second monitor, no image

[Member zeh]

Hello,
I’m trying to use a second monitor using disper (display switcher for attaching/detaching displays) on my antix 17 installation (hardware nvidia graphics card). disper recognizes the monitor but there is no image. I’ve tried to install a nvidia graphics driver using the system’s dedicated tool and got this reply:
“Uh oh. Your card is only supported by older legacy drivers which are not in any current Debian suite.”

Could anyone point me to a source from where I could get a legacy driver?
Thank you.

zehAX@tecAX17:~
$ inxi -F
System: Host: tecAX17 Kernel: 4.10.5-antix.1-486-smp i686 bits: 32 Desktop: IceWM 1.4.2
Distro: antiX-17.b2_386-full keerfa 28 July 2017
Machine: Type: Laptop System: TOSHIBA product: TE 2100 v: PT210E-082YK-GR serial: <root required>
Mobo: TOSHIBA model: Portable PC v: Version A0 serial: <root required> BIOS: TOSHIBA v: Version 1.60
date: 07/25/2003
Battery: ID-1: BAT1 charge: 29.9 Wh condition: 29.9/38.9 Wh (77%)
CPU: Topology: Single Core model: Mobile Intel Pentium 4 – M bits: 32 type: MCP L2 cache: 512 KiB
Speed: 1800 MHz min/max: 1200/1800 MHz Core speed (MHz): 1: 1800
Graphics: Device-1: NVIDIA NV17M [GeForce4 420 Go] driver: nouveau v: kernel
Display: server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: nouveau unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa resolution: 1024×768~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI nv17 x86/MMX/SSE2 v: 1.2 Mesa 13.0.6
Audio: Device-1: Intel 82801CA/CAM AC97 Audio driver: snd_intel8x0
Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.10.5-antix.1-486-smp
Network: Device-1: Intel 82801CAM PRO/100 VE Ethernet driver: e100
IF: eth0 state: down mac: 00:a0:d1:d5:84:8c
Device-2: Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG [Calexico2] Network driver: ipw2200
IF: eth1 state: up mac: 00:13:ce:6b:17:c2
Drives: Local Storage: total: 74.53 GiB used: 20.11 GiB (27.0%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: HM080HC size: 74.53 GiB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 9.60 GiB used: 6.05 GiB (63.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda8
ID-2: /home size: 20.98 GiB used: 14.05 GiB (67.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda5
ID-3: swap-1 size: 1.01 GiB used: 464 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 64.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info: Processes: 131 Uptime: 51m Memory: 495.7 MiB used: 238.7 MiB (48.2%) Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.36
zehAX@tecAX17:~
$

[Moderator caprea]

Helpful

Up

0

::

Are you using the testing repo on antiX17 ?
Your card needs the nvidia-legacy-304xx-driver, which should be still supported in stretch repo, if I’m not completely mistaken.

It is no more supported on buster, though there was somebody on the forum who managed to get the 304-legacy driver to work on buster (antiX19)
https://www.antixforum.com/forums/topic/nvidia-geforce-6800-antix-19-2-32bit/

But it is doubtful with testing and whether the effort is worthwhile.Did you try Xrander from control-centre > session > Screen resolution ?

If you are not using testing repo, please post the output of inxi -r

[Anonymous]

Helpful

Up

0

::

hi zeh,

have you tried

ARandR ... Applications >> preferences >> ARandR

and marking both monitors active. not sure if the legacy source code will
even build against a modern kernel. the last driver was
the 96.43 series for the 420 go chip. this is debian wiki page for nvidia.

https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

this is the link for nvidia driver from nvidia site.

https://www.nvidia.com/download/driverResults.aspx/48996/en-us

[Moderator caprea]

Helpful

Up

0

::

Yes, linuxdaddy is probably right, the card is even older , so forget about the nvidia driver, they are not supported anymore for these old cards.

[Anonymous]

Helpful

Up

0

::

I do have an old geforce mx2 that uses the same driver to try building it.
I can setup a pc with antiX 17 and try on different kernels. It might be an
adventure getting a 9 year old driver up and going though. try the above ways
first to set the monitors active and resolutions using the default nouveau driver

[Member zeh]

Helpful

Up

0

::

It’s my first time trying to use a second monitor with this old machine (I use two monitors with another machine running MX) and I’d not realized arandr deals with this as well and not only resolutions. Tried as suggested and got the same result as with disper – the system recognizes the second monitor but there is no video there.

I’m not using the testing repo.

$ inxi -r
Repos: Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list
1: deb http://repo.antixlinux.com/stretch stretch main nosystemd nonfree
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list
1: deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list
1: deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
2: deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/onion.list
No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list

Edit: I’ve downloaded the 96.43.23 driver and I’m going to try to install it and see if it will work.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by zeh.
• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by zeh.

[Member zeh]

Helpful

Up

0

::

The 96.43 driver doesn’t install. Neither with the 4.10 nor with the 4.4 kernels. Neither kernel supports that driver anymore, the system tells me. And now my system doesn’t even recognize the second monitor (just telling, not that it’s a problem, since I couldn’t use it anyway).

So, to my layman eyes it looks like I’d need a 3 series kernel. But, since there is none of those in the Package Installer kernel section, I wonder if antix 17 even works with a 3 series kernel. If you guys can clarify this to me I’ll appreciate.

Regarding the alternative process caprea pointed me to, it’s not trivial for me in itself. Besides, my system is antix 17, not 19, and it runs with Xorg 1.19, not 1.20. It looks like it’d be a simpler process in my case, but I’ just guessing, since I don’t really know what’s involved. So, if venture on that path it’ll have to be on the weekend, with more time.

[Moderator caprea]

Helpful

Up

0

::

There is not much point in continuing to deal with the nvidia driver here if you ask me.
No reason why the nouveau driver should not be able to handle a second monitor.
If you have time you could please post
inxi -Gxxx
to see which driver is used in time

xrandr --query
to get an overview of the connections

and start with
xrandr --auto
to activate all monitors

[Member zeh]

Helpful

Up

0

::

OK, here you go

zehAX@tecAX17:~
$ inxi -Gxxx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA NV17M [GeForce4 420 Go] vendor: Toshiba America Info Systems 
  driver: N/A bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:0175 
  Display: server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: fbdev,nouveau unloaded: modesetting,vesa 
  alternate: nv resolution: 1024x768~N/A 
  OpenGL: renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.9 128 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 13.0.6 
  compat-v: 3.0 direct render: Yes 
zehAX@tecAX17:~
$ xrandr --auto
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
zehAX@tecAX17:~
$ xrandr --query
xrandr: Failed to get size of gamma for output default
Screen 0: minimum 1024 x 768, current 1024 x 768, maximum 1024 x 768
default connected 1024x768+0+0 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768       0.00* 
zehAX@tecAX17:~

As said, now the system doesn’t recognize the second monitor.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by zeh.

[Moderator caprea]

Helpful

Up

0

::

zeh wrote:

driver: N/A

The nouveau-driver is not really loaded here.It’s also using software rendering (renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe) instead of hardware.
Then it is also no wonder that the nouveau does not work properly.

Was this also the case before you tried to install the nvidia-driver ?
Does the file /etc/X11/xorg.conf
exist ? If so please delete it and reboot.

Is the nouveau driver might blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/ or /usr/lib/modprobe.d/ ?

If all this can be ruled out, you could try a bootparameter like
xorg=nouveau nouveau.modeset=1

Also take a look at your in time existing bootparameters
cat /proc/cmdline
Is there something else than ro quiet ?

• This reply was modified 2 years, 3 months ago by caprea.

[Member zeh]

Helpful

Up

0

::

The file /etc/X11/xorg.conf existed (empty) and I’ve deleted it.
The nouveau driver was blacklisted in /etc/modprobe.d/ (single entry in file kms-sg-blacklist.conf). I’ve commented it out.

$ cat /proc/cmdline
BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.10.5-antix.1-486-smp root=UUID=73434de2-f17d-4c45-87d4-fa70153ebfd2 ro vga=791 quiet nomodeset nouveau.modeset=0

I’ve rebooted changing nouveau.modeset=0 to nouveau.modeset=1. As I had left the second monitor plugged in the system recognized it but not the laptop monitor. On the next reboot, with second monitor unplugged, the system recognized the laptop monitor normally. However, after plugging in the second monitor back again, it wasn’t recognized.

[Moderator caprea]

Helpful

Up

0

::

What happens if you only use ro quiet as bootparameter
so no vga=791, no nomodeset ,no nouveau.modeset=x

What does inxi show, is the nouveau loaded correctly now ?

[Member zeh]

Helpful

Up

0

::

Now I’ve a “shrinked” desktop on my laptop’s monitor and second monitor still not recognized.

$ inxi -Gxxx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA NV17M [GeForce4 420 Go] vendor: Toshiba America Info Systems 
  driver: rivafb v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:0175 
  Display: server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: fbdev,nouveau unloaded: modesetting,vesa 
  alternate: nv resolution: 640x480~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: N/A v: N/A direct render: N/A 

[Moderator caprea]

Helpful

Up

0

::

Yes,and nouveau is still not loaded, looks like you have to stick with nouveau.modeset=1

[Member zeh]

Helpful

Up

0

::

Now everything looks ok software-wise. However, still no image on the second monitor. The cable terminals are properly plugged in and the second monitor seems to be the “default” if it’s connected on boot.

zehAX@tecAX17:~
$ xrandr --auto
zehAX@tecAX17:~
$ xrandr --query
Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1024 x 768, maximum 4096 x 4096
VGA-1 connected primary 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768      60.00* 
   800x600       60.32    56.25  
   848x480       60.00  
   640x480       59.94  
LVDS-1 connected 1024x768+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
   1024x768      60.00*+
   800x600       59.96  
   640x480       59.94  
   720x400       59.97  
   640x400       59.96  
   640x350       59.84  
TV-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
zehAX@tecAX17:~
$ inxi -Gxxx
Graphics:
  Device-1: NVIDIA NV17M [GeForce4 420 Go] vendor: Toshiba America Info Systems 
  driver: nouveau v: kernel bus ID: 01:00.0 chip ID: 10de:0175 
  Display: server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: nouveau unloaded: fbdev,modesetting,vesa 
  alternate: nv resolution: 1024x768~60Hz, 1024x768~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI nv17 x86/MMX/SSE2 v: 1.2 Mesa 13.0.6 direct render: Yes 
zehAX@tecAX17:~
$ 

[Author]

Posts