Asus L7300 Puppy Install Hangs

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DavidMaas
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Asus L7300 Puppy Install Hangs

#1 Post by DavidMaas »

I'm trying to install Puppy on a:
Asus Laptop L7300 with Silicon Motion Lynx SM910 video card

After the Video Configuration Wizard Puppy hangs. I figured that the wrong card is detected or something. I looked in this post:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 59&t=11931

I'm pretty sure i have the same problem as in the post

However i'm pretty stuck now. If anyone has any input to help me further i'd be glad.

PS. Frequency = 31.5-57.5 & 40-80
Also on DSL the xvesa hangs but DSL has something like XBDEV or something like this and when selecting this DSL works perfectly, however i prefer Puppy.

brad_chuck
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#2 Post by brad_chuck »

I don't know what your problem is but this is what I would do if I had the problem......

1. Install DSL
2. Grab /etc/X11/xorg.conf ( if you don't know what this file is search google and read up)
3. Boot Puppy
4. Right before it locks up hit CTRL-C
5. Open Puppy's xorg.conf file and see if you can sort out the problem by comparing it to DSL's file.

If you can't fallow this it's ok. Just post and I will give you some more specific instructions.

DavidMaas
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#3 Post by DavidMaas »

Thanks, but i searched in all the usual places in DSL and found NO XORG.CONF

As I mentioned, I use XFBDEV in DSL and now i'm wondering if i can make (or perhaps download) a Puppy live CD WITH XFBDEV?

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Dougal
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#4 Post by Dougal »

When exactly does it hang? After you selected the resolution, or right after you select xorg/xvesa?
What's the ugliest part of your body?
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DavidMaas
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#5 Post by DavidMaas »

IT hangs EXACTLY when it 'logs into' X. I choose Xorg (Xvesa shows black screen) and then I select LCD 1024x768 then i choose 1024*768 as resolution and then it logs in and shows the puppy screen with icons etc. After 10-30 seconds it hangs no matter if i move mouse or do notghing (I tried different actions)
Now i have to add that i once tried 640X480 & 640*480 and it works a little longer then but when i click MENU (to start universal installer) the menu is not displayed and the mouse/rest hangs (i waited once for 15 mins but nothing).
I figured either it's the video driver OR it's the RAM that's too low to load puppy into RAM.
Any help would be thus great because i'm a little stuck.
Thanks in advance

I really hope this is fixable 'cause i like puppy way over DSL and it's the best OS in terms of requirement-quality in my opinion.

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Dougal
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#6 Post by Dougal »

DavidMaas wrote:I figured either it's the video driver OR it's the RAM that's too low to load puppy into RAM.
Possibly, but you didn't mention how much ram you have...

You should also check which driver is used by Xorg (it's in the "card" section of xorg.conf). If it's a vendor-specific driver, you might try changing to "vesa".
What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's your mind

DavidMaas
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#7 Post by DavidMaas »

Sorry, You're right.
RAM = 64mb
In xorg i checked and apparently the driver is detected ok (as silicon motion - SM910) Looks OK to me.
Xvesa shows black screen and doesn't work at all

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Dougal
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#8 Post by Dougal »

DavidMaas wrote:Xvesa shows black screen and doesn't work at all
I meant that you try using the Xorg "vesa" driver -- there might be a problem with the SM910 driver.

Are you running it from cd? In that case you'll probably to create a 128MB swap partition to get it running properly.
What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's your mind

DavidMaas
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Location: Maastricht (Netherlands)

#9 Post by DavidMaas »

No succes,

I made a swap partition (400mb) (it loads so that's not the problem)
but the error remained exactly the same.

then i tried the vesa driver in xorg.conf:

[....
Section "Device"
Identifier "vesa"
Driver "vesa"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "vesa"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 16
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x768"
EndSubsection
EndSection
....]

It displays as 640x480 ?!?

At this point I'm even more puzzled than i was before :)
I still think it shoul be possible, i had DSL WITH JWM and it worked like a charm.
i'm gonna look into that XFBDEV stuff and try something with that.

DavidMaas
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#10 Post by DavidMaas »

OK, funny and maybe finally a breakthrough
I hope Dougal gets a chance to read this as i think he'd be able to help.

So i installed XUBUNTU 7.04 on the Asus system (it took 5 hours!! NO KIDDING) However, EXACTLY the same thing occured as in puppy! Ubuntu started and i logged in. Then after like 10 secconds (background and icons were showing) it hanged.
Then i found this:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=34684

The guy has the same laptop and same graphical card.

now i know that i can change the Xorg file (or make one) with the MONITOR and DEVICE secitions like on that page, however i'd like to know if i can add this to puppy boot (maybe in another way):

noinotify apic=off acpi=off pci=norouteirq noapic nolapic noacpi noapm noonotify video=vesafb:nomtrr

I hope someone has any knowledge or info to share

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Dougal
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#11 Post by Dougal »

DavidMaas wrote:noinotify apic=off acpi=off pci=norouteirq noapic nolapic noacpi noapm noonotify video=vesafb:nomtrr
Those are kernel parameters (most of them, at least), so you should be able to use them.
The question, though, is how their kernel is configured (which might have an effect).
I'm also not sure about the "video=vesafb" part, as Puppy has all framebuffer modules blacklisted (you can try commenting out the SKIPLIST in /etc/rc.d/rc.modules).

I'll have a look at that link.
What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's your mind

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Dougal
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#12 Post by Dougal »

I had a look at the link.

It seems like th main problem is the mtrr thing in xorg.conf

You can do two things:
1) boot Puppy into X and immediately reboot -- this way you'll get a chance to create a save file.
Then you can mount the pup_save in Ubuntu (mount -o loop pup_save.3fs /some/mountpoint) and go and edit the xorg.conf to match what that guy posted.

2) boot puppy and in the xorgwizard select you resolution and then "test", accept it and then select "tweak" (instead of "finish") and then "edit xorg.conf" -- then you'l have an option to edit xorg.conf to the way he showed.
What's the ugliest part of your body?
Some say your nose
Some say your toes
But I think it's your mind

DavidMaas
Posts: 42
Joined: Mon 26 Feb 2007, 04:24
Location: Maastricht (Netherlands)

#13 Post by DavidMaas »

Another Soul Saved!

It worked :-)

I'm verry happy with this and i have to thank you big time Dougal.
Tanks! :-)

I think i also learned a lot this time about the linux system.

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