Intel 810 Video Issues & Lockups

[Jim Cornette]

Mike A. Harris wrote:
> fedora at gxconcepts.com wrote:
> 
>> I installed Fedora Core 3, but seem to be having lots of issues with 
>> video
>> display and lockups.  I'm currently using a Dell Inspiron 2500 laptop, 
>> which
>> has the Intel 810 video chipset.
>>
>> I first installed FC3 with SELinux Active and then installed a second 
>> istalled a
>> second time with SELinux Disabled.  I am working with a fresh install 
>> on both
>> cases.
>>
>> I'm unable to track down the source of the problem, has anyone seen this?
> 
> 
> The i810 driver in X.Org X11 6.8.x is broken on i810 and i815 video
> hardware.  The exact cause of the problem is not yet known.  It could
> be a bug in the i810 video driver, the core X server code, or in the
> kernel side of the driver (DRM).

Someone using a nvidia driver reported a refresh problem that is similar 
to the problem that those with the 810/815 video hardware have really 
noticed. Is it possible that there is another xorg-x11 component causing 
the refresh error, other than the driver?

> 
> The bug has been filed in Red Hat bugzilla already, and is also filed
> in X.Org bugzilla and officially being tracked there.  Anyone
> experiencing problems with i810 or i815 video on Fedora Core 3
> can add themselves to the CC of the upstream bug report if they
> would like to track the issue and any progress being made on it
> by upstream X.Org developers/maintainers.  The upstream bug report
> is locate at:
> 
>     http://freedesktop.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=1817

Thanks! I'll be tracking the bug and hopefully not commenting too much 
on the issue there.

> 
> Red Hat is tracking the issue in X.Org bugzilla above, and once a patch
> is available that fixes this issue, we will review it for consideration
> for any future FC3 X.Org update releases.  In the mean time, any users
> who may be experiencing this issue can temporarily work around the
> issue by editing their /etc/X11/xorg.conf by hand, and adding the
> following line to the driver section:
> 
>     Option "noaccel"

This is what works for me, but with "NoAccel". Are these options case 
sesitive?


> 
> This will disable 2D acceleration in the driver, which should result in
> slower but working video.  Alternatively you can try using the "vesa"
> driver, but it is also unaccelerated and will likely be even slower.

For my particular 815 video, vesa causes diagonal lines across the 
display and is unusable as a driver selection.

> 
> Once X.Org has tracked down the cause of the issue and a patch is made
> available that fixes it, we will review it for future updates as
> mentioned above.

Looking around on the server that the belo link refers to, I noticed an 
i915 driver that is listed. Would stagnating the i810 driver at a level 
that worked for the 810/815 and adding a new class of drivers be better 
for keeping the old video hardware working and not hinder the newer 
similar, but different enough to cause problems drivers evolving? It 
seems that the first 810 /815 breakage was due to improvements for the 
830 video hardware. I know that the 865G does not randomly crash any 
longer because of improvements made to the i810 driver that make these 
later video harware more reliable.

Thanks! This issue concerns me, since one video type was made more 
reliable and the other was made less functional and both use the same 
driver. One is bound to be killed by revisions to make the other 
videocard work more reliably.


Jim
> 
> Hope this helps.
>