vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

[Martin Michlmayr]

When I start debian-installer on my HP 2510p notebook the screen
becomes blank when it tries to start the frame buffer.  I can reproduce
the same behaviour when I load the vga16fb module manually.  I tested
at least 2.6.22 and 2.6.25-rc6.  It works though when I pass vga=773
to the kernel.

When I load the module, I get the following in dmesg and the screen goes
blank:

vga16fb: initializing
vga16fb: mapped to 0xffff8100000a0000
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 80x30
fb0: VGA16 VGA frame buffer device

This notebook uses the following graphics chip:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c)

Any idea what to do?


lspci -v
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 0c) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
        Subsystem: Hewlett-Packard Company Unknown device 30c9
        Flags: fast devsel, IRQ 16
        Memory at e0400000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
        Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
        I/O ports at 2000 [size=8]
        Capabilities: [90] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit- Queue=0/0 Enable-
        Capabilities: [d0] Power Management version 3

-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/

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Re: vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

[Keith Packard]

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On Fri, 2008-03-21 at 17:39 +0100, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> When I start debian-installer on my HP 2510p notebook the screen
> becomes blank when it tries to start the frame buffer.

I have the same machine and the debian install worked for me. Perhaps
your BIOS has configured the chip in a way that prevents VGA graphics
mode from working?

-- 
keith.packard@intel.com

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Re: vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

[Martin Michlmayr]

* Keith Packard <keith.packard@intel.com> [2008-03-21 10:03]:
> I have the same machine and the debian install worked for me. Perhaps
> your BIOS has configured the chip in a way that prevents VGA graphics
> mode from working?

I don't see anything in the BIOS that would be obviously related to
VGA.  Any idea what to look for?

Here's also some more information:

Before it switches to framebuffer, I see the following on the console:

PCI: BIOS Bug: MCFG area at f8000000 is not E820-reserved
PCI: Not using MMCONFIG.

The BIOS is ROM F.0A 02/16/2008 and Video BIOS 1471

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Martin Michlmayr
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Re: vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

[Keith Packard]

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On Sat, 2008-03-22 at 12:25 +0100, Martin Michlmayr wrote:

> I don't see anything in the BIOS that would be obviously related to
> VGA.  Any idea what to look for?

Its very unlikely that you'll find any configuration related to this,
but the BIOS programs the video chip at POST time, and a lot of that
programming is relevant even when you use the vga16fb driver.

> The BIOS is ROM F.0A 02/16/2008 and Video BIOS 1471

That's newer than the one I have; one wonders if they broke something...

Can you use vesafb instead of vga16fb? That should be far more reliable.

-- 
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Re: vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

[Martin Michlmayr]

* Keith Packard <keith.packard@intel.com> [2008-03-22 09:40]:
> > The BIOS is ROM F.0A 02/16/2008 and Video BIOS 1471
> That's newer than the one I have; one wonders if they broke something...

Do you think you can try that version?

> Can you use vesafb instead of vga16fb? That should be far more reliable.

vesafb is built into the Debian kernel, so presumably that works.
I've no idea why debian-installer loads vga16fb.  Frans, any idea?
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
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Re: vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

[Frans Pop]

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On Saturday 22 March 2008, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> > Can you use vesafb instead of vga16fb? That should be far more
> > reliable.
>
> vesafb is built into the Debian kernel, so presumably that works.
> I've no idea why debian-installer loads vga16fb.  Frans, any idea?

For the graphical installer we force the use of vesafb by directfb, but we 
don't do anything like that for the regular installer. So you could try 
booting installgui and see if that does work.

Other option could be to boot with 'install video=vga16fb:off', but I'm not 
sure if that's supported.

Cheers,
FJP

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Re: vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

[Martin Michlmayr]

* Frans Pop <elendil@planet.nl> [2008-03-22 20:35]:
> > > Can you use vesafb instead of vga16fb? That should be far more
> > > reliable.
> > vesafb is built into the Debian kernel, so presumably that works.
> > I've no idea why debian-installer loads vga16fb.  Frans, any idea?
> 
> For the graphical installer we force the use of vesafb by directfb, but we 
> don't do anything like that for the regular installer. So you could try 
> booting installgui and see if that does work.

installgui works, but that also passes vga=788 and when I pass that to
the normal installer it also works.

Anyway, you didn't answer my original question which was why the
text-based d-i loads vga16fb.

> Other option could be to boot with 'install video=vga16fb:off', but
> I'm not sure if that's supported.

That doesn't seem to work.
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
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Re: vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

[Frans Pop]

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On Sunday 23 March 2008, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> Anyway, you didn't answer my original question which was why the
> text-based d-i loads vga16fb.

The installer only modprobes vga16fb if vesafb is not active (well, it 
actually does modprobe vga16fb when vesafb and/or fbcon are compiled in 
[1], but that's the general idea), but that's not the problem here.

The kernel config is:
CONFIG_FB_VGA16=m
CONFIG_FB_VESA=y
CONFIG_VGA_CONSOLE=y
CONFIG_FRAMEBUFFER_CONSOLE=y

So VESA is compiled in.
The problem here is that /proc/fb doesn't show VESA when the regular 
installer is booted, AFAICT because we boot with vga=normal. vesafb seems 
to only be actually activated by the kernel during boot if you boot with a 
vga mode that requires it.

The installer then runs its init scripts, specifically
/lib/debian-installer-startup.d/S40framebuffer-module-linux-x86, and that 
ends up loading vga16fb because loading vesafb fails (as it's compiled in).
And thus you end up with vga16fb, basically because it's the only 
framebuffer available _despite_ the fact that vesafb is compiled in...

Is there is a way to activate vesafb post-boot even when the system was 
booted with vga=normal? If there is this could probably be avoided.

Also, does anyone know a way to test whether fbcon is compiled in or not?
We can of course test if fbcon is available as a module and assume it's 
compiled in if not, but that's not a proper test that it _is_ present.

Cheers,
FJP

[1] I've got a patch to fix that in D-I's rootskel.

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Re: vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

[Geert Uytterhoeven]

On Sun, 23 Mar 2008, Frans Pop wrote:
> The problem here is that /proc/fb doesn't show VESA when the regular 
> installer is booted, AFAICT because we boot with vga=normal. vesafb seems 
> to only be actually activated by the kernel during boot if you boot with a 
> vga mode that requires it.

That's true. Vesafb uses the linear graphics mode as programmed by the
BIOS _before_ starting the kernel, and doesn't contain code to switch graphics
mode itselfs.

> The installer then runs its init scripts, specifically
> /lib/debian-installer-startup.d/S40framebuffer-module-linux-x86, and that 
> ends up loading vga16fb because loading vesafb fails (as it's compiled in).
> And thus you end up with vga16fb, basically because it's the only 
> framebuffer available _despite_ the fact that vesafb is compiled in...
> 
> Is there is a way to activate vesafb post-boot even when the system was 
> booted with vga=normal? If there is this could probably be avoided.

No, as it relies on the BIOS.

Uvesafb can, but it relies on a userspace helper daemon.

> Also, does anyone know a way to test whether fbcon is compiled in or not?
> We can of course test if fbcon is available as a module and assume it's 
> compiled in if not, but that's not a proper test that it _is_ present.

If /sys/class/graphics/fbcon exists but lsmod doesn't show fbcon?

Gr{oetje,eeting}s,

						Geert

--
Geert Uytterhoeven -- There's lots of Linux beyond ia32 -- geert@linux-m68k.org

In personal conversations with technical people, I call myself a hacker. But
when I'm talking to journalists I just say "programmer" or something like that.
							    -- Linus Torvalds

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Re: vga16fb: blank screen with Intel GM965/GL960 on HP 2510p notebook

[Frans Pop]

On Sunday 23 March 2008, Geert Uytterhoeven wrote:
> If /sys/class/graphics/fbcon exists but lsmod doesn't show fbcon?

Thanks. The first is exactly what I needed.

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