Slacko 5.3.3 with AMD Radeon HD 6290 fixed

Problems and successes with specific brands/models of computer video hardware
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captnemo
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 15:41

Slacko 5.3.3 with AMD Radeon HD 6290 fixed

#1 Post by captnemo »

Hello. I'm not exactly a newbie. I've been using Puppy since 2007 with great success. I can't count how many broken Windoze machines I've rescued with it. But this is the first time I've hit a problem that has me stumped.

I did a wininstaller install of Slacko 5.3.3 on an Aspire One 722, AMD C60 processor, 2 GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6290 graphics. All went fine, dual boot, even the WiFi worked straight away.

The problem is the video driver. Vesa insists on running in 1024x768 so I have stretch-o-vision on the 1366x768 display on the Aspire.

Slickpet recommended downloading mesa. I proceeded, it downloaded and installed, I got the various dialog boxes during the installation. It said to restart X so I did. Then I ran xorgwizard and it still only lists the vesa and nvidia driver options. Further research indicated I should reboot the machine before running xorgwizard so I did that. Same thing. Then I redownloaded and installed mesa again, then rebooted the machine, and tried xorgwizard. Still just vesa and nvidia in the list.

What are the magic words to get the xorgwizard to see the mesa stuff I installed? Presumably mesa knows how to get the display into 1366x768 mode?
Last edited by captnemo on Wed 12 Sep 2012, 18:53, edited 1 time in total.

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bigpup
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Location: S.C. USA

#2 Post by bigpup »

Mesa is the OpenGL library, to be able, to display 3D applications like games.
It adds to the Vesa driver.
You need a Radeon specific driver to get more resolution options.
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)

captnemo
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 15:41

#3 Post by captnemo »

Thank you. Now I know what mesa is.

So now I need to hunt for a pet file containing a driver for the Radeon HD 6290, I presume?

(This is the first machine I've run into where the stock vesa driver didn't work right.)

captnemo
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 15:41

#4 Post by captnemo »

I did some looking around and cannot find a suitable driver. There appears to be one for the Radeon 128 but I have the HD 6290. I'd make my own if I knew how.

So maybe Slacko is not the way to go for me. Do you happen to know of a Puppy release that supports the Aspire 722 with Radeon HD 6290 graphics?

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SFR
Posts: 1800
Joined: Wed 26 Oct 2011, 21:52

#5 Post by SFR »

Here you go, install the one that is corresponding to your Slacko version (4g or pae):
ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pet ... ko_4gA.pet
ftp://distro.ibiblio.org/puppylinux/pet ... o_paeA.pet

Just don't miss the part after installation complete, to exit to prompt, type aticonfig --initial and reboot.

I have the same netbook, Slacko 5.3.3 is a good choice for it.

Greetings!
[color=red][size=75][O]bdurate [R]ules [D]estroy [E]nthusiastic [R]ebels => [C]reative [H]umans [A]lways [O]pen [S]ource[/size][/color]
[b][color=green]Omnia mea mecum porto.[/color][/b]

captnemo
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 15:41

#6 Post by captnemo »

Thank you!

I must be blind. I couldn't find those.

I'll report back results.

captnemo
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 15:41

#7 Post by captnemo »

Thank you, SFR. It all worked out great.

Last night I went to try the driver you suggested and I discovered that all my messing around broke something. I had run xorgwizard dozens of times, sometimes with bad outcomes, and I must have smashed an init file or something. Puppy would boot and as soon as X was running and the desktop was painted, the machine would freeze solid.

There was nothing to lose so I uninstalled puppy, deleted everything, then reinstalled the same 5.3.3 Slacko. WiFi came up straight off again. I then installed the driver you recommended, followed the instructions, and all the graphics problems were solved. I didn't even have to use xorgwizard.

I then installed Chromium and that works. So I'm off and running.

Thanks for a straightforward and direct fix. The Aspire One 722 with AMD Radeon HD 6290 definitely works.

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

#8 Post by bigpup »

Those drivers are also in the Puppy Package Manager (PPM) in Slacko 5.3.3
Because of the description wording, it is a little hard to understand if they are graphics drivers for ATI/AMD cards.
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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SFR
Posts: 1800
Joined: Wed 26 Oct 2011, 21:52

#9 Post by SFR »

captnemo wrote:Puppy would boot and as soon as X was running and the desktop was painted, the machine would freeze solid.
The freeze problem may be (but not have to) also caused by WiFi; it's a common issue with Acer AO 722.
Just in case, if you run into it in the future, here's the fix to try:
1. Go into the BIOS.
2. Enable network booting.
3. And set 'network boot' as first in the boot order.

Anyway, I'm glad you have set up everything fine. :)

Greetings!
[color=red][size=75][O]bdurate [R]ules [D]estroy [E]nthusiastic [R]ebels => [C]reative [H]umans [A]lways [O]pen [S]ource[/size][/color]
[b][color=green]Omnia mea mecum porto.[/color][/b]

captnemo
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 15:41

#10 Post by captnemo »

Interesting. I'll try that if it happens again.

You have me wondering now because where I normally am there are more than a dozen WiFi signals to connect to. But where I was last night when it failed there are none. I rebooted three times last night and it froze each time. The only difference was the total lack of WiFi signals.

I'll report back. Thank you.

captnemo
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 15:41

#11 Post by captnemo »

SFR: You're a genius. Thank you again!

Last night I booted Puppy where there were no WiFi signals and, sure enough, it froze right after xwin finished starting just like the night before. Your workaround of making netboot the first boot device in the BIOS fixed it.

captnemo
Posts: 40
Joined: Tue 11 Sep 2012, 15:41

#12 Post by captnemo »

SFR: I'm liking this more and more. It seems this machine (Aspire One 722) is running cooler than it does with Win 7. The underside of the machine is just warm instead of burning hot, which ought to translate into even longer battery life. :D

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SFR
Posts: 1800
Joined: Wed 26 Oct 2011, 21:52

#13 Post by SFR »

Speaking of temperature: did you know about 01micko's tempicon?
IIRC works fine with this Acer (I'm on my main Toshiba laptop now, Acer is a sort of my "backup" comp).

Back to Acer: there are two a bit annoying things, at least for me:

1. Lack of HDD LED.
Fortunately apps like GKrellM or Conky have some kind of HDD activity monitors.

2. Lack of Caps/Num/Scroll-lock LEDs.
I was looking for such a LED indicator, but didn't find anything useful.
So, if you're also interested, I just wrote one.
Actually, it's modified Seaside's CPU-usage script from here.
It uses YAD, but it's already in Slacko 5.3.3.

Just one strange thing: 'xset -q' reads ScrollLock's state always as "off", so the app is limited only to Caps-lock and Num-lock.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash

# Caps-Num_Indicator by SFR'2012
# Based on CPU usage script by seaside Januray 11, 2012
# Source: http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=595625#595625
#
# yad version 16.2 required

PIPE=/tmp/caps_num-pipe$$
mkfifo $PIPE
exec 3<> $PIPE
trap on_exit EXIT

function on_exit () {
    echo "quit" >&3
    rm -f $PIPE
    rm -f /tmp/caps-num_icon$$.svg
}

yad --notification --kill-parent --listen \
    --image=gtk-stop --text="Caps-Num Indicator" \
    --command="" <&3 &

while true; do
TEST=`xset -q | grep Caps | awk '{ print $4 ":" $8 }'`
[ "${TEST%:*}" = "off" ] && COL_CAPS="darkgrey" || COL_CAPS="green"
[ "${TEST#*:}" = "off" ] && COL_NUM="darkgrey" || COL_NUM="green"

  # technosaurus' use of svg for icons
   echo '<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> 
    <rect x="0" y="0" rx="4" ry="4" width="48" height="48" style="fill:yellow;fill-opacity:0.7" />
    <text x="1" y="16" fill='"'$COL_CAPS'"' style="font-size:20px;font-weight:bold">Caps</text>
    <text x="3" y="40" fill='"'$COL_NUM'"' style="font-size:20px;font-weight:bold">Num</text>
    </svg>' >/tmp/caps-num_icon$$.svg
   
   echo icon:/tmp/caps-num_icon$$.svg > $PIPE # send notice to change icon
   
  # Wait before checking again.
  sleep 0.5
done
[save the script in /root/Startup and make it executable]

PS. Yes, the icon is not beautiful, but one can easily refine font and colors. :wink:

EDIT: Corrected tiny leftovers: PIPE=/tmp/cpupipe$$ to PIPE=/tmp/caps_num-pipe$$ and tooltip text.

Greetings!
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