(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hi all,
I have a Dell Latitude C810 laptop. Video card: NVIDIA GeForce2 Go. Video memory: 32MB LCD screen: 1600x1200 pixels
When I run Puppy-421, I get some white hairlines popping along the left vertical edge of the screen. Each line may show for a split second and disappear. There may be 20-70 lines at any given moment. It kind of looks like they are 'dancing' along the screen edge. Lines are horizontal and less than 1/2 inch (12mm) long. The rest of the screen appears fine.
I have xorg settings set to 1600x1200 resolution, 16 bit.
This problem does not happen in Windows XP.
What could it be?

Thank you.

Try using xorg wizard and change the refresh rate

This is known as tearing, usually when the refresh rate is set wrong

Also try reducing to 1280x1024, - your PC may need 1024x768 or lower

Old, but informative video settings info site

http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/docs/H ... ings-HOWTO

Aitch

I tried 1280x1024 resolution and it removed the hairlines but then I had a black border and was not using the full screen.
Windows is using 60Hz refresh rate. But, probably more importantly, it uses the correct driver from NVIDIA.
I tried tweaking refresh rate in xorg.conf. The only times it helped was when a new refresh rate forced the screen to a lower resolution, again resulting in black border.
I also tried the generic video driver in xorgwizard, but the screen was too distorted. I could only see about half of the dialog box.
Here is some info from xorgwizard at 1600x1200x16 resolution: Vertical frequency in xorg.conf is set to 60. But it looks like the actual frequency is 59.92 Could this be the problem? How do I force it to a 60.00?

Thank you.

Hi jpr

Not sure what the correct driver is for that card, though see it's using NV - there may be a better Nvidia one

Also try Big-Bass's slaxer_pup as it seems to have a different xorg

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 593#296593

If it gives any details about the driver/works better and you want to use your existing pup we may be able to locate a better driver

Aitch

Thank you, Aitch.
Until I sort this hairline/tearing business out, is it safe to run Puppy like this? Can a wrong driver damage the video card or display?

To be honest, I don't know if it will cause any damage, but it isn't right, that's for sure

Try the other recommended puppy variants, including maybe ttuuxxx's 214xx

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=42553

......as different kernel/drivers are in different puppy's and it's probably best to find one that doesn't tear, and get driver details from there

Aitch

Hi,
I just tried a xubuntu-9.10 live cd and video was good on it.
Is it possible to find out which driver xubuntu uses and install the same driver on Puppy?

Is this the link to the latest Slaxer?
http://puppylinux.asia/tpp/big_bass/Sla ... up-412.iso

Thank you.

yes, should be possible, though I know nothing about *buntu

Puppy uses hardinfo or a cli call, like which should work in *buntu

try it!

& yes, that is the latest slaxer link, I believe, but this is Joe's slaxer page, which only has his Slaxer_Pup-4.12_USB.iso with a different initrd.gz [see note]

HTH

Aitch

I just tried Puppy-431 and unfortunately I got the same problem with video.
By the way, as in Puppy-421, the hairlines get more pronounced when I have a white object in a certain area on the screen.
Divide the screen into four equal columns, and name them one to four, from left to right. Now if I place a white or a light-colored object in column three, the hairlines get worse.

Do you have a different monitor to try?

It may just be the monitor itself?

Aitch

Some of this may be monitor's fault. But this being a laptop, I will have to use it. I don't want to replace the display. Besides, it works well in win xp and xubuntu.
I guess my next step is to try slaxer pup.
And if that fails, I will try to figure out a way to get xubuntu's video driver installed on puppy.
What constitutes a video driver? Is it just a file I can copy? Where are the video drivers located in puppy? How do I make xorg use a particular driver?

Thank you.

It seems this is a known problem, but there probably IS an nvidia driver with DRI acceleration

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=43577

maybe try at bootup

there is a later xorg pet, worth a try?

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=353247

maybe tempestuous might know? try pm'ing him

Aitch

Also check here for a newer video driver.

No joy downloading http://puppylinux.asia/tpp/big_bass/Sla ... up-412.iso
I could not get wget to do it. Error 404: Not found.
Downloading from a browser stopped at 12MB and said download in finished.

I went to http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=48019
and installed package xf86-video-nv-2.1.15-i486.pet
Still no changes in video.
xorgwizard says that 'nv' driver is being used. If I should be using a different driver after installing the package, how do I do it?

did not help.

sorry, I'm out of ideas

PM tempestuous

Aitch

Old Post, but I have the exact model and just solved the same problem. You need to select 24 bit color, not 16.