Old Laptop - Black Screen [SOLVED]

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bigpup
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Joined: Sun 11 Oct 2009, 18:15
Location: S.C. USA

#41 Post by bigpup »

I still think you have not found the correct driver to try and use.
Again, dealing with legacy AMD/ATI hardware and what driver they are willing to make available.

I found this info:
Radeon (Catalyst <= 9.3 & Open Source)
For this hardware:
* RV370 Radeon X300, M22

ATI/AMD dropped Catalyst support for these cards in Catalyst 9-4. These cards are supported with the legacy ATI 9-3 Catalyst release, but you MUST use a kernel <= 2.6.28 and Xserver <= 1.5.
Still going to require an older Puppy that is using x server and Linux kernel within these limits.

You will have to find this driver and probably compile it for the Puppy you try to use it in.
Do you want to try and do that?

However , you could be correct about what resolutions does this laptop internal monitor really support.
That is some kind of strange bios settings it has for the monitor.
Who knows, it is a DEll! :roll:

AMD says this driver will support the hardware.
https://support.amd.com/en-us/download/ ... inux%20x86
But again, it limits what Puppy to use it in and will need to be compiled to use it.
Again, do you want to try and do that compiling?
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)
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bigpup
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#42 Post by bigpup »

Key question!
Are you having fun yet?
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)
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jp734
Posts: 119
Joined: Sat 29 Mar 2014, 17:59

#43 Post by jp734 »

Of course I'm having fun. :D

As far as compilng. Never done that before. If there is a very straight forward guide, maybe I'll give it a shot. I'm waiting for his response if he still wants to spend $18 bucks for the nvidia card. If not, I will put the old card and continue searching for the right driver.
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bigpup
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#44 Post by bigpup »

This can also be a Nvidia problem with Linux.
However, Nvidia does seem to want to give better support for Linux!

Example:
I have a really old Nvidia card.
Nvidia's newest driver does not support it. (375)
The last driver supporting it was (173)
The newest Puppies, this 173 driver will not compile in.

This is the same thing you are running into.

This is why Puppy comes with a generic driver for graphic hardware.
Radeon ->ATI/AMD
Nouveau ->Nvidia
i915 ->Intel
Those drivers support about everything, but do not give full feature support. That has to be specific driver for specific hardware.

I have not done a ATI/AMD driver compiling in many years.
But basically.
Puppy needs the devx sfs and the kernel sources sfs packages loaded for the Puppy version being used.
Those provide the needed files to compile.
You can get them here:
http://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/
The kernel sources are usually in the pet repository.
Make sure to get the correct kernel sources for the kernel that is being used by the Puppy version.
Some have several.
The devx sfs is usually in the iso repository.
Just look in the sections that is for the named Puppy version.

Download the AMD/ATI driver package.

Load the devx and kernel sources sfs by using menu>System>Boot Manager>SFS Packages
Reboot
Run the AMD/ATI driver package installer by exiting to the prompt.
Follow what it says to do.

If it says anything about setting up xorg.conf
Try to say no.
Setup xorg.conf by using the xorgwizard run in a terminal or at the prompt.

Hpoefully I remembered that correctly :lol: :shock: :lol:
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)
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jp734
Posts: 119
Joined: Sat 29 Mar 2014, 17:59

#45 Post by jp734 »

I was working on a car today and I fired up an old pc in my garage to watch a tutorial on youtube. I forgot all about this computer and out of curiosity I checked the specs.

SURPRISED!!!
Pentium D
ATI X600
OS: SLACKO64 6.3.0
KERNEL 4.1.11
XORG 1.14.?
MONITOR RESOLUTION 1280X1024 (max res of monitor)
DRIVER ATI

After seeing this, I wonder why I had so much trouble with my ATI X300. I really do believe now that the real issue is the video option "EXPAND SCREEN" in bios setting...and it's a DELL...Dilemma solved
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Burn_IT
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Joined: Sat 12 Aug 2006, 19:25
Location: Tamworth UK

#46 Post by Burn_IT »

All the EXPAND SCREEN does is stretch the pixels in the resolution chosen so that the screen is fully used.
I would never use it since I would always use the natural resolution of the screen anyway. That will always give you the best picture. The only exception I would consider is a fraction of the above that results in whole numbers in both directions.
Only CRT type monitors cope well with strange resolutions since they do not have transistors for each pixel and rely on the dot pitch of the phosphorus.
"Just think of it as leaving early to avoid the rush" - T Pratchett
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jp734
Posts: 119
Joined: Sat 29 Mar 2014, 17:59

Old Laptop - Black Screen [SOLVED]

#47 Post by jp734 »

Finally had the chance to install the nvidia graphics card we bought and it is working the way it should. No issues. On boot using Xenial 64, it installed nouveau as driver and got a full 1440x900 resolution

Thank you all again very much.
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