[ltp] Newbie video questions

[Alex Deucher]

On 9/1/06, Hans Bostrom <bostromed@yahoo.se> wrote:
> Final roundup for this post: So, thanks to Alex, I found simple
> solutions to my previous problems.
>
> 1. From a previous email, reducing color depth was enough to get
> hardware 3D rendering.
>
> 2. For enabling Fn-F7, reducing the screen resolution did the trick! It
> now works whether I edit xorg.conf from startup or just use the built-in
> GUI in Ubuntu ("Screen Resolution"). Anything from 1280x1024 and smaller
> works.

The bios probably ignores fn-f7 calls when 1400x1050 is in use for one
of the reasons I stated below.

>
> 3. dmesg told me that ACPI indeed was disabled, due to "BIOS age (1999)
> fails cutoff (2000)". Strange since my BIOS is dated 2004... Anyway,
> adding "acpi=force" to grub menu.lst solved that problem. (The only
> thing that didn't work was the suggestion by David to use "sudo echo
> 0xffff > /proc/acpi/ibm/hotkey" -> this command gave me a "permission
> denied" even after forcing acpi. But I don't seem to need that command
> anyway.)
>

not sure a botu the date thing.  ACPI may get the date from dmi or
something.  You'll need to be root or change the permissions on the
ibm acpi stuff to mess with it as a normal user.

>
> This procedure left me with a new question, and I'll throw it in here at
> the end: dmesg also told me that "local APIC" was disabled but I could
> enable it by adding lapic to menu.lst. Do I want to do this? I did a
> quick search, but I'm not quite sure what the benefits (and risks) of
> enabling local APIC might be?
>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APIC
I heard of cases where enabling it on laptops can cause problems if
the bios has disabled it by default, but YMMV.

> Once more thanks for all the help, and special thanks to Alex!

No problem.  Glad to hear you got it working.

Alex

>
> /Hans
>
>
>
> On Wed, 2006-08-30 at 11:00 -0400, Alex Deucher wrote:
> > On 8/30/06, Hans Bostrom <bostromed@yahoo.se> wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2006-08-30 at 09:41 -0400, Alex Deucher wrote:
> > >
> > > > >
> > > > > I tried this, but it only activates the external VGA (which of course is
> > > > > good), but I can't toggle screens with Fn+F7. So even though I
> > > > > appreciate your suggestion, it doesn't really solve my problem.
> > > >
> > > > it's probably related to ibm_acpi.  Does fn-f7 work when you are on the console?
> > >
> > > Yes, fn-F7 works on the console, it's only disabled in X.
> > >
> >
> > weird.  The X server may do somehting to the bios scratch registers
> > which disables those specific bios calls.  It may also be related to
> > the 1400x1050 panel.  certain video bioses will not not enable the
> > both the flatpanel and the CRT when that mode is active because it's
> > not somehting that's widely supported on CRTs and I think certain IBM
> > 1400x1050 panels run at a 50 Hz refresh rate which would cause
> > problems if you also ran the CRT at 50Hz.  Does fn-f7 work if you
> > start X in 1024x768 or a smaller mode?
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > > > I can't try this option, I don't even have the directory /acpi/ with
> > > > > subdirectories installed. What am I missing here?
> > > >
> > > > is ibm_acpi loaded or built into your kernel?  Also what's the date on
> > > > your bios?  IIRC, most kernels disable apci support if the date is
> > > > prior to 2000.
> > >
> > > I have the latest available BIOS for the A20p (IVET69WW, dated 20 Jul
> > > 2004). As for your other question, I am a newbie so I'm not sure I'm
> > > doing the right thing, but running the command "acpi" in a terminal
> > > yields:
> > >
> > >  x@y:~$ acpi
> > >  No ACPI support in kernel, or incorrect acpi_path ("/proc/acpi").
> > >
> > > So I guess ACPI is not built into the kernel (Ubuntu 6.06 Dapper
> > > standard install, kernel 2.6.15-26-386)? Is there an easy way to fix
> > > this, perhaps via apt-get?
> > >
> >
> > weird.  it should be.  check dmesg.  you can force acpi on by editing
> > your kernel command line in grub and adding acpi=on.
> >
> > Alex
> >
> > > Thanks,
> > > Hans
> > >
>
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