SPARC Laptop Running Debian.... HAVE MERCY

[version7x]

OHHH BOY!

I have an RDI Ultrabook (RDI is now called Tadpole).

Specs...

512 mb
8.15 gig hd
200mhz sparc proc

I'm not exactly sure of the video specs, but as far as I can tell...

ATI Rage LT (up to 24bit mode graphics) video card
14.1 inch 1024X786 Color Active Matrix TFT Display
4mb vid ram (guessing)

And!!!!

Debian 3.0 r0

And... I can't configure X

I always error out with "no screens found"

I've searched "no screens found", read the NHF on lcd's/anything related, searched on sparc, tadpole, ati and combos on all of them.

I've copied the XF86Config settings from these posts and tried to restart x.. but no luck - all settings still give me the "no screens found" output

Anyone know anything about these "portable servers"?????

thanks!

:confused:

[version7x]

Oh yes... I've also searched google and the tadpole website for the same combos listed above.


And with my most current configurations, I'm also getting a

(EE) Problem parsing the config file

message (may have been there before, but just noticed it) along with having no screens

[BigFatJoe]

if the server can't find the config file, it cant do much about the screens information found inside, now can it?? :D

Tell us what files you're editing - and their location, and also do a "X -version" to determine the XFree86 version.
Compare this to a "XFree86 -version"

[version7x]

Config file: /etc/X11/XF86Config


X -version: XFree86 Version 4.1.0.1
(protocol Version 11, revision 0, vendor release 6510)

XFree86 -version: same as above

[BigFatJoe]

that might be your culprit. try editing /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 instead.

[Strike]

To reconfigure X:

dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

This will generate a valid config file for you.

[version7x]

Ok... i've edited the correct config file now... still nothing (execept I'm no longer having problems parsing the config file)

I've also tried dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86

Not getting anything there either...

I did an lspci and found the following...

Host bridge: Psycho PCI Bus Module
Bridge: EBIS
Ethernet controller: Happy Meal (rev 01)
IDE Interface: IDE (rev 01)
Host bridge: Pyscho.......
CardBus Bridge: Cirrus logic
CardBus Bridge: Cirrus logic
SCSI Storage controller: LSI logic..

obviosly all of the nn:nn:nn addresses precede each entry, but none of these look like a video card to me

could that be a problem?

[BigFatJoe]

well, for what it's worth my "lspci" shows up with a vid card:

VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation...

Are you still getting that "no screens" error. Maybe if you post that part of your config file, we'll spot something you missed.

It may also be a problem with drivers...?

[version7x]

I don't have a way (yet) to cut and paste the output that is coming up. The laptop is not on my lan yet.

I'll add the portion of the output that contains errors... this of course is omitting all of the

"(II) Module XXX:vendor "The XFree86 Project"
complied for 4.1.0.1, module version 1.0.0" messages

(II) ATI: ATI Driver(version 6.3.6) for chipsets: ati
(II) R128 Driver for all ATI Rage 128 chipsets: -lists chipsets-


(EE) No devices detected.

Fatal server error:
no devices found

When reporting a server crash... blah blah blah...

XIO: fatal IO error 54 (connection reset by peer) on the X server "0:0"
after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining

here's a list of modules it attempted to load and didn't complain about (from what I can see... i have no ablility to scroll)

pex5
record
speedo
type1
vbe
xie
ati
mouse

[teeitup]

Run XFree86 -configure as root and follow the instructions that it gives when it's done. It should give a very basic working config file. This should at least tell you that there is hope.

You may want to scan through some of
this documentation... (http://www.xfree86.org/4.1.0/index.html)

[version7x]

Just tried the XFree86 -configure routine... exact same output.. Line by line.

I may just try reinstalling the entire os at this point!

[BigFatJoe]

thats not going to help. you should know by now that the X is part of the Debian post-installation, so reinstalling will not get you anywhere. if you feel you want to start from scratch, maybe update your /etc/apt/source.list to some good mirrors and issue a:

#apt-get install xserver-xfree86 --reinstall

Then, once you do that. Try to do a combination of editing /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 by hand as well as running xf86cfg.

It takes a while, but hopefully you'll find where you went wrong. Also, have you considered installing some new drivers for your vid card? If after a reinstall of X, nothing still works maybe try recompiling your kernel/or installing some new (different?) drivers.

[teeitup]

I thought that would give at least give you a 4 bit-16 color display.

Someone earlier mentioned lspci, another place to look is
more /proc/pci. If you don't see anything there that refers to a video card I think starting over is the only option.