Wrong screen resolution and impossible using SIS driver

[Member giogio]

Hi,
after a few happy year using MX 15/16 I decided to move to Antix because my very old machine is a noPAE one.
After installing the system I got the screen resolution is not correct, i.e. 1024×768 but the real resolution should be 1280×768.
I understand this is due to the fact I use the Vesa driver, but I was not able to use the sis driver, because if I use the command:
sudo make-xorg-conf sisimedia -o /etc/X11/xorg.conf
X does not start and I stay only in usual no graphic login.
My config as shown by the inxi -Fxz command is as follows.
Of course the X driver is the actual Vesa.

System:
  Host: plutone-antix Kernel: 4.9.160-antix.2-486-smp i686 bits: 32 compiler: gcc 
  v: 6.3.0 Desktop: IceWM 1.4.2 
  Distro: antiX-17.4.1_386-full Helen Keller 28 March 2019 
  base: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: FUJITSU SIEMENS product: Amilo A1645 v: 0.01 serial: <filter> 
  Mobo: Uniwill model: 255KI / 259KI Series v: 0.01 serial: <filter> 
  BIOS: American Megatrends v: 1.05C date: 11/07/2005 
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT0 charge: 24.8 Wh condition: 26.9/31.2 Wh (86%) model: 255/259 
  status: Charging 
CPU:
  Topology: Single Core model: Mobile AMD Sempron 3300+ bits: 32 type: UP 
  arch: K8 rev.E rev: 2 L2 cache: 128 KiB 
  flags: nx pae sse sse2 sse3 bogomips: 1596 
  Speed: 800 MHz min/max: 800/2000 MHz Core speed (MHz): 1: 800 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 661/741/760 PCI/AGP or 662/761Gx PCIE VGA 
  Display Adapter 
  vendor: Fujitsu Solutions driver: N/A bus ID: 01:00.0 
  Display: server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: vesa resolution: 1024x768~61Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.9 128 bits) v: 3.3 Mesa 13.0.6 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS7012 AC97 Sound 
  vendor: Fujitsu Solutions driver: snd_intel8x0 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.7 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.9.160-antix.2-486-smp 
Network:
  Device-1: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] SiS900 PCI Fast Ethernet 
  vendor: Fujitsu Solutions driver: sis900 v: kernel port: d800 bus ID: 00:04.0 
  IF: eth0 state: down mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Broadcom Limited BCM4318 [AirForce One 54g] 802.11g Wireless LAN 
  vendor: Gemtek driver: b43-pci-bridge v: N/A port: d800 bus ID: 00:0b.0 
  IF-ID-1: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 55.89 GiB used: 3.51 GiB (6.3%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: MP0603H size: 55.89 GiB 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 44.04 GiB used: 3.51 GiB (8.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
  ID-2: swap-1 size: 1024.0 MiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Info:
  Processes: 131 Uptime: 35m Memory: 876.0 MiB used: 403.5 MiB (46.1%) Init: SysVinit 
  runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 6.3.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.12 inxi: 3.0.33 

I think I forgot something while installing or while trying to load the sismode driver for graphics.
Thank you all for any help.

• This topic was modified 4 years ago by rokytnji.

[Member delix02]

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as usual, you should work with lsmod etc.
https://forum.peppermintos.com/index.php?topic=4776.0

maybe you better create the xorg.conf (or a xorg rule) manually

EDIT: as ususal, I started to answer before I started with thinking 🙂
in the meantime I realize, that there is no more sis driver in Debian (and therefore in antiX)
the last Debian version with this driver was Wheezy and antiX-15

You may try to build a driver module for antiX-17 on your own.
Start with the Debian snapshots
https://snapshot.debian.org/binary/xserver-xorg-video-sis/

• This reply was modified 4 years ago by delix02.

[Anonymous]

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Eventually, you might be able to enforce a VESA resolution by creating a file ~/config/settings/kernel/drivers/vesa and put in something like

mode 1280 768 32

The last number is the bitmap depth.

[Member giogio]

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Thank you, trying simply to change the resolution does not lead to something. I will try the way to build the missing sis driver, if i will be able to make it. I do not know why this driver was dropped by Debian, and that is a pity (I know Sis is a very old stuff, but Linux sometimes is really useful to recover old hardware).

[Forum Admin anticapitalista]

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It is included on the iso – as xf86-video-sisimedia-antix

http://repo.antixlinux.com/stretch/pool/main/x/xf86-video-sisimedia-antix/

As live user, did you boot with default option?

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

antiX with runit - leaner and meaner.

[Member giogio]

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I live booted with the default options. Maybe I was wrong. Now I tried to boot selecting a consolle resolution of 1280×768 (i.e. modes 31D or 31E when requested) but then the screen however fixed on vesa 1024×768. I do not know if the driver xf86-video-sisimedia-antix was properly loaded, but if I set “sisimedia” in xorg.conf (while it was “vesa” at first glance) X is not able to start (by the way if I search for the video drivers that are on the system I find a “sisimedia_drv” where a “vesa_drv” is too).
Please let me know if I missed something.

[Forum Admin SamK]

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Confirming there is a problem with the shipped sisimedia.

Tests done booting 17.4.1-Full Live USB.

Safe mode (vesa) produces the expected GUI desktop.
automatic login as demo

cat /proc/cmdline
vga=788 lang=en_GB quiet nomodeset xorg=safe

inxi -c0 -G
Graphics:
  Device-1: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 65x/M650/740 PCI/AGP 
  VGA Display Adapter 
  driver: N/A 
  Display: server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: vesa 
  resolution: 1280x1024~N/A 
  OpenGL: renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.9 128 bits) 
  v: 3.3 Mesa 13.0.6 

Default mode (sisimedia) produces the console text login screen no GUI.
manual login as demo

cat /proc/cmdline
vga=788 lang=en_GB quiet

inxi -c0 -G
Graphics:  Device-1: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 65x/M650/740 PCI/AGP VGA Display Adapter driver: N/A 
           Display: server: X.org 1.19.2 driver: sisimedia tty: 133x50 
           Message: Advanced graphics data unavailable in console. Try -G --display 

[Moderator caprea]

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I don’t have a sisimedia graphic-card, but because antix16 and mx16 worked fine with the card, and the xf86-video-sisimedia-driver seems to be the same on jessie and stretch, I wonder if it is a problem with the 4.9-kernel.

[Anonymous]

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the info on this linked page might be useful
Apr15, 2019 PCLinuxOS forum topic “Re: xserver update”

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