[CentOS] Old harware (intel 82845G card) stopped working after update (centos 6)

[Gerry Reno]

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 at 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
>
>