Hello. I apology in advance if I am not reporting things correctly, but my knowledge about these things is very limited.
I have five Transtec computers, approximately born in July 2005; they have an intel 82845G video card.
The last 'yum update' was on January 30, 2014. I did not reboot the machines at that time. I cannot be sure about the date of the 'yum update' preceding that one, but I think is was on September 7, 2013.
Last Friday (February 14, 2014), 4 of those 5 computers stopped working properly after some action on them.
The problem is: black screen with only the arrow of the mouse (mouse is working correctly :-). Apart from that, the computers are OK: one can use Ctrl-Alt-F1, etc.
For sure, one of the action which led to the problem was a reboot. I cannot be 100% sure about the action, which was simply a change of screen: the machine was OK; then I changed the screen; it did not work any more; then I rebooted. But my experience is that, sometimes, even under normal condition, it does not work right away, or perhaps not at all, after changing the screen.
The 5th computer, on which nothing has been done, is still working just fine.
NB: for sure, there has been at least one reboot on at least one of the 5 machines between September (or whatever date at which the previous 'yum update' has been performed) and January, and the problem did not show up.
For what it's worth, the following 2 packages are installed:
xorg-x11-drv-intel-devel-2.21.12-2.el6.i686 xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.21.12-2.el6.i686
Also, here is the output of 'lspci | grep 82845':
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 01) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
Based on the data, my best guess is that the problem I have is due to some recent change in the centos packages. Perhaps it was supposed to be so? (I.e., no longer supporting old hardware?). If so, at any rate, I'll be grateful if someone can suggest a workaround, or perhaps a hint towards that goal.
Regards, Alain
On 2/17/2014 6:20 AM, Alain.Cochard@unistra.fr wrote:
I have five Transtec computers, approximately born in July 2005; they have an intel 82845G video card.
that chipset was new in 2002, and already bordering on obsolete by 2005 (Intel ended all support for the 845 in December 2005). It supported Pentium-4 "Northwood" CPUs, which were 32bit only, via socket 478 and first generation DDR SDRAM PC133.
its quite likely that stuff that old is no longer being tested for compatibility with new builds.
John R Pierce writes on Mon 17 Feb 2014 06:54:
that chipset was new in 2002, and already bordering on obsolete by 2005 (Intel ended all support for the 845 in December 2005). It supported Pentium-4 "Northwood" CPUs, which were 32bit only, via socket 478 and first generation DDR SDRAM PC133.
its quite likely that stuff that old is no longer being tested for compatibility with new builds.
Gerry Reno writes on Mon 17 Feb 2014 10:05:
Running current bits on ancient hardware is always risky.
Test first with LiveCD. Or better yet, stay back with known working bits.
Thanks much for the pieces of information.
Isn't this policy contradictory with the ten-year-long life cycle, in spirit if not in letter?
Gerry, could you please elaborate on what you mean by "Test first with LivecD? (My understanding is that there is a LiveCD for each new version, but not each time any package is updated.)
At any rate, what are my options now?
Could it be possible to downgrade to the working state? Google tells me about 'yum downgrade', but is it a good route in this case? Should I and could I go back to 6.4? Or could I try to identify a particular package?
Or is it more promising to try to reinstall?
Also, is there a hope that I could find a workaround with some configuration file, like xorg.conf?
Thank you. a.
Alain.Cochard@unistra.fr writes on Wed 19 Feb 2014 08:44:
At any rate, what are my options now?
Could it be possible to downgrade to the working state? Google tells me about 'yum downgrade', but is it a good route in this case? Should I and could I go back to 6.4? Or could I try to identify a particular package?
Or is it more promising to try to reinstall?
Also, is there a hope that I could find a workaround with some configuration file, like xorg.conf?
I followed the following, found at
https://ask.fedoraproject.org/en/question/10613/intel-82845g-integrated-grap...
from someone with the same problem:
* When your machine boots into the login screen (or a black screen with cursor if you are unlucky like me) hit CTRL+ALT+F2 to get to screen TTY2
* Login as root
* type 'init 3' to shut down the graphical interface
* type 'X -configure' (case sensitive)
* The new xorg.conf.new will be in root's home folder. optionally type 'cd /root' to get to that file.
* type 'nano xorg.conf.new' to open the file
* Find the line under "Device" which says 'Driver "intel"' and change it to 'Driver "vesa"'
* save and exit with CTRL+X, press 'Y' then hit <enter>
* rename existing xorg.conf, if any: mv -i /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/xorg.conf.old
* copy your new file with "vesa" line to the right place: cp /root/xorg.conf.new /etc/X11/xorg.conf
* start in graphical mode with 'init 5' or just 'reboot' and let things start up again.
In my case, there was no "intel"; instead, the line was 'Driver "modesetting"'. I first replaced 'modesetting' by 'vesa', but it failed. Then I kept the file without modifications, i.e., with 'Driver "modesetting"' and it worked.
Regards, a.
Running current bits on ancient hardware is always risky.
Test first with LiveCD. Or better yet, stay back with known working bits.
On 02/17/2014 09:20 AM, Alain.Cochard@unistra.fr wrote:
Hello. I apology in advance if I am not reporting things correctly, but my knowledge about these things is very limited.
I have five Transtec computers, approximately born in July 2005; they have an intel 82845G video card.
The last 'yum update' was on January 30, 2014. I did not reboot the machines at that time. I cannot be sure about the date of the 'yum update' preceding that one, but I think is was on September 7, 2013.
Last Friday (February 14, 2014), 4 of those 5 computers stopped working properly after some action on them.
The problem is: black screen with only the arrow of the mouse (mouse is working correctly :-). Apart from that, the computers are OK: one can use Ctrl-Alt-F1, etc.
For sure, one of the action which led to the problem was a reboot. I cannot be 100% sure about the action, which was simply a change of screen: the machine was OK; then I changed the screen; it did not work any more; then I rebooted. But my experience is that, sometimes, even under normal condition, it does not work right away, or perhaps not at all, after changing the screen.
The 5th computer, on which nothing has been done, is still working just fine.
NB: for sure, there has been at least one reboot on at least one of the 5 machines between September (or whatever date at which the previous 'yum update' has been performed) and January, and the problem did not show up.
For what it's worth, the following 2 packages are installed:
xorg-x11-drv-intel-devel-2.21.12-2.el6.i686 xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.21.12-2.el6.i686
Also, here is the output of 'lspci | grep 82845':
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 01) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
Based on the data, my best guess is that the problem I have is due to some recent change in the centos packages. Perhaps it was supposed to be so? (I.e., no longer supporting old hardware?). If so, at any rate, I'll be grateful if someone can suggest a workaround, or perhaps a hint towards that goal.
Regards, Alain
-
Alain.Cochard＠unistra.fr -
Gerry Reno -
John R Pierce