorg with my keyboard layout configured in xorg.conf. I didn't had to change anything, it worked immediately (which strengthened my surprise about why it didn't work now). The reason why I use Xorg from Testing is that I get a strange error with GNOME (and any other DE): No fonts and icons are displayed, and I haven't found a solution other than using Xorg from Testing. During the installation, xf86-video-intel from Testing depends on xorg-server from Testing, at least this is what pacman says. Guess I'll have to try your way of using the one from ABS.

Anyway, the problem with the keyboard layout is solved, thanks for that. I was hoping this might also clear the dimmed screen, but I still have to lighten it every time GNOME starts. The screen is bright when GDM shows up, but becomes dark as soon as GNOME is loaded.

EDIT
Oh, and when I installed xorg, I didn't look through the messages that pacman displayed. I've let my notebook install it while I was doing some other things. Yeah, my fault, I should have been more carefully (though I didn't expect something odd; as I said before, last time everything had worked immediately). I'll do my best to learn from the messages that pacman says.

Last edited by Leye (2008-11-17 16:52:25)

Leye

Member

From: Heidelberg, Germany

Registered: 2008-09-03

Posts: 96

Re: Xorg Keyboard-Layout broken + ever-lasting dimmed screen

Hello, I'm writing this through Lynx because I'm trying to install xf86-video-intel from ABS as Inkaine mentioned. After changing some versions in the PKGBUILD, pacman -U [package] returns: "missing package metadata ..." and says the package is broken. May I ask how did you change the PKGBUILD to install the new intel-driver for using with the stable xorg?

Inkaine

Member

From: Germany

Registered: 2008-07-14

Posts: 88

Re: Xorg Keyboard-Layout broken + ever-lasting dimmed screen

Hmm, same procedure as everytime. ;-) But I can give you my full steps, just to make sure:

#1 cd /var/abs/local (or whatever your build directory is)
#2 cp -aiv /var/abs/extra/xf86-video-intel .
#3 cd xf86-video-intel
#4 vi PKGBUILD
#5 change line pkgver to 2.4.3 or 2.5.1 (as you desire)
#6 change line md5sum to 'a664819288b98a37f77ab6ae1e14c9d9' (2.4.3) or '62e96948860b7a8507963300f56d0d16' (2.5.1) - or just comment out the line to skip md5 check
#7 save file and exit vi
#8 makepkg -c
#9 sudo pacman -U xf86-video-intel-...pkg.tar.gz

Dunno what the "missing package metadata" means though, never encountered that before myself. I hope this will solve your issues. The new xserver might be pushed to extra by the coming weekend anyways...

EDIT: You will need libgl, mesa and intel-dri from testing to build successfully though (if I remember correctly) as the driver is dependent on mesa 7.2, just not on xserver 1.5. Don't remember if that's all. Good luck.

Last edited by Inkaine (2008-11-20 18:57:17)

Leye

Member

From: Heidelberg, Germany

Registered: 2008-09-03

Posts: 96

Re: Xorg Keyboard-Layout broken + ever-lasting dimmed screen

Hi!

Thank you very much, it works! I know how to use ABS to build some packages, but I wasn't aware that you can tweak it in the way like that. Thanks for your manual! After reinstalling and switching to x86-64, everything works like a charm, I'm happy to use Archlinux again.

Even if xorg-server 1.5 will be moved to extra in some time, I'm happy that I could get to know ABS and Archlinux better.

This means the keyboard layout is correctly set and I don't get a dimmed screen every time I start GNOME. Thanks for your help!

EDIT
Do I have to mark this thread "solved"? I've seen this on some Linux board, but I don't know what to do here. Adding it to the title?

Last edited by Leye (2008-11-21 16:54:51)