Fedora 8 64 bit X server issues

[Jim Cornette]

John Thompson wrote:
> I have Fedora 8 x86_64 installed on a machine with on board Intel-945GM 
> video. The xorg-x11-drv-i810 driver has been giving me a lot of 
> problems: if I use it, I cannot access a text console using 
> [ctrl-alt-Fn]; the monitor goes into standby with no display. The 
> console still reponds to typed commands, but nothing is displayed on the 
> monitor. On return to the X session, the display becomes unstable, and 
> often dies, and won't let me log back in -- the gdm screen disappears 
> and the "loading" cursor appears over a black screen, which persists 
> indefinitely. I then have to change to a text console, log in (blindly) 
> and initiate a reboot. On reboot, the POST text display is often wildly 
> off-center unless I power off the machine for several minutes.  
> 
> I can use the vesa driver instead of the Intel driver, but then power 
> management doesn't work. DPMS is enabled in the BIOS and in xorg.conf, 
> but doesn't seem to be recognized by the vsea driver. If I try using 
> e.g. GoogleEarth with the vesa driver, the X server just crashes.
> 
> What can I do to rectify this? Or should I just shit-can the on board 
> video and get a separate video card?
> 
> 

I have had the problem where the Intel graphics froze up and the 
computer needed to be rebooted before I could get a decent display a 
long while ago and it mysteriously was fixed by a fix for another 
problem related to dual displays. I also had the switching to VT and 
back to the GUI crashing the X server. Both problems were fixed by 
reporting the failure upstream though it took awhile.
I did notice before a computer which has Fedora 7 before the motherboard 
completely failed would fail again if I changed to a VT and back. The 
problem seems to have surfaced again.

Anyway, what kind of results do you get with the Intel driver instead of 
using the i810 driver?

Since the machine with the Intel I had is no more, I could not confirm 
if the VT switching problem is still present.

If the Intel driver does not work out better for you and you need to 
change to a VT from time to time, another video card may be needed.
Of course filing a bug upstream with the logs and xorg.conf files may 
help get the driver repaired. The process though is somewhat slow but 
usually resolves the problem.

Jim

-- 
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