F10 -> F11 X server problem with /dev/fb0

[Aldo Foot]

On Thu, Jun 25, 2009 at 8:45 AM, Peter J. Stieber<developer at toyon.com> wrote:
> AF = Aldo Foot
> AF>>> http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Framebuffer-HOWTO-5.html
> AF>>>
> AF>>> "You'll need to create the framebuffer device in /dev.
> AF>>> You need one per framebuffer device, so all you need
> AF>>> to do is to type in mknod /dev/fb0 c 29 0 for the first
> AF>>> one. Subsequent ones would be in multiples of 32, so for
> AF>>> example to create /dev/fb1, you would need to type in
> AF>>> mknod /dev/fb1 c 29 32, and so on up to the eighth
> AF>>> framebuffer device (mknod /dev/fb7 c 29 224)"
>
> PS = Pete Stieber
> PS>> I already have a /dev/fb that I didn't create...
> PS>>
> PS>> crw-------. 1 pstieber root     29,   0 2009-06-24 08:15 fb
> PS>>
> PS>> Should I still create /dev/fb0?
>
> AF> I would since the error message you get points to
> AF> the specific filename /dev/fb0. But note the "29, 0"
> AF> for /dev/fb, which means for a second one it would be
> AF> "29, 32". If you feel brave delete the /dev/fb and
> AF> create a new /dev/fb0. I wonder what would happen if
> AF> you rename /dev/fb to /dev/fb0. Just be cautious and
> AF> try whatever you're comfortable with.
>
> I tried
>
> # mv /dev/fb /dev/fb0
>
> It didn't work, so I moved it back to fb and I tried to create fb0...
>
> # mv /dev/fb0 /dev/fb
> # mknod /dev/fb0 c 29 32
>
> startx still report
>
> (EE) open /dev/fb0: No such device
>
> Xwindows is trying to use the new nouveau NVIDIA driver.
>
> Maybe there is a problem with the driver?

One way to troubleshoot is to create a new Xorg.conf and change
the Driver line to "vesa". You need to boot into runlevel 3, log in as
root and do "Xorg -configure", which will create a new config
file at /root/xorg.conf.new. To use it you'll have to move it to /etc/Xorg.conf.

In it find the Device block, like:

  Section "Device"
     Driver "vesa"
  EndSection

Note that there's no longer need for an Xorg.conf since support for
video cards is now more extensive[1]. I have an nvidia card in my
32bit system and never had issues, but everyone's setup is different.
Try the Xorg archives[2] and mine for info there.

[1] http://docs.fedoraproject.org/release-notes/f11/en-US/
[2] http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/xorg/

good luck,
~af