Oh no something has gone wrong! after reinstalling Debian and Gnome.

[Anil Duggirala]

I had installed Windows 10 and Debian 8.8 (with LXDE) in dual boot
(UEFI) and everything was working. I wanted to reinstall Debian, so I
installed Debian again by deleting the debian partitions (I think
correctly) using the Debian installer partitioner and choosing the
Guided use largest continuous space option, this time I installed with
the Gnome desktop environment. I am getting a Oh No, Something has gone
wrong message, the system cannot recover' message after booting into
Debian. Should I have deleted the prior Debian entry in the EFI
partition? does this have anything to do with this error? Is there any
other solution to this problem?
thanks a lot,

[Fungi4All]

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Oh no something has gone wrong! after reinstalling Debian and Gnome.

Local Time: May 21, 2017 3:56 AM

UTC Time: May 21, 2017 12:56 AM

From: anildu...@fastmail.fm

To: debia...@lists.debian.org

Check the UUIDs of the system (ls -lh /dev/disk/by-UUID) and compare the uuid of the partition with the one listed in the grub.cfg to see if they match.  Probably by deleting and formating the partition a new UUID was created that does not match the prexisting one.  If you have other systems and installed debian without its own bootloader the existing grub is from previous installations and was not updated.  If the "other" system boots fine and gives you access to its own grub, just do a (sudo update-grub) and it will locate the new installation with the correct uuid and replace the menu entry.  

Just guessing the details you did not post.

thanks a lot,

[Felix Miata]

Anil Duggirala composed on 2017-05-20 19:56 (UTC-0500):
...

We can help you better if you can provide more information.

When was your PC new? What make and model is it?

Are you able to Ctrl-Alt-Fn and log in? If yes, try to show us output at least
from:

inxi -c0 -G
or
inxi -c0 -v1
or
lspci -nnk | grep -A4 'VGA'

Also if yes, we probably need to see /var/log/Xorg.0.log if you can reach it.
Send it to https://paste.debian.net/ if you are able. If not, you may be able to
show it to us via the instructions on http://termbin.com/ .

If you haven't been there already, read through:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=47078

Same for:
http://bfy.tw/Bubv
--
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/

[Pascal Hambourg]

Le 21/05/2017 à 09:55, Jimmy Johnson a écrit :

> No, you should NOT have deleted the partition, now your partition table
> is messed up.

Bullshit. This is just a Gnome error.

[Jimmy Johnson]

On 05/20/2017 05:56 PM, Anil Duggirala wrote:

No, you should NOT have deleted the partition, now your partition table

is messed up. All you had to do was format or better yet just delete
the files and reinstall, by deleting the files you can save /home. But
now you need to look at that drive with a partition editor like gparted,
maybe use a live-cd with gparted installed OR the wheezy live disc will
let you install gparted.
--
Jimmy Johnson

Debian Sid/Testing - Plasma 5.8.6 - EXT4 at sda15
Registered Linux User #380263

[Pascal Hambourg]

Le 21/05/2017 à 03:40, Fungi4All a écrit :
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: Oh no something has gone wrong! after reinstalling Debian and Gnome.
> Local Time: May 21, 2017 3:56 AM
> UTC Time: May 21, 2017 12:56 AM
> From: anildu...@fastmail.fm
> To: debia...@lists.debian.org
>
> I had installed Windows 10 and Debian 8.8 (with LXDE) in dual boot
> (UEFI) and everything was working. I wanted to reinstall Debian, so I
> installed Debian again by deleting the debian partitions (I think
> correctly) using the Debian installer partitioner and choosing the
> Guided use largest continuous space option, this time I installed with
> the Gnome desktop environment. I am getting a Oh No, Something has gone
> wrong message, the system cannot recover' message after booting into
> Debian. Should I have deleted the prior Debian entry in the EFI
> partition?

No. The new installation deleted it automatically.

> does this have anything to do with this error?

No.

> Check the UUIDs of the system (ls -lh /dev/disk/by-UUID)

Irrelevant.
This is just a Gnome error, mostly due to lack of required features in
the graphics subsystem. LXDE worked fine because it has fewer
requirements than Gnome. Sometimes you just need to install non-free
firmwares (often with a Radeon GPU). Sometimes you need to install newer
kernel or Xorg drivers. Felix's answer instructs how to gather useful
information.

[Jimmy Johnson]

Unless you are deleting the last partition your partition table is going
to be messed up. I hope you enjoy your B.S. You can workaround by using
UUID, but personally I do not care for a messed up partition table.

[Michael Milliman]

On 05/21/2017 05:09 AM, Jimmy Johnson wrote:
> On 05/21/2017 12:57 AM, Pascal Hambourg wrote:
>> Le 21/05/2017 à 09:55, Jimmy Johnson a écrit :
>
>>> No, you should NOT have deleted the partition, now your partition table
>>> is messed up.
>>
>> Bullshit. This is just a Gnome error.
>
> Unless you are deleting the last partition your partition table is going
> to be messed up. I hope you enjoy your B.S. You can workaround by using
> UUID, but personally I do not care for a messed up partition table.

I also call B.S. on this response. The OPs problem has absolutely
nothing to do with the partition table or the UUIDs of the various
partitions. If it did, the system would not have gotten to the point of
starting GNOME. Adding, deleting and resizing partitions, using the
appropriate tools, is relatively save in the modern era. I have, on
many occasions over the years deleted and re-arranged the partitions on
my system to accommodate changing needs and have had no problems whatsoever.
--
73's,
WB5VQX -- The Very Quick X-ray

[Jimmy Johnson]

Michael what I'm saying is if you have sda1,sda2,sda3, partitions and
you delete sda2 partition, sda3 becomes sda2 and if you make a new
partition, even in the same unused space it will become sda3. So, in the
end the drive will read sda1,sda3,sda2 and personally I can't live like
that, I have to many systems to tend too. But as it's been mentioned you
can use UUID if your fstab and that reminds me, if you delete or format
a partition the UUID will change, #blkid will give you the UUID's. I
hear your argument, but I say back-up and start over, do it right.

[Pascal Hambourg]

Le 21/05/2017 à 12:48, Jimmy Johnson a écrit :
>
> Michael what I'm saying is if you have sda1,sda2,sda3, partitions and
> you delete sda2 partition, sda3 becomes sda2 and if you make a new
> partition, even in the same unused space it will become sda3.

Bullshit again. Unless the partition table is implicitly reordered (no
partitioning tool I know does this), primary partitions are not
renumbered when deleting or adding a partition. There can be sda3
without sda2. Only logical partitions may be renumbered when deleting or
adding another logical partition, because there cannot be sda5 without sda6.

> So, in the
> end the drive will read sda1,sda3,sda2 and personally I can't live like
> that

Out-of order partitions are harmless. Partition numbers are just
numbers. I guess you must hate LVM too.

> I have to many systems to tend too. But as it's been mentioned you
> can use UUID if your fstab

You *should* use UUIDs or any other persistent identifier unless you
have a very good reason not to. Disk and partition device names are not
persistent, hence not reliable as volume identifiers. The Debian
installer does use UUIDs by default.

Anyway, this again has nothing to do with the OP's problem.

[Michael Milliman]

The Debian Installer uses UUIDs in the entries in the /etc/fstab file,
so changing the numbering of the partitions (/dev/sda2 vs. /dev/sda3)
does not have an effect on the overall functioning of the system. You
can also use partition labels in the fstab file as well, as I do
frequently, as I move data from drive to drive on occasion and simply
relabel the partitions to move with the data. With that, there is no
need to change the fstab when I move data around.

However, the OP's post does not mention anything of this nature. The OP
deleted the existing Debian partition(s) leaving the existing Windows
partition(s) alone. No mention was made of the ordering of the
partitions on the drive. The OP then re-installed Debian with the
Debian installer, effectively starting from scratch with Debian.
Everything seems to work, except GNOME is crashing on boot. There are
several things that can cause this, and I have caused some of them on my
system before, however the fact that this is a fresh install limits the
possible causes, the most likely of them being a missing (non-free?)
video driver or some such required by GNOME to run properly. The way
the OP went about scrapping and re-installing the Debian system is valid
and should not have caused a problem under normal circumstances. Hence
the suspicion of a missing driver (again probably non-free, and likely
Radeon as well...I've had similar issues with my laptop).

[Jimmy Johnson]

I have a Lenovo laptop with the problem you describe and it's a
kernel/video/plasma problem, works fine with the old Sid 4.7 kernel but
not with the 4.9, first boot is ok, on restart you will not get the DM
or x and may freeze up. Sometimes switching back and forth on the
consoles will get you x, alt+ctrl+F2-F1-F3-F7. Jessie back-ports are
also 4.9 and don't work right too. The problem here is an
Intel-965-mobile, I'm going to install the Jessie kernel and see if that
works or maybe a Ubuntu kernel, I think they are 4.4 and 4.8, I know the
4.4 will work, for me anyways, but I have to do something cause the 4.7
kernel is old now and not getting security updates.

[Michael Milliman]

Hey, its better than the 3.16 kernel I was stuck with for a long time up
until just a couple of months. :) In my case, laptop would boot, but
the screen would be completely blanked out. If I caught the boot
process at just the right time with a alt+ctl+F1, I could get it to
finish booting, if I missed the window, it was power-off, power-on!! :(
The first-boot on 3.16 would do usually boot into software emulation
mode, and then I installed the Radeon drivers, and everything was OK. I
have 4.9 running now and working fine. Video drivers and wifi drivers
have been my bane for many a year!

[Jimmy Johnson]

I had to remove all Debian firmware and installed linux-image-generic
and linux-headers-generic and Ubuntu's firmware-linux, but now it's
running 4.4.0-21-generic, it's booting fine and I can get updates too.
So this kernel problem I've had for more than a year is fixed, I was
going to wait for Stretch to go final but I've waited long enough. This
was on two systems Sid/Testing and Stretch. The version I'm using is
Ubuntu 16.04, just in case the OP wants to try it, I used Synaptic to do
the work and pinned the Debian release so not to pickup any other Ubuntu
packages not needed and I was able to rid more than 800Mb of Debian
kernel's on each system.

[Anil Duggirala]

Thanks everyone for your responses. I did not expect such quick and full
response. I also really don't believe it has anything to do with
partitioning (Debian deleted the partitions and created exactly
corresponding partitions with guided partitioning).
More info: When I installed initially with LXDE, I had horrible graphics
and no touchpad, upon installing the Linux-image from backports (4.9),
these problems were resolved. I have tried installing Linux-image 4.9
from backports (using the command line) now again, the problem persists.
However, in the debian-laptop users list, I guy who said he has the
exact same laptop (Asus X441SA) said he is running Gnome-Classic
(Gnome), I have tried asking him if he got this problem but have
received no response from him.
All commands outputs here are in a new installation (I have installed 3
times now), with the regular kernel (3.16)
Outputs:
inxi commands say 'command not found'
lspci .... :
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device
[8086:22b1] (rev 35)
Subsystem: ASUSTek Computer Inc. Device [1043:1290]
00:0b.0 Signa processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation Device
[8086:22dc] (rev 35)
Subsystem: ASUSTek Computer Inc. Device [1043:1290]
00:13.0 SATA Controller [0106]: Intel Corporation Device [8086:22a3]
(rev 35)

I have pasted Xorg log at https://paste.debian.net/933539

Should I just try Mate or XFCE?? is it possible that works?

thanks a lot,

[Felix Miata]

Anil Duggirala composed on 2017-05-21 19:24 (UTC-0500):

> More info: When I installed initially with LXDE, I had horrible graphics
> and no touchpad, upon installing the Linux-image from backports (4.9),
> these problems were resolved. I have tried installing Linux-image 4.9
> from backports (using the command line) now again, the problem persists.
> However, in the debian-laptop users list, I guy who said he has the
> exact same laptop (Asus X441SA) said he is running Gnome-Classic
> (Gnome), I have tried asking him if he got this problem but have
> received no response from him.
> All commands outputs here are in a new installation (I have installed 3
> times now), with the regular kernel (3.16)
> Outputs:
> inxi commands say 'command not found'

Install it, then run it:

apt-get install inxi
inxi -c0 -G

> lspci .... :
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device
> [8086:22b1] (rev 35)

https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Intel/NUC5PPYH reports your 8086:22b1
Intel gfxchip is not supported on (standard with 3.16 kernel) Debian Jessie, but
is supported on Debian Stretch.

> I have pasted Xorg log at https://paste.debian.net/933539

from that log:

(EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
(II) FBDEV(1): using default device

confirms your gfxchip is not supported by the software installed and is falling
back to a generic driver that is not even minimally usable with Gnome and/or GDM.

> Should I just try Mate or XFCE?? is it possible that works?

You should install Stretch. Even with Mate or Xfce video performance will be
poor at best in Jessie unless you can install whatever is required from backports.

[Michael Milliman]

Sorry about the side conversation on partitioning. Clearly your problem
is not the partitioning scheme. As Felix found, the key information in
lspci output is the device id (8086:22b1) for your graphics controller
is not supported in the stable distribution of Debian. It is, however,
supported in the Stretch distribution. I am running Stretch currently,
and it is a good working distribution, with the vast majority of major
bugs already worked out of it. You should be able to run Stretch
without problems. I concur with Felix, install Stretch and enjoy :)

[Anil Duggirala]

Thanks a lot Felix and Micheal.
I will follow your advice, and for the first time ever, use Debian
Testing. I guess when Stretch is released I will be able to install
that, correct? So I will be able to go back to using a stable release
right? I'm really afraid of testing, the whole reason I like Debian is
for its stability, but using stable would require me to install various
packages from backports maybe?? I did try installing that newer kernel,
that didn't work.
thanks a lot,

[Brian]

On Mon 22 May 2017 at 08:54:59 -0500, Anil Duggirala wrote:

> Thanks a lot Felix and Micheal.
> I will follow your advice, and for the first time ever, use Debian
> Testing. I guess when Stretch is released I will be able to install
> that, correct? So I will be able to go back to using a stable release

You already have Stretch installed. Ok, it is not yet released as stable
but it is nearly there. Make sure your sources.list has stretch and not
testing for the deb lines to keep the machine on stable.

> right? I'm really afraid of testing, the whole reason I like Debian is
> for its stability, but using stable would require me to install various
> packages from backports maybe?? I did try installing that newer kernel,
> that didn't work.

At this stage of the freeze you are not risking much in terms of
stability. No need to be afraid.

--
Brian.

[Anil Duggirala]

Thanks a lot Brian, so right after I install I can change all deb lines
and replace 'testing' with 'stretch' ??

[Brian]

On Mon 22 May 2017 at 09:12:39 -0500, Anil Duggirala wrote:

> Thanks a lot Brian, so right after I install I can change all deb lines
> and replace 'testing' with 'stretch' ??

Correct. You will get any updates to testing for a short while. Then it
becomes stable (but still stretch). After that you get updates to stable.

--
Brian.

[Fungi4All]

-------- Original Message --------

Subject: Re: Oh no something has gone wrong! after reinstalling Debian and Gnome.

UTC Time: May 22, 2017 1:54 PM

From: anildu...@fastmail.fm

Thanks a lot Felix and Micheal.

I will follow your advice, and for the first time ever, use Debian

Testing. I guess when Stretch is released I will be able to install

that, correct? So I will be able to go back to using a stable release

right?

FAQ101  No, if you chose testing (replace in sources.list or in synaptics list the word jessie with testing) once stretch is stable you will be there, just like if you had just installed Debian9 from the disk and added all your current packages.  But if you don't replace testing with stretch you will end up one step beyond (debian 10).  So it is best to replace jessie with stretch in your repository/sources.list (/etc/apt/sources.list use root or sudo to edit).  Then eventually you will be running stretch stable, which might be tomorrow or next month.

I'm really afraid of testing, the whole reason I like Debian is

for its stability, but using stable would require me to install various

packages from backports maybe?? I did try installing that newer kernel,

that didn't work.

How did you try that?  Not all lin4. is compatible with stretch.

The only thing to fear is stability, or too much of it.  I have run stretch and sid (testing and unstable currently) and I get a sense that sid is even lighter and more stable in hardware resources.  With all the fooling around I do I have yet to see anything break or freeze or do anything unexpected in sid.  Stretch is so stable it is boring :)   Now Jessie, that is a really unstable system ;b  .... even your graphics don't like it.

thanks a lot,

(AK)

[Kent West]

On Mon, May 22, 2017 at 9:51 AM, Fungi4All <fung...@protonmail.com> wrote:

The only thing to fear is stability, or too much of it.  I have run stretch and sid (testing and unstable currently) and I get a sense that sid is even lighter and more stable in hardware resources.  With all the fooling around I do I have yet to see anything break or freeze or do anything unexpected in sid.  Stretch is so stable it is boring :)   Now Jessie, that is a really unstable system ;b  .... even your graphics don't like it.

I have run sid (unstable) for years (a decade? more?), and although there's often little breakages (uh oh, can't install Firefox; wait a day and a half; okay, all better now, it's installed), I can only recall one time (8 years ago? 10?) when the breakage was serious enough that it actually borked my box so I couldn't do anything with it. But even that, as I recall, only had me broken a day or so, as I either manually fixed it, or just reinstalled a fresh sid, or waited until the breakage "fixed itself". The conclusion I have come to after all these years is that for a workstation that doesn't have a mission-critical need for five-9's uptime, sid/unstable is a good solution for staying up-to-date and happy, but it's probably not suitable for a mission-critical box.

--

Kent West                    <")))><
Westing Peacefully - http://kentwest.blogspot.com

[Anil Duggirala]

thanks a lot Fungi,

I want to reinstall the whole system, so I will download Strech RC 3 from here https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/

and then after finishing installation will change 'testing' for 'jessie', can I do that?

thanks a lot,

P.S. sorry for spamming your email Fungi

[Michael Milliman]

On 05/22/2017 12:28 PM, Anil Duggirala wrote:
> thanks a lot Fungi,
> I want to reinstall the whole system, so I will download Strech RC 3
> from here https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/
> and then after finishing installation will change 'testing' for
> 'jessie', can I do that?
> thanks a lot,
>

No, after installing, you want to change testing for stretch...in fact,
I would use stretch just to start with, then no change will be needed
after installation. If you do a fresh install with the stretch
installation CD/DVD, then it should handle the sources.list file for
you, and you won't have to change anything.

[Anil Duggirala]

Thanks a lot, thanks Micheal,

[Lisi Reisz]

On Monday 22 May 2017 15:12:39 Anil Duggirala wrote:
> Thanks a lot Brian, so right after I install I can change all deb lines
> and replace 'testing' with 'stretch' ??

If you are installing from scratch, yes. If you are upgrading, go straight
from "stable" or "jessie" to "stretch", and don't bother with "testing".

Lisi

[Jimmy Johnson]

If you have not already upgraded again, do you have the packages "xorg
and dkms" installed. If not install them and reboot.

[Anil Duggirala]

Hello,
I have upgrade to Stretch, and my system is loading the graphical
interface (Gnome). However, I believe my graphics are sluggish, video
playback at some points starts freezing and sometimes just becomes
unwatchable (it starts using up a lot of CPU power). In the
recommendations here
(https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Intel/NUC5PPYH) it says to
install non-free firmware, the Debian installer asked for
firmware-realtek, I provided it and I believe that I installed. But what
non-free firmware could possible correct my graphics problems? what am I
missing. I am happy my system is working, but graphics work better in
Windows, and that is morally inacceptable to me.
thanks a lot,

[Lisi Reisz]

On Tuesday 23 May 2017 14:24:49 Anil Duggirala wrote:
> Hello,
> I have upgrade to Stretch, and my system is loading the graphical
> interface (Gnome). However, I believe my graphics are sluggish, video
> playback at some points starts freezing and sometimes just becomes
> unwatchable (it starts using up a lot of CPU power). In the
> recommendations here
> (https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Intel/NUC5PPYH) it says to
> install non-free firmware, the Debian installer asked for
> firmware-realtek, I provided it and I believe that I installed. But what
> non-free firmware could possible correct my graphics problems? what am I
> missing. I am happy my system is working, but graphics work better in
> Windows, and that is morally inacceptable to me.
> thanks a lot,

What is your graphics card?

Lisi

[Anil Duggirala]

Im not sure, this is the output from lspci

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device

[8086:22b1] (rev 21)
as I posted before.

[Felix Miata]

Anil Duggirala composed on 2017-05-23 11:00 (UTC-0500):

> Lisi Reisz wrote on 2017-05-23 16:58 (UTC+0100):

>> What is your graphics card?

> Im not sure, this is the output from lspci
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device
> [8086:22b1] (rev 21)
> as I posted before.

That's incomplete as before, so we have to look it up.

You were asked:

inxi -c0 -G
or
inxi -c0 -v1
or
lspci -nnk | grep -A4 'VGA'

Looking up 8086:22b1 finds the keyword Braswell, which provides the all
important date of introduction of it. It was introduced more than 8 months after
Jessie, thus not supported by pure Jessie.

Gnome *should* be working fine since he installed Stretch.

[Lisi Reisz]

On Tuesday 23 May 2017 23:06:44 Felix Miata wrote:
> Anil Duggirala composed on 2017-05-23 11:00 (UTC-0500):
> > Lisi Reisz wrote on 2017-05-23 16:58 (UTC+0100):
> >> What is your graphics card?
> >
> > Im not sure, this is the output from lspci
> > 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation Device
> > [8086:22b1] (rev 21)
> > as I posted before.
>
> That's incomplete as before, so we have to look it up.
>
> You were asked:
>
> inxi -c0 -G
> or
> inxi -c0 -v1
> or
> lspci -nnk | grep -A4 'VGA'
>
> Looking up 8086:22b1 finds the keyword Braswell, which provides the all
> important date of introduction of it. It was introduced more than 8 months
> after Jessie, thus not supported by pure Jessie.
>
> Gnome *should* be working fine since he installed Stretch.

He says that it isn't, so there may be a driver missing?? It is hard to tell
since he is so reluctant to provide information. :-(

Lisi

[Felix Miata]

Anil Duggirala composed on 2017-05-23 08:24 (UTC-0500):

> I have upgrade to Stretch, and my system is loading the graphical
> interface (Gnome). However, I believe my graphics are sluggish, video
> playback at some points starts freezing and sometimes just becomes

Playback of what? With which player? All players? SMplayer? VLC? MPV? Kodi?

> unwatchable (it starts using up a lot of CPU power). In the
> recommendations here
> (https://wiki.debian.org/InstallingDebianOn/Intel/NUC5PPYH) it says to
> install non-free firmware, the Debian installer asked for
> firmware-realtek, I provided it and I believe that I installed. But what
> non-free firmware could possible correct my graphics problems? what am I

Show us what firmware is currently installed:

dpkg -l | grep mware

If firmware-linux-free is already installed, as it should be, unless there's
something in firmware-misc-nonfree and it is not installed, I don't think adding
any more firmware will help you. Realtek is only ever about network or sound.

> missing. I am happy my sytem is working, but graphics work better in> Windows, and that is morally inacceptable to me

Now that you've switched to Stretch we need to see /var/log/Xorg.0 again.
Send it to https://paste.debian.net/

It might be helpful to report your problem on the Intel video driver mailing list:
https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/intel-gfx

[Greg Wooledge]

On Tue, May 23, 2017 at 06:06:44PM -0400, Felix Miata wrote:
> Looking up 8086:22b1 finds the keyword Braswell, which provides the all
> important date of introduction of it. It was introduced more than 8 months after
> Jessie, thus not supported by pure Jessie.
>
> Gnome *should* be working fine since he installed Stretch.

We had a user with a Braswell system (Intel Pentium N3710) in IRC
yesterday, and he was not even able to *boot* into stretch normally
(hard-locked with a black screen and no logs written to disk, even in
rescue mode, unless he suppled the "nomodeset" kernel option). He could
boot jessie, but the graphics ran without acceleration.

There's definitely some room for improvement in Debian's support of
Intel Braswell systems. But we'll need a whole lot more information.

[Anil Duggirala]

Thanks a lot for your replies. Yes I believe I dont have graphics
acceleration. My interface is sluggish. I believe I am playing video
with Totem, it has these mini freezes and then after some while starts
to freeze badly making it unwatchabel.
the output from inxi -c0 -G
Graphics: Card: Intel Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor
x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics Controller
Display Server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: N/A
Resolution: 1366...@60.00hz
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 405 (Braswell)
GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 13.0.6

and from lspci -nnk | grep -A4 'VGA'

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation

Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics
Controller [8086:22b1] (rev 35)
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor
x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Integrated Graphics Controller [1043:1290]
Kernel driver in use: i915
Kernel modules: i915
00:0b.0 Signal processing controller [1180]: Intel Corporation
Atom/Celeron/Pentium Processor x5-E8000/J3xxx/N3xxx Series Power
Management Controller [8086:22dc] (rev 35)

and from dpkg -l | grep mware
ii firmware-realtek 20161130-2
all Binary firmware for Realtek wired/wifi/BT adapters
ii libfwupd1:amd64 0.7.4-2
amd64 Firmware update daemon library
ii xserver-xorg-video-vmware 1:13.2.1-1+b1
amd64 X.Org X server -- VMware display driver

Thanks a lot,

[Anil Duggirala]

Oh, and also, I did not find /var/log/Xorg.0.log,

[Brian]

On Wed 24 May 2017 at 07:57:17 -0500, Anil Duggirala wrote:

> Oh, and also, I did not find /var/log/Xorg.0.log,

$HOME/.local/share/xorg

--
Brian.

[Anil Duggirala]

hello, I pasted my Xorg log at https://paste.debian.net/938243
Fungi: this is an Asus X441SA laptop, is this also mix and match laptop?
I did a clean install from Debian installer of Stretch, nothing is left
from previous Jessie.
swithching *dm is still a valid idea in this case?
thanks a lot,

[Fungi4All]

UTC Time: May 24, 2017 2:12 PM

From: anildu...@fastmail.fm

hello, I pasted my Xorg log at https://paste.debian.net/938243

[ 65.388] Build Operating System: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 Debian

6th line down, is the new debian9rc installer same as Debian 8.8?

I assume jessie was installed and then it was upgraded to stretch, right?

So some of the X and dm configuration files were based on Jessie and were just revised based on those settings.

That's what I think.  I may be very wrong as my knowledge is incomplete.

Fungi: this is an Asus X441SA laptop, is this also mix and match laptop?

I don't know, I've never had one.  I know that lenovo dell hp stuff are well tested and ironed out in all systems, maybe some sony toshiba etc.  I know nothing of asus, I've used some of their mb building and repairing stuff.

I did a clean install from Debian installer of Stretch, nothing is left

from previous Jessie.

swithching *dm is still a valid idea in this case?

thanks a lot,

It was a suggestion of an easy and safe thing to do.  It takes 5-10' round trip, or 2 reboots.

If I remember right you have lxde.  Between that and Xofc it is the safest bet to figure out what may be wrong, the rest of the desktops I believe are much more demanding and have more to go wrong with.

The official stretch installer will not be out till it becomes stable.  There is a beta version of it out but I've never used it.  I doubt it would say 3.16 on it though.  You can't get to GT from a v6 mustang that easy :)

[Greg Wooledge]

On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 10:34:22AM -0400, Fungi4All wrote:
> hello, I pasted my Xorg log at https://paste.debian.net/938243
>
> [ 65.388] Build Operating System: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 Debian
> 6th line down, is the new debian9rc installer same as Debian 8.8?

> The official stretch installer will not be out till it becomes stable. There
> is a beta version of it out but I've never used it. I doubt it would say 3.16
> on it though. You can't get to GT from a v6 mustang that easy :)

You're misinterpreting the X log. The lines in question actually say:

[ 65.388] Build Operating System: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 x86_64 Debian

[ 65.388] Current Operating System: Linux laptopanil 4.9.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.9.18-1 (2017-03-30) x86_64
[ 65.388] Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.9.0-2-amd64 root=UUID=47d1db29-628c-4a50-9ab1-808217075da8 ro quiet

Which is to say, this system is running kernel package 4.9.0-2-amd64,
but the X server was *built* by the Debian maintainers under kernel
package 3.16.0-4-amd64. Which is not relevant to the current problem
as far as I'm aware.

[Felix Miata]

Anil Duggirala composed on 2017-05-24 09:12 (UTC-0500):

> hello, I pasted my Xorg log at https://paste.debian.net/938243
> Fungi: this is an Asus X441SA laptop, is this also mix and match laptop?
> I did a clean install from Debian installer of Stretch, nothing is left
> from previous Jessie.
> swithching *dm is still a valid idea in this case?

Given that that log contains no (EE) errors, switching to a different DE might
be a solution.

That log also reports the modeset(0) driver is in use. It's possible that the
Intel driver would work better. If you wish to try the Intel driver and

dpkg -l | grep intel

does not return

xserver-xorg-video-intel

then do

apt install xserver-xorg-video-intel

and

cp /usr/share/doc/xserver-xorg-video-intel/xorg.conf /etc/X11

followed by login manager restart or reboot. Then report results and provide
Xorg.0.log on https://paste.debian.net again if not a satisfactory improvement.
Also if not improved, do

journalctl | grep failed

and post that result here if fairly short, or on https://paste.debian.net/ if
extensive.

Also, try a different WM/DE, as this problem could be limited to Gnome. FWIW, I
use TDE on Stretch, installed via these instructions:
https://wiki.trinitydesktop.org/DebianInstall

[Greg Wooledge]

On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 03:38:38PM -0400, Felix Miata wrote:
> Given that that log contains no (EE) errors, switching to a different DE might
> be a solution.

Well, we knew that from the Subject: of the email. ;-) The message in
the subject is unique to certain desktop environments, and indicates
that the graphics support isn't good enough for whatever crazy rendering
or compositing thing the kids these days think a workstation should do.

> That log also reports the modeset(0) driver is in use. It's possible that the
> Intel driver would work better.

I suppose it's worth a shot, but the modeset driver is supposed to
be the correct choice for most Intel graphics chipsets in stretch,
even those that were supported by the intel driver in jessie.

A more common suggestion might be to verify that all of the necessary
firmware has been installed, especially if some of it is from non-free.

dmesg | grep -i firmware

See if there are any errors about missing firmware there, and if so,
track down and install whichever packages contain those firmware blobs.
It's pretty likely that he'll want firmware-misc-nonfree for example.

> followed by login manager restart or reboot.

He got his Xorg.0.log from $HOME instead of /var/log, which means he is
running startx, not using a display manager.

I'm not sure whether you need to reboot after installing new firmware.

[Felix Miata]

Greg Wooledge composed on 2017-05-24 16:00 (UTC-0400):

> A more common suggestion might be to verify that all of the necessary
> firmware has been installed, especially if some of it is from non-free.

> dmesg | grep -i firmware

Requested >20 hours ago:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00744.html

I also asked which video player(s) he was using, and got no answer to that either.

> He got his Xorg.0.log from $HOME instead of /var/log, which means he is
> running startx, not using a display manager.

All my Stretch installations are using /var/log/ for Xorg.#.log whether I use
startx (with or without a DM running) or not. All my openSUSEes are, and even my
Fedoras IIRC.

Once upon a time, Intel gfx did not need any firmware that was not part of a
default or minimal installation. :-(

[Greg Wooledge]

On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 04:31:40PM -0400, Felix Miata wrote:
> All my Stretch installations are using /var/log/ for Xorg.#.log whether I use
> startx (with or without a DM running) or not. All my openSUSEes are, and even my
> Fedoras IIRC.

In stretch, startx uses /var/log/Xorg.0.log if you run it as root, or
~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log if you run it as a non-root user.

(Learned that one the hard way... trying to diagnose my own Intel video
chipset issues, and kept looking at the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file from
that one time I had run startx as root, instead of the *current* log
that was being written elsewhere. Took a while to figure out why my
changes were having no effect in the log....)

> Once upon a time, Intel gfx did not need any firmware that was not part of a
> default or minimal installation. :-(

Yup. This changed with the intel->modeset switch in stretch. The modeset
driver wants firmware.

[Anil Duggirala]

Hello everyone, thanks for your responses. To recap, I installed a fresh
Stretch with Gnome, that is all I have done so far.
Felix: xorg-xserver-video-intel is installed and shows up in dpkg -l
grep intel:
ii libdrm-intel1:amd64 2.4.74-1
amd64 Userspace interface to intel-specific kernel DRM
services -- runtime
ii libdrm-intel1:i386 2.4.74-1
i386 Userspace interface to intel-specific kernel DRM
services -- runtime
ii xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20161206-1
amd64 X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver

from journalctl | grep failed:
May 24 15:26:48 laptopanil kernel: acpi PNP0A08:00: _OSC failed
(AE_ERROR); disabling ASPM
May 24 15:26:52 laptopanil kernel: usb 1-3: firmware: failed to load
ar3k/AthrBT_0x31010000.dfu (-2)
May 24 15:26:52 laptopanil kernel: usb 1-3: Direct firmware load for
ar3k/AthrBT_0x31010000.dfu failed with error -2
May 24 15:26:52 laptopanil kernel: Bluetooth: Loading patch file failed
May 24 15:26:52 laptopanil kernel: ath3k: probe of 1-3:1.0 failed with
error -2
May 24 15:27:00 laptopanil avahi-daemon[470]: chroot.c: open() failed:
No such file or directory
May 24 15:27:07 laptopanil systemd-udevd[556]: Process '/sbin/crda'
failed with exit code 255.
May 24 15:27:29 laptopanil gnome-settings-[696]: g_task_return_error:
assertion 'error != NULL' failed
May 24 15:27:36 laptopanil /usr/lib/gdm3/gdm-x-session[754]:
xf86EnableIOPorts: failed to set IOPL for I/O (Operation not permitted)
May 24 15:27:47 laptopanil gnome-settings-[942]: g_task_return_error:
assertion 'error != NULL' failed
May 24 15:27:55 laptopanil tracker-extract[972]: External plugin loader
failed. This most likely means that the plugin loader helper binary was
not found or could not be run. You might need to set the
GST_PLUGIN_SCANNER environment variable if your setup is unusual. This
should normally not be required though.
May 24 15:29:06 laptopanil firefox-esr.desktop[1131]: 1495657746446
addons.productaddons ERROR Request failed certificate
checks: [Exception... "SSL is required and URI scheme is not https."
nsresult: "0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED)" location: "JS frame ::
resource://gre/modules/CertUtils.jsm :

I know I am missing some wireless firmware, I imagine that is not
causing my issue (sluggish graphics, and crashing videos), cofirmed by
dmesg | grep -i firmware:
[ 0.432369] ACPI: [Firmware Bug]: BIOS _OSI(Linux) query ignored
[ 13.469892] usb 1-3: firmware: failed to load
ar3k/AthrBT_0x31010000.dfu (-2)
[ 13.470076] usb 1-3: Direct firmware load for
ar3k/AthrBT_0x31010000.dfu failed with error -2
[ 25.915422] r8169 0000:02:00.0: firmware: direct-loading firmware
rtl_nic/rtl8106e-1.fw

Someone had said I could update my BIOS (and something about linux mode,
I cannot find that), could that possibly help??

Greg: I do believe I am not using a dm since looking for lightdm or gdm
or lxdm does not show installed packages.

I have one more question, doing apt-get upgrade mentions
linux-image-amd64 is being "held back" I am currently on 4.9.0-2, could
this be related?

If Gnome is not for me, then I can live with that (someone said
(debian-laptop list) they have my exact same laptop and is running
Gnome, I dont know how he did it), I guess I can go to Mate if
necesssary, could the video playback issue also be resolved this way??

thanks a lot, sorry for the long email

On Wed, May 24, 2017, at 03:00 PM, Greg Wooledge wrote:
> On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 03:38:38PM -0400, Felix Miata wrote:

> > Given that that log contns no (EE) errors, switching to a different DE might

[Greg Wooledge]

On Wed, May 24, 2017 at 03:43:43PM -0500, Anil Duggirala wrote:
> I have one more question, doing apt-get upgrade mentions
> linux-image-amd64 is being "held back" I am currently on 4.9.0-2, could
> this be related?

You'll need to do an "apt-get dist-upgrade" to bring in the 4.9.0-3-amd64
kernel package, but I don't expect that will have any effect on your
current problem.

[Anil Duggirala]

I dont know if people are being misled by the title in this thread and I
should start a new thread. Gnome is working in my laptop since I
installed Stretch, it is just not working well. please read only my
previous message to this one, thanks,

On Wed, May 24, 2017, at 04:00 PM, Henrique de Moraes Holschuh wrote:

> On Wed, 24 May 2017, Felix Miata wrote:
> > Once upon a time, Intel gfx did not need any firmware that was not part of a
> > default or minimal installation. :-(
>

> Nowadays it may actually requires BIOS/UEFI _and_ processor microcode
> updates as well.
>
> The BIOS/UEFI updates work around issues related to power management and
> suspend/resume. The microcode updates fix internal CPU to iGPU
> low-level issues that typically results in processor hangs, or iGPU
> misbehavior.
>
> --
> Henrique Holschuh
>

[Henrique de Moraes Holschuh]

On Wed, 24 May 2017, Felix Miata wrote:

> Once upon a time, Intel gfx did not need any firmware that was not part of a
> default or minimal installation. :-(

[Felix Miata]

Greg Wooledge composed on 2017-05-24 16:54 (UTC-0400):

> You'll need to do an "apt-get dist-upgrade" to bring in the 4.9.0-3-amd64
> kernel package, but I don't expect that will have any effect on your
> current problem.

Certainly possible. His kernel was compiled 30 March. -3 was compiled 3 May. I
just installed it, but /requirement/ of "apt-get dist-upgrade" is technically
incorrect. I just did it this way just minutes ago:

apt dist-upgrade

:-)

Anil's log from about 3+ hours ago shows he's using the modeset(0) Xorg driver
still.

He still hasn't reported which video player(s) cause his trouble.

Installation of IceWM takes less than 8MB of disk space. Using it

startx /usr/bin/icewm

to run his player(s) should tell whether the playback performance problem is in
Gnome or elsewhere.

[Anil Duggirala]

I am running the default Gnome player, Totem.
I will install icewm when I am on a better connection, with
dependencies, goes up to 48 MB.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
esound-common gconf-service gconf2 gconf2-common gnome-mime-data icewm
icewm-common libaudiofile1 libbonobo2-0 libbonobo2-common
libbonoboui2-0
libbonoboui2-common libesd0 libgconf-2-4 libglade2-0 libgnome-2-0
libgnome2-common libgnomecanvas2-0 libgnomecanvas2-common libgnomeui-0
libgnomeui-common libgnomevfs2-0 libgnomevfs2-common
libgnomevfs2-extra
libjpeg-turbo-progs liborbit-2-0 libturbojpeg0 menu xscreensaver
xscreensaver-data
0 upgraded, 30 newly installed, 0 to remove and 8 not upgraded.
Need to get 11.1 MB of archives.
After this operation, 48.5 MB of additional disk space will be used.

thanks Felix,

[Ric Moore]

On 05/24/2017 08:57 AM, Anil Duggirala wrote:
> Oh, and also, I did not find /var/log/Xorg.0.log,

Please don't top post. You don't see anyone else doing that do you??
Take a clue. Ric


--
My father, Victor Moore (Vic) used to say:
"There are two Great Sins in the world...
..the Sin of Ignorance, and the Sin of Stupidity.
Only the former may be overcome." R.I.P. Dad.
http://linuxcounter.net/user/44256.html

[Anil Duggirala]

On Wed, May 24, 2017, at 11:11 PM, Ric Moore wrote:
> Please don't top post. You don't see anyone else doing that do you??
> Take a clue. Ric

Sorry for top-posting, I have taken a clue now.
I deactivated Animations in Gnome (Tweak Tool - Appearance), this
appears to have helped, dragging windows around is not so laggy and
video playback does not appear to be crashing, and is running more
smoothly, however the video playback is not really smooth.

>Anil's log from about 3+ hours ago shows he's using the modeset(0) Xorg driver
>still.

What does this mean?? Is there any other driver for me to try??

Please help me, do I really have the right driver and firmware for my
graphics card already?? Looking at package linux-image-amd64 in Synaptic
shows 2 versions 4.9+79 (now), 4.9+80 (testing), this upgrade has been
suggested by the automatic update app in Gnome. What does (now) and
(testing) mean in Synaptic there. I have left my sources.list as is
after install, "stretch" is the keyword, will my pc stay on stretch once
it is released or continue upgrading to "testing"??

thanks a lot,

[Michael Milliman]

Now means that 4.9+79 is what is now installed on your system. 4.9+80
is available from the testing distribution, so that would mean that you
have the testing distribution mentioned in your sources.list file in
/etc/apt. This is not the problem, and given the totality of the
situation, I would not upgrade to the newer kernel. This is probably
safe, but it is possible that it could introduce additional issues. At
least until you get the current problem resolved, IMHO (In My Humble
Opinion) you should make the fewest changes possible to the system,
changing only those things needed to move closer to a resolution to the
current problem, which we are trying to figure out. I understand your
frustration, be patient, the guys (and gals) here are good. It may take
a little time to figure out exactly what needs to be done
(troubleshooting by remote control is difficult at best), but it will
get figured out. The situation is really over my head at this point,
however, someone mentioned checking if the package
xserver-xorg-video-intel was installed on your system. This package
should be installed if it is not.

Thanks for your patience. I rarely have a real problem with my Debian
distributions, but have always found good help here. :)
> thanks a lot,
>

--
73's,
WB5VQX -- The Very Quick X-ray

[Anil Duggirala]

On Fri, May 26, 2017, at 06:18 PM, Michael Milliman wrote:

> Now means that 4.9+79 is what is now installed on your system. 4.9+80
> is available from the testing distribution, so that would mean that you
> have the testing distribution mentioned in your sources.list file in
> /etc/apt.

I had just figured that out. In my sources.list I have deb entries with
"stretch", not "testing", when Stretch is released as stable, will I
remain in Stretch and not continue getting the Testing packages ?(that
is what I want)

> This is not the problem, and given the totality of the
> situation, I would not upgrade to the newer kernel.

Too late. Since it was being proposed I did make the upgrade, I cant say
for sure but no changes appear to have happened, maybe its taking longer
for the initial load of the graphical interface in general (login and
desktop), but cant be sure.

I appreciate your help and support, I really want Debian to work for me,
I bought an Asus laptop because I thought they had better support in
linux, they ship some of their PCs with linux (actually their EEEpc
originally ONLY shipped with a modification of Debian)

As another symptom I have now is for example, scrolling down or up on a
simple Libreoffice (docx) document is not smooth, it appears to be a
purely graphical issue, not something beyond that in terms of
processing, but I can be sure.

I have tried installing Mate, really I dont see a lot of difference at
all with regard to any of my issues, actually I have a problem in Mate,
it will not load the desktop background image and it is stuck in black.

thanks again,

[Michael Milliman]

On 05/26/2017 06:53 PM, Anil Duggirala wrote:
> As more examples of the symptoms, in Firefox, scrolling through my
> email's Inbox list, is a little sluggish, however, scrolling through a
> site that has images and other things (rt.com), I can scroll up and down
> more smoothly.
> In the Applications Dropdown from the top bar in Gnome Classic, it
> sometimes is hard to select an item, I have to move the mouse around a
> little bit for it to actually "stand on" (highlight) an item, the whole
> menu is a little bit sluggish too.
This is also a common problem. It sounds like you see it a little more
than most, but I too have occasional sluggishness on the menu, and have
seen that for quite some time. I haven't done anything about it, as for
me it is an occasional minor annoyance rather than something I classify
as a real problem. I just figure that it is a result of my older
equipment, as it occurs more frequently when I have the system loaded
down pretty good.
> thanks

[Felix Miata]

Michael Milliman composed on 2017-05-26 18:18 (UTC-0500):

> ...someone mentioned checking if the package

> xserver-xorg-video-intel was installed on your system. This package
> should be installed if it is not.

He already reported in
https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00785.html
that it is installed

dpkg -l | grep intel:...
ii xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20161206-1

However, in https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00767.html he
provided a pastebin (now expired) of Xorg.0.log that reported the modeset(0)
driver in use.

https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00781.html explained how he
could try configuring use of the Intel driver. Subsequently OP reported Gnome to
be working, but also that unsatisfactory AV playback in Totem remains, even in
Mate, plus he sees poor scrolling behavior in LibreOffice.

[Anil Duggirala]

As more examples of the symptoms, in Firefox, scrolling through my
email's Inbox list, is a little sluggish, however, scrolling through a
site that has images and other things (rt.com), I can scroll up and down
more smoothly.
In the Applications Dropdown from the top bar in Gnome Classic, it
sometimes is hard to select an item, I have to move the mouse around a
little bit for it to actually "stand on" (highlight) an item, the whole
menu is a little bit sluggish too.

thanks

[Michael Milliman]

For completeness, the bug that I mentioned in my last post is Bug#862355.

> thanks again,

[Michael Milliman]

On 05/26/2017 06:40 PM, Anil Duggirala wrote:

> On Fri, May 26, 2017, at 06:18 PM, Michael Milliman wrote:
>
>> Now means that 4.9+79 is what is now installed on your system. 4.9+80
>> is available from the testing distribution, so that would mean that you
>> have the testing distribution mentioned in your sources.list file in
>> /etc/apt.
>
> I had just figured that out. In my sources.list I have deb entries with
> "stretch", not "testing", when Stretch is released as stable, will I
> remain in Stretch and not continue getting the Testing packages ?(that
> is what I want)
>

Stretch and testing are the same thing, right now. However, you are
correct, when Stretch becomes the stable release, with stretch in your
sources.list file, you will remain on Stretch. This sounds like what
you want, so all is good.

>> This is not the problem, and given the totality of the
>> situation, I would not upgrade to the newer kernel.
>
> Too late. Since it was being proposed I did make the upgrade, I cant say
> for sure but no changes appear to have happened, maybe its taking longer
> for the initial load of the graphical interface in general (login and
> desktop), but cant be sure.
>

OK, Well, the change from 4.9+79 to 4.9+80 shouldn't cause any
additional concerns. I, being a technical troubleshooting kind of
person (I do a lot of electronic troubleshooting), tend toward making
the fewest possible changes when I'm debugging something so as not to
cause any additional problems which might confuse the issue.

> I appreciate your help and support, I really want Debian to work for me,
> I bought an Asus laptop because I thought they had better support in
> linux, they ship some of their PCs with linux (actually their EEEpc
> originally ONLY shipped with a modification of Debian)
>
> As another symptom I have now is for example, scrolling down or up on a
> simple Libreoffice (docx) document is not smooth, it appears to be a
> purely graphical issue, not something beyond that in terms of
> processing, but I can be sure.
>
> I have tried installing Mate, really I dont see a lot of difference at
> all with regard to any of my issues, actually I have a problem in Mate,
> it will not load the desktop background image and it is stuck in black.
>

Yes, I have the same problem (see the thread Desktop Background Bites
The Dust). This is a known problem with the Stretch distribution.
There is an upstream fix (upstream being the people who actually develop
the mate desktop, as opposed to the people that maintain the Debian
repositories and that package within Debian). The upstream fix is to
install caja version 1.16.3. This version of caja hasn't made its way
into the Debian repositories yet (1.16.2 is currently available). There
is a bug already filed against this problem, and I'm sure the Debian
maintainers will take the appropriate steps to fix the problem.

Please see the aforementioned thread, as there is a workaround using the
feh package (which has resulted in some interesting controversy in that
thread). I am currently using feh to fix the problem, but plan to ditch
that package as soon as the problem is resolved.

> thanks again,

[Michael Milliman]

On 05/26/2017 06:59 PM, Felix Miata wrote:
> Michael Milliman composed on 2017-05-26 18:18 (UTC-0500):
>
>> ...someone mentioned checking if the package
>> xserver-xorg-video-intel was installed on your system. This package
>> should be installed if it is not.
>
> He already reported in
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00785.html
> that it is installed
>
> dpkg -l | grep intel:...
> ii xserver-xorg-video-intel 2:2.99.917+git20161206-1
>
> However, in https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00767.html he
> provided a pastebin (now expired) of Xorg.0.log that reported the modeset(0)
> driver in use.
>
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00781.html explained how he
> could try configuring use of the Intel driver. Subsequently OP reported Gnome to
> be working, but also that unsatisfactory AV playback in Totem remains, even in
> Mate, plus he sees poor scrolling behavior in LibreOffice.

Thanks, Felix. I hadn't checked the posts in the pastebin. As I
stated, the problem is a little over my head at this point, so I'm not
sure what the modeset(0) driver being in use actually means, as the OP
also indicated. At this point, he, and I for that matter, doesn't know
even whether that is correct, and if not what the alternative is or how
to configure for that alternative.

He (the OP) also reports a problem with the mate desktop background.
But this is a separate issue with mate desktop (which is a fork of the
Gnome2 [now defunct] desktop), which currently has a bug reported.

[Felix Miata]

Michael Milliman composed on 2017-05-26 19:06 (UTC-0500):

> I hadn't checked the posts in the pastebin. As I
> stated, the problem is a little over my head at this point, so I'm not
> sure what the modeset(0) driver being in use actually means, as the OP

It means he's most likely using the default Stretch Xorg driver configuration
for Intel gfx....

> also indicated. At this point, he, and I for that matter, doesn't know
> even whether that is correct, and if not what the alternative is or how
> to configure for that alternative.

The short story is that for some Intel users the Intel driver works better, for
other Intel users Xorg's integral modeset(0) driver works better, and for some
Intel users, neither are satisfactory. Whether either driver is "correct"
depends on the particular gfx hardware version.

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX
is the only default Intel driver change announcement I can recall seeing.

[Michael Milliman]

On 05/26/2017 07:35 PM, Felix Miata wrote:
> Michael Milliman composed on 2017-05-26 19:06 (UTC-0500):
>
>> I hadn't checked the posts in the pastebin. As I
>> stated, the problem is a little over my head at this point, so I'm not
>> sure what the modeset(0) driver being in use actually means, as the OP
>
> It means he's most likely using the default Stretch Xorg driver configuration
> for Intel gfx....
>
>> also indicated. At this point, he, and I for that matter, doesn't know
>> even whether that is correct, and if not what the alternative is or how
>> to configure for that alternative.
> The short story is that for some Intel users the Intel driver works better, for
> other Intel users Xorg's integral modeset(0) driver works better, and for some
> Intel users, neither are satisfactory. Whether either driver is "correct"
> depends on the particular gfx hardware version.
>
> http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Ubuntu-Debian-Abandon-Intel-DDX
> is the only default Intel driver change announcement I can recall seeing.
>

OK, so the question is, since he is using the default modeset(0) driver,
what can he do,if anything, to install and try the Intel driver instead
and see if it works better?

[Felix Miata]

Michael Milliman composed on 2017-05-26 19:40 (UTC-0500):

> OK, so the question is, since he is using the default modeset(0) driver,
> what can he do,if anything, to install and try the Intel driver instead
> and see if it works better?

In https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00781.html I explained how,
but he hasn't written here whether he tried or not. I asked for another
Xorg.0.log, in order to find that out (among other things), but that hasn't
happened.

If the Intel driver has already been tried, then his focus probably needs to be
shifted to hunting down anything to be tried that's specific to his Braswell
chipset generation.

One possible thing to try (which AFAICT can't work in Gnome), is disabling of
compositing. Whether Mate can work with compositing disabled I have no idea, but
I know it can in Plasma and TDE, and most likely also in IceWM, LXDE and other
lightweights. I do it, when necessary, or desirable, globally, via
/etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-extensions.conf:

Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection

[Michael Milliman]

On 05/26/2017 08:03 PM, Felix Miata wrote:
> Michael Milliman composed on 2017-05-26 19:40 (UTC-0500):
>
>> OK, so the question is, since he is using the default modeset(0) driver,
>> what can he do,if anything, to install and try the Intel driver instead
>> and see if it works better?
>
> In https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00781.html I explained how,
> but he hasn't written here whether he tried or not. I asked for another
> Xorg.0.log, in order to find that out (among other things), but that hasn't
> happened.
>

Yes, I remember that post earlier in the thread. I have however, slept
since then :) The OP has not AFAICT performed the cp command to install
the xorg.conf file. Does this cp command overwrite an existing
xorg.conf. AIR, the xorg.conf is no longer required (of course I've
slept several times since I think I saw that :) ). If it is overwriting,
perhaps it would be a good idea if the OP preserved the existing
xorg.conf in case the new one borks the system worse (always possible
when messing with the drivers).

> If the Intel driver has already been tried, then his focus probably needs to be
> shifted to hunting down anything to be tried that's specific to his Braswell
> chipset generation.
>
> One possible thing to try (which AFAICT can't work in Gnome), is disabling of

> compositing. Whether Mate can work with compositing disabled ...
As Mate is a fork of Gnome (Gnome 2 to be exact) I would suspect that if
Gnome will not work without compositing, Mate would not either. But,
the current Gnome desktop is Gnome3, and has been for some time, so
perhaps the Mate fork is early enough that it may run without
compositing (but I wouldn't put MY money on it. As I run Mate, I guess
I could try it and see. As I know what changes I'm making, if I bork
the system, I can always fix it with a console log-in :).
...I have no idea, but

> I know it can in Plasma and TDE, and most likely also in IceWM, LXDE and other
> lightweights. I do it, when necessary, or desirable, globally, via
> /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/70-extensions.conf:

Well, as I wrote this, I took a look, and on my system (Stretch, with an
amd processor and Radeon graphics) the etc/X11/xord.conf.d/ directory
does not even exist.

>
> Section "Extensions"
> Option "Composite" "Disable"
> EndSection
>

--

[Felix Miata]

Michael Milliman composed on 2017-05-26 20:23 (UTC-0500):

> ...Does this cp command overwrite an existing

> xorg.conf. AIR, the xorg.conf is no longer required (of course I've
> slept several times since I think I saw that :) ).

xorg.conf is an optional file that is unnecessary and not present for the vast
majority of users for all generations of Xorg going back too far to remember,
probably getting close to 10 years, maybe longer. The primary and large
exception is users of proprietary NVidia driver users.

> If it is overwriting,
> perhaps it would be a good idea if the OP preserved the existing
> xorg.conf in case the new one borks the system worse (always possible
> when messing with the drivers).

I don't know of any reason why a fresh Stretch installation to Intel gfx would
have xorg.conf. He wouldn't be overwriting an existing unless he created it himself.

> Well, as I wrote this, I took a look, and on my system (Stretch, with an
> amd processor and Radeon graphics) the etc/X11/xord.conf.d/ directory
> does not even exist.

Both xorg.conf and xorg.conf.d/ are optional. Most distros either create an
empty xorg.conf.d/, or populate one with a small number of tweaks specific to
various combinations of hardware and/or software. A common one contains
exclusively keyboard configuration. Mine enables Ctrl-Alt-BS, which IIRC is
disabled by default in upstream Xorg.

xorg.conf is a comprehensive file. xorg.conf.d/ is designed for presence of
multiple files, each optional, each designed to address specific components.
IIRC, presence in xorg.conf.d/ inconsistent with anything in xorg.conf if it
exists overrides it.

[Michael Milliman]

Looks like this will probably top-post, or perhaps not have any quoted material...I'm using mobile device at the moment, my apologies.

The last time I had to mess with anything Xorg was with the xorg.conf filr, but that may well have been 10+ years ago.  I've probably forgotten more than I ever knew about it now.  The conf file vs. conf.d directory has become a common motif these days. I use the /etc/apt/sources.list.d directory extensively on my system; it is the same principle (other than not being optional).  Thanks for all the info, Felix, I have learned a lot, though this was not originally my thread.  Hopefully, the OP has learned some as well.

73's,
de WB5VQX -- The Very Quick X-ray

[Anil Duggirala]

> However, in https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00767.html he
> provided a pastebin (now expired) of Xorg.0.log that reported the
> modeset(0)
> driver in use.
>
> https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2017/05/msg00781.html explained how
> he
> could try configuring use of the Intel driver.

Hi. thanks, I have followed those instructions completely now and the
situation improved notably, scrolling my Inbox and in LibreOffice is
better. I also noticed that right after logging in, previously the
screen would show the black terminal screen (again) while loading the
desktop, now I see a prettier gray Gnome background at that time.
I have also uninstalled Mate (uninstalled all packages with "mate"
string in them), it seemed to make things (graphics) worst, and also
choosing an item from Places in the top bar in Gnome Classic would open
Caja instead of Files, it also made the Applications menu notably
slower. Should I take any other steps at completely removing Mate??
I dont know if my graphics are perfect now, but at least I can work
nicely in my PC now. Isnt using the Intel driver usually a better option
than using another?? I really need to learn about this (modeset) things
to be able to figure out what driver I am using.
thanks a lot,

[Anil Duggirala]

Hello, I am looking at 2 new threads in my Inbox, which one are we going to follow ??

I pasted my new Xorg.log here https://paste.debian.net/945756

The situation has definitely improved,

In my previous post  (in the other thread) I used the word completely, because I was missing the cp command. I checked to see if there was an xorg.conf file there, there wasnt, so I went ahead and copied.

thanks a lot guys, I appreciate it,

[Anil Duggirala]

Hello,

I was just wondering if you could confirm that I am now using the intel driver, I dont know how to check this in my Xorg log. I am still having an issue I do believe pertains to Gnome. The Applications menu in Gnome Classic is sluggish at best, as I described before, moving the mouse around it starts to dramatically increase cpu use, if I am playing a video and then go to this menu, the video starts freezing. Also, my scrolling is still not as smooth as it is in Windows (sorry for this comparison, but it is what I have). Or, for example, the Gnome animations upon closing or opening a window or in the Desktop Overview, are not smooth. I believe I still dont have the best graphics configuration and would like more help. I have pasted my Xorg.log here https://paste.debian.net/955691

thanks a lot,

[Greg Wooledge]

On Wed, May 31, 2017 at 09:15:20AM -0500, Anil Duggirala wrote:
> I was just wondering if you could confirm that I am now using the intel
> driver, I dont know how to check this in my Xorg log.

You simply read it until you find the driver lines.

> I have pasted my Xorg.log here
> https://paste.debian.net/955691thanks a lot,

Please make sure you put whitespace after the URL. From
https://paste.debian.net/955691 :

69 [ 57.769] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Integrated Graphics Chipsets:
70 i810, i810-dc100, i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 854, 852GM/855GM, 865G,
71 915G, E7221 (i915), 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 945GME, Pineview GM,
72 Pineview G, 965G, G35, 965Q, 946GZ, 965GM, 965GME/GLE, G33, Q35, Q33,
73 GM45, 4 Series, G45/G43, Q45/Q43, G41, B43
74 [ 57.772] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) HD Graphics
75 [ 57.772] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Iris(TM) Graphics
76 [ 57.772] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Iris(TM) Pro Graphics

etc.

It's not that hard to find. Compare to your previous X log that had
modeset driver lines.

[Pascal Hambourg]

Le 31/05/2017 à 16:25, Greg Wooledge a écrit :
> On Wed, May 31, 2017 at 09:15:20AM -0500, Anil Duggirala wrote:
>> I was just wondering if you could confirm that I am now using the intel
>> driver, I dont know how to check this in my Xorg log.
>
> You simply read it until you find the driver lines.
>

> https://paste.debian.net/955691 :
>
> 69 [ 57.769] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Integrated Graphics Chipsets:
> 70 i810, i810-dc100, i810e, i815, i830M, 845G, 854, 852GM/855GM, 865G,
> 71 915G, E7221 (i915), 915GM, 945G, 945GM, 945GME, Pineview GM,
> 72 Pineview G, 965G, G35, 965Q, 946GZ, 965GM, 965GME/GLE, G33, Q35, Q33,
> 73 GM45, 4 Series, G45/G43, Q45/Q43, G41, B43
> 74 [ 57.772] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) HD Graphics
> 75 [ 57.772] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Iris(TM) Graphics
> 76 [ 57.772] (II) intel: Driver for Intel(R) Iris(TM) Pro Graphics

The above lines are not enough. They just mean that the intel driver has
been loaded, not that it is actually used. You must read further for
many more "intel" lines.

[Curt]

On 2017-05-31, Anil Duggirala <anildu...@fastmail.fm> wrote:
>
> Hello,
> I was just wondering if you could confirm that I am now using the intel
> driver, I dont know how to check this in my Xorg log. I am still having

This used to grep accurately for the pertinent info (if things haven't
changed--I'm still on Wheezy (asthmatic cough)):

grep -B4 'Module class: X.Org Video Driver' /var/log/Xorg.0.log

(adjust path to log to wherever your log is living if it is living
elsewhere though I doubt it).

[Greg Wooledge]

On Wed, May 31, 2017 at 07:50:09PM +0000, Curt wrote:
> This used to grep accurately for the pertinent info (if things haven't
> changed--I'm still on Wheezy (asthmatic cough)):
>
> grep -B4 'Module class: X.Org Video Driver' /var/log/Xorg.0.log
>
> (adjust path to log to wherever your log is living if it is living
> elsewhere though I doubt it).

Just for posterity, in stretch, the Xorg.0.log file is in /var/log/ if
you run startx as root, or use a display manager; or ~/.local/share/xorg/
if you run startx as a non-root user.

(Also, you may want grep -FB4 there, since you're using . as a literal
dot rather than a single-character wildcard expression. Not likely to
matter much in reality, but hey.)

[Ben Caradoc-Davies]

On 01/06/17 02:25, Greg Wooledge wrote:
>> I have pasted my Xorg.log here
>> https://paste.debian.net/955691thanks a lot,
> Please make sure you put whitespace after the URL. From
> https://paste.debian.net/955691 :

Or surround the URL with angle brackets
like<https://paste.debian.net/955691>this to delimit it from surrounding
text.

Appendix C of RFC 3986 <https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986#appendix-C>
recommends delimiting URIs in plain text with angle brackets. This is
especially useful for URLs used in flowing text where the interpretation
of trailing punctuation might be ambiguous.

Kind regards,

--
Ben Caradoc-Davies <b...@transient.nz>
Director
Transient Software Limited <http://transient.nz/>
New Zealand

[Anil Duggirala]

Thanks guys, the output of grep -B4 'Module class: X.Org Video Driver'
~/.local/share/xorg/Xorg.0.log is
[    58.352] (II) LoadModule: "intel"
[    58.353] (II) Loading /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so
[    58.380] (II) Module intel: vendor="X.Org Foundation"
[    58.380]  compiled for 1.19.0, module version = 2.99.917
[    58.380]  Module class: X.Org Video Driver

So that makes it clear, the intel driver is bein used, is there
anything else I can do to improve my graphics. Is it possible that
installing Mate caused trouble of some sort. I tell you the truth, my
solution to many problems has been to simply reinstall the system. I
believe my system is not correctly configured in some way, for example,
composing this email in Evolution in the little composer window, if I
want to delete several words of text and press and hold my backspace
key, it goes back at a certain speed, so I have to wait to see how back
I will be taken with the time I have held pressed the backspace key.
Performance is just not good in general, and I believe this laptop
should certainly be able to handle Gnome, and guessing I would have
issues with any other DE.
I appreciate any help. For now, my plan, when I have time, is to
reinstall Debian Stretch, dont touch anything and configure to load
intel driver, and hope that any issues have been resolved.
thanks,

[Richard Owlett]

On 05/31/2017 04:41 PM, Anil Duggirala wrote:
> [snip]
>
> ... Is it possible that
> installing Mate caused trouble of some sort. ...

> I appreciate any help. For now, my plan, when I have time, is to
> reinstall Debian Stretch, dont touch anything and configure to load
> intel driver, and hope that any issues have been resolved.
> thanks,
>

Stretch is due to make the transition from Testing to Stable in about
two weeks IIRC. There are several upstream bug fixes for Mate in the
works for that transition.