Help with display settings and resolutions

[Member Budgie]

I have been installing new CPUs and memory and then trying to sort out my settings. Using the base system CD as a live system I was not able to boot unless I used the “failsafe” option but I now have the starting screen working well but with the wrong resolution. New to Antix so a couple of questions:-
Why did I need to use the failsafe mode? The normal boot stalled when when trying to start X.
How may I change the display resolution which looks like 1024 x 768 or similar. I think I need to look at some options. Where are these changed please?
Many thanks,
Budge

[Member ile]

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Hello Budgie
Control Centre, Session,
Set screen resolution

exec
<arandr>

arandr

[Member Xecure]

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We don’t know what graphic card your system is using. Could you provide the output of
inxi -Gxxx

If it is an intel CPU/GPU, then it may be that during boot the kernel detects it properly and tries to use the modesetting xorg driver, but your GPU doesn’t like it, expecting the intel driver.
If it IS an intel CPU/GPU, and you havent installed the system yet, instead of the failsafe boot option, select the first option and append the boot parameter
xorg=intel

If not, please share the required graphics information so we may be able to provide better advice.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member Budgie]

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Hi and thanks for the prompt reply. My machine is down at the moment as I have been making some hardware changes.
There are two display adaptors installed, a Matrox card and on on-board Caicos (Radeon) I shall get the details after I have sorted out memory, (dead stick supplied courtesy of Ebay). My problem with the normal Control Panel>Settings route is that I only am offered one resolution. Clearly I have a problem.
The Bios has a display switch for internal or external and I am trying to get the Caicos to work. I shall try your command but meanwhile here’s what I tried earlier and I believe will tell you what you want:-

alastair@localhost:~> inxi -Fmxxz
System:
  Kernel: 5.3.18-59.10-default x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 7.5.0 
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.18.6 tk: Qt 5.12.7 wm: kwin_x11 dm: SDDM 
  Distro: openSUSE Leap 15.3 
Machine:
  Type: Server System: IBM product: IBM System x3400 M3 Server -[7379ZY7]- v: 09 
  serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: IBM model: 69Y4356 v: RF3 serial: <filter> UEFI: IBM v: -[Y4E160AUS-1.15]- 
  date: 07/31/2013 
Memory:
  RAM: total: 15.64 GiB used: 1.33 GiB (8.5%) 
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges required. 
CPU:
  Topology: 2x Quad Core model: Intel Xeon E5606 bits: 64 type: MCP SMP 
  arch: Nehalem rev: 2 L2 cache: 16.0 MiB 
  flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 34131 
  Speed: 1200 MHz min/max: 1197/2128 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 1200 2: 1200 3: 1200 
  4: 1200 5: 1200 6: 1200 7: 1200 8: 1200 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Matrox Systems MGA G200EV vendor: IBM driver: mgag200 v: kernel 
  bus ID: 07:00.0 chip ID: 102b:0530 
  Device-2: AMD Caicos [Radeon HD 6450/7450/8450 / R5 230 OEM] 
  vendor: PC Partner Limited driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 15:00.0 
  chip ID: 1002:6779 
  Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.3 compositor: kwin_x11 
  driver: ati,modesetting,radeon FAILED: mga unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: <xdpyinfo missing> 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.1 128 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.2.4 compat-v: 3.1 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: HDA ATI HDMI driver: HDA-Intel message: bus/chip ids unavailable 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.3.18-59.10-default 
Network:
  Device-1: Broadcom and subsidiaries NetXtreme II BCM5716 Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: IBM driver: bnx2 v: 2.2.6 port: 30c0 bus ID: 0b:00.0 chip ID: 14e4:163b 
  IF: eth0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Broadcom and subsidiaries NetXtreme II BCM5716 Gigabit Ethernet 
  vendor: IBM driver: bnx2 v: 2.2.6 port: 30c0 bus ID: 0b:00.1 chip ID: 14e4:163b 
  IF: eth1 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-3: IBM RNDIS/CDC ETHER type: USB driver: cdc_ether bus ID: 2-2:2 
  chip ID: 04b3:4010 
  IF: usb0 state: unknown speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 2.73 TiB used: 666.43 GiB (23.9%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda model: ServeRAID M5014 size: 2.73 TiB speed: 1.5 Gb/s serial: N/A 
RAID:
  Hardware-1: Broadcom / LSI MegaRAID SAS 2108 [Liberator] driver: megaraid_sas 
  v: 07.714.04.00-rc1 bus ID: 24:00.0 chip ID: 1000.0079 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 2.72 TiB used: 6.24 GiB (0.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 
  ID-2: /home size: 2.72 TiB used: 6.24 GiB (0.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 
  ID-3: /opt size: 2.72 TiB used: 6.24 GiB (0.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 
  ID-4: /tmp size: 2.72 TiB used: 6.24 GiB (0.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 
  ID-5: /var size: 2.72 TiB used: 6.24 GiB (0.2%) fs: btrfs dev: /dev/sda2 
Swap:
  ID-1: swap-1 type: partition size: 2.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: -2 
  dev: /dev/sda3 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 31.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 41 C 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 246 Uptime: 1h 04m Init: systemd v: 246 runlevel: 5 
  target: graphical.target Compilers: gcc: N/A Shell: bash v: 4.4.23 
  running in: konsole inxi: 3.1.00 
alastair@localhost:~>

[Member Xecure]

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Thanks for the info.

The antiX live system has a boot option that lets you select the default videocard when there are different ones available, so you dn’t need to make the change in the BIOS.
The boot parameter is
vcard=menu
It is not very intuitive, but you will be asked which video card you want to use, use both or not use any. Try to get it to run the radeon card.
If needed, you may also have to tell it to use the xorg driver (if it doesn’t load)
xorg=radeon

Test a bit and see if anything works. No pressure. I will try helping anyway I can.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member Budgie]

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OK and thanks. Although the BIOS has been set for the on-board display adapter, the choice is given also during the initial installation when I can select either the Matrox or the Caicos (Radeon). I selected the Radeon but this still stalled when starting X unless I use the failsafe option and then I am only offered the single resolution setting. I was still using the live distro and don’t want to try and install until I have this sorted. Do you have any suggestions on how I can tweak the installation to get more display resolutions available?
Thanks for your help.
Budge

[Member Xecure]

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Failsafe boot option disables some acpi options and also selects the generic video driver vesa (or fbdev) so that you can boot to a graphical interface. It isn’t recommended to use this option for later installation. But, if you do, you will then have to change the xorg configuration to use the proper driver.

Based on your previous inxi output for openSUSE, the correct xorg driver is radeon, so you either have to edit the xorg file to load this driver after rebooting, or you can try to get to boot with this option in the live system. It will need to load both the radeon kernel driver and the xorg video module/driver.

When you have time, if the previous advice didn’t help, please provide the inxi output on the antiX live system to try to understand why it happened and try to find a solution.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member Budgie]

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OK, machine running. Booting from CD to Antix base I selected the first option. This has stalled at
[….] Waiting for /dev to be fully populated… (written on laptop as no system.
Totally lost for CLI entries on boot so am trying failsafe just so I can give you the info. In order to remove confusion I removed the Display card which I believed to be a Matrox. Possibly not. Anyhow this boot has now stalled with the desktop showing and a Connman System Tray windo open. Sadly no keyboard or mouse working so I am still stuck.

Having removed the adapter and therefore booting from on-board display adapter I had the following from the installed (openSUSE TW system)

alastair@localhost:~> inxi -GISay
System:
  Host: localhost.localdomain Kernel: 5.13.0-1-default x86_64 bits: 64 
  compiler: gcc v: 11.1.1 
  parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.13.0-1-default 
  root=UUID=c7ca635f-1e18-43d4-9be7-f56fb03d1e82 splash=silent quiet 
  mitigations=auto 
  Desktop: KDE Plasma 5.22.3 tk: Qt 5.15.2 wm: kwin_x11 vt: 7 dm: SDDM 
  Distro: openSUSE Tumbleweed 20210712 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Matrox Systems MGA G200EV vendor: IBM driver: mgag200 v: kernel 
  bus-ID: 07:00.0 chip-ID: 102b:0530 class-ID: 0300 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 compositor: kwin_x11 driver: 
  loaded: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa failed: mga display-ID: :0 
  screens: 1 
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1024x768 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 270x203mm (10.6x8.0") 
  s-diag: 338mm (13.3") 
  Monitor-1: VGA-1 res: 1024x768 hz: 60 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 12.0.0 128 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 21.1.4 
  compat-v: 3.1 direct render: Yes 
Info:
  Processes: 371 Uptime: N/A wakeups: 0 Memory: 39.25 GiB 
  used: 1.74 GiB (4.4%) Init: systemd v: 248 runlevel: 5 
  target: graphical.target tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: N/A Packages: 
  rpm: 2399 lib: 1061 flatpak: 0 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.8 running-in: konsole 
  inxi: 3.3.03 
alastair@localhost:~>

If I boot again I need help on what to start please.

[Member Budgie]

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I started again with the second option and made intelligent selections and used default for the rest. I now have a console screen. Logged in with demo, pw=demo and am still at console so it seems graphics didn’t start and no browser to communicate directly with you but from
inxi -Gxxx I have
Graphics: Device-1: Matrox System MGA G200EV
Display: server: X.org 1.20.4 driver: fbdev,modesetting,vesa unloaded: mga tty: 102b:0530
Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console. Try -G –display

Tried this and only change was mga tty: 123×46
Message: No advanced graphics data found on this system.

Struggling here. What next please?

[Member Xecure]

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There is a part of the last inxi command missing from the antiX boot, relevant to the kernel driver. Does it say driver: N/A or driver:mgag200?

Don’t choose failsafe. In the first option, as it disables some of the hardware, possibly the USB ports, use one of these boot parameters:
xorg=modesseting
xorg=fbdev
I think you can also both at the same time, but fisrt test one of each.
Can you also see, nect time you can log in to a console in antix live, if the mgag200 module is loaded?
lsmod | grep mgag200

If it is not loading, we need to tell it to load before starting X.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member Xecure]

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There should also be the possibility to do
mgag200.modeset=1
based on this SUSE article

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member Budgie]

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OK, I must be thick but I have achieved nothing. What is worse is that even after what appears to me looking at the terminal to be OK as it loads and intimates it is starting run level 5, but I end up with a terminal screen. I cannot even run the inxi commands and post them as I have no browser, neither am I offered a chance to install. This is much worse than before.

I have given up on the on-board Matrox display and the AMD Caicos is installed and I have set the Bios to use the external device. The Radeon driver has been selected but now I am stuck.

[Member Xecure]

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I will explain things so you understand what your are doing, and not only trying bootcodes.

For a graphic card to work it needs 2 things:
1. The kernel module related to that graphic device (kernel driver).
2. The Xorg module to render graphics to the Xorg/X11 graphic server (xorg video driver).

When running inxi -G, you are asking inxi to display all information it can find related to the graphic devices (hardware), the related kernel module that were loaded (and are being use) for this hardware to communicate with the kernel, and the module(s) xorg is using to draw to your screen.
For your example in OpenSUSE:

Graphics:
  Device-1: Matrox Systems MGA G200EV vendor: IBM driver: mgag200 v: kernel 
  bus ID: 07:00.0 chip ID: 102b:0530 
  Device-2: AMD Caicos [Radeon HD 6450/7450/8450 / R5 230 OEM] 
  vendor: PC Partner Limited driver: radeon v: kernel bus ID: 15:00.0 
  chip ID: 1002:6779 
  Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.3 compositor: kwin_x11 
  driver: ati,modesetting,radeon FAILED: mga unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
  resolution: <xdpyinfo missing> 
  OpenGL: renderer: llvmpipe (LLVM 11.0.1 128 bits) v: 4.5 Mesa 20.2.4 compat-v: 3.1 
  direct render: Yes 

This is the desired result you want to emulate in antiX, but for some reason it cannot do this automatically. The reason for the problem detecting and configuring the correct drivers out of the box can be many things (different kernel version: opensuse uses 5.13, antiX uses 4.9; different detection on the live USB, etc.).

From the above output, the device 2 is the one that is being used to output video:

Device-2: AMD Caicos [Radeon HD 6450/7450/8450)[…] driver: radeon

You can see that the kernel driver used for this device is called radeon. You can see if it is loaded in any linux system with
lsmod | grep radeon
If there is NO output, it is not loaded. You will need to load it with
sudo modprobe radeon

The next part is the module used for Xorg server:

Display: x11 server: X.org 1.20.3 […] driver: ati,modesetting,radeon

You can see that there are 3 xorg video modules loaded: ati, modesetting and radeon
modesetting refers to the ability of the kernel to manage the display resolution and other video related properties. It works much better in newer kernels and also on newer hardware. For some devices, it is recommended to disable it at boot. You can do this using the boot parameter nomodeset, to instead use the xorg modules and not let the kernel try to intervene too much.
nomodeset
You can also force the kernel mode setting to load the correct radeon xorg video driver with the boot parameter
radeon.modeset=1
but probably the thing that is failing in your case is the kernel modesetting feature, so this will probably not work, and it is better to use both nomodeset and disable radeon modesetting
nomodeset radeon.modeset=0

Normally, the radeon module will also load the ati driver, so lets concentrate on the radeon driver.
If you see that the xorg radeon driver isn’t being used by xorg after booting to antiX, you can force it to use it in one of two ways:
A. Using a boot parameter (only works on antiX live system, and before booting):
xorg=radeon
B. Disable X server, (if it is running, meaning you have a graphical interface), create a xorg.conf file specifying that the radeon xorg module must be enabled when starting X server, and then start the xserver again. You can do this from terminal
sudo make-xorg-conf -f radeon -o /etc/X11/xorg.conf
stop slim and xorg server
sudo service slim stop
start it again with
sudo service slim start
or
sudo startx slim

You could try combining both methodes, of disabling the kernel modesetting and also forcing xorg to load the radeon driver
nomodeset xorg=radeon

As you see, there are too many possibilities that may have caused the failure.

If nothing above worked, it is very possible that the older 4.9 linux kernel in the antiX 19.4 ISO doesn’t support so well the video card as the newer 5.X linux kernels. If this was the case, you would need to:
A. Use a different antiX edition, for example with kernel version 4.19, or a community release with kernel 5.10, or the newer antiX-21-beta1, which lets you select in the boot menus the kernel 5.10.
B. (last resort) Install in fail-safe mode, update the kernel to a newer one and then remove the /etc/X11/xorg.conf to let it sart detect on the next boot the correct driver.

The information is here. I hope this can help you understand how to read the inxi output for the graphics cards, and also how to find one of the multiple paths (or try them all) that might help you boot to a working antiX system.

Let me know if there is something I didn’t explain properly, or need clarification.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member Budgie]

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Hi Xecure,
Many thanks for the excellent summary of the issues I have had. I am sorry I have been so slow but much of this is new to me, possibly I have been lucky in the past. It does seem that upgrading my system has overlapped with software upgrades. Sorting out problems when things go wrong take so much time. The machines I am using have a stack of IBM management systems built in which run rather slowly before booting the OS. A reboot from cold takes approaching 4 minutes and I have had to test each of the hardware changes one at a time. All went well until the graphics display problems. For the servers I use KVM and copper links, cannot afford to use TCPIP over WAN as costs cannot be justified for our home office. That means I am stuck with analog displays. For our purposes however it all works well or did until this latest problem. The on-board display adaptor, the Matrox, is perfectly OK for our purposes but is clearly being left behind by the developments in software. I shall persevere and report back once I have probed a bit more.
Thanks again for your help.
Budge

[Member seaken64]

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Thanks @Xecure, that was a nice overview of how the graphics subsystem works in antiX. With some detailed information behind it it can be a good wiki article on the subject of graphics settings for antiX.

@Budgie, yes, it an be hard to adjust to the changes as the underpinnings of our systems change over time. Maybe you would be better off not upgrading right now? If it is critical that your current system “just works” you might want to stay at whatever version has been working for you. As the kernel updates and as a new version of Debian is released it may break your system and some of your older equipment may not get any attention from the developers.

But maybe you can add a different GPU/graphics card that is better supported? Or, you can learn to be your own “developer” for your own systems. There may be a way to compile a driver, or compile your own custom kernel. Depending on how much time and effort it takes it may be less trouble to upgrade the equipment.

I also run a small business and have decided that for our business Linux is not going to be used for anything critical. If I need to call a local consultant or get help while I am not available I need it to be fairly mainstream. And if I need to talk my crew through a problem on the phone I need them to be able to understand me. For us that means Windows. But I face the same thing with obsolete hardware and software upgrades. It is a constant issue for businesses in general but is especially hard to work with when you’re a small mom-and-pop shop with no IT department to help. Hopefully you can learn to fix what goes wrong after updates and upgrades and keep everything working. I can do that to some degree with help from this and other forums. But I don’t risk it with my critical systems. I just buy new computers and move on.

Seaken64

[Author]

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