Intel i810 graphics working as expected in openSUSE Tumbleweed, not in Stretch, Buster or Bullseye

Felix Miata

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May 9, 2021, 11:30:04 PM5/9/21

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I un-mothballed a 20+ year old Dell GX110 with i810e graphics in an attempt to
assist a linuxquestions.org Stretch user stuck with 640x480 VESA in X, here:
<https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-desktop-74/intel-82810e-dc-133-vga-controller-driver-update-4175694158/>

I have Stretch, Buster & Bullseye all on my Dell. Basically, absence of /dev/fb0
and /dev/dri/* stuff legacy 80x25 text mode on the ttys, and VESA 640x480 in X. In
Debian, none of the required kernel modules for X graphics will autoload, but even
when manually loaded, /dev/fb0 and /dev/dri/* remain absent. The LQ user got
similar failure with Debian-based live AntiX.

Welcome to openSUSE Tumbleweed 20210422 - Kernel 5.12.0-1.gde654dc-default
# lsmod | sort | egrep 'drm|dri|i91|intel|video' | grep -v snd
cec 45056 2 i915,drm_kms_helper
drm 471040 2 i915,drm_kms_helper
drm_kms_helper 225280 1 i915
fb_sys_fops 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit 16384 1 i915
i915 1847296 0
intel_pmc_bxt 16384 1 iTCO_wdt
intel_rng 16384 0
syscopyarea 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysfillrect 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
video 49152 1 i915

Linux gx110.ij.net 5.10.0-6-686 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.28-1 (2021-04-09) i686
# lsmod | sort | egrep 'drm|dri|i91|intel|video' | grep -v snd
cec 40960 2 i915,drm_kms_helper
drm 356352 2 i915,drm_kms_helper
drm_kms_helper 163840 1 i915
fb_sys_fops 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
i2c_algo_bit 16384 1 i915
i915 1744896 0
intel_pmc_bxt 16384 1 iTCO_wdt
intel_rng 16384 0
rng_core 16384 2 intel_rng
syscopyarea 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysfillrect 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt 16384 1 drm_kms_helper
video 45056 1 i915
# grep \(EE /var/log/Xorg.0.log
(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[ 1269.787] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
[ 1269.787] (EE) open /dev/dri/card0: No such file or directory
[ 1269.789] (EE) Unable to find a valid framebuffer device
[ 1269.790] (EE) open /dev/fb0: No such file or directory

Web searches haven't directed me to any clues how to reconcile X working as
expected automagically in Tumbleweed with not working at all in Debian. Does
anyone here have recent experience with making i810 or i815 graphics hardware work
as expected, e.g. 1680x1050 native on an LCD display?
--
Evolution as taught in public schools is, like religion,
based on faith, not based on science.

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

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

didier gaumet

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May 10, 2021, 3:20:04 AM5/10/21

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Hello,

DRI not working in Debian while working in Opensuse: I would surmise
that is a missing firmware in the former and not in the latter

Alexander V. Makartsev

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May 10, 2021, 3:30:04 AM5/10/21

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On 10.05.2021 08:27, Felix Miata wrote:

I un-mothballed a 20+ year old Dell GX110 with i810e graphics in an attempt to
assist a linuxquestions.org Stretch user stuck with 640x480 VESA in X, here:
<https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-desktop-74/intel-82810e-dc-133-vga-controller-driver-update-4175694158/>

I have Stretch, Buster & Bullseye all on my Dell. Basically, absence of /dev/fb0
and /dev/dri/* stuff legacy 80x25 text mode on the ttys, and VESA 640x480 in X. In
Debian, none of the required kernel modules for X graphics will autoload, but even
when manually loaded, /dev/fb0 and /dev/dri/* remain absent. The LQ user got
similar failure with Debian-based live AntiX.

You should look for 'i810' or 'i810fb' kernel modules.
From what I understood, i810 support is available in two flavors: DRM and Frame Buffer. [1]
Probably you have to manually enable\load them or configure additional options. [2] [3]


Web searches haven't directed me to any clues how to reconcile X working as
expected automagically in Tumbleweed with not working at all in Debian. Does
anyone here have recent experience with making i810 or i815 graphics hardware work
as expected, e.g. 1680x1050 native on an LCD display?

Check out specifications for i810-series graphics. [4]
It is possible you have to setup a lower resolution to overcome hardware limitations.

[1] https://packages.debian.org/search?suite=buster&arch=i386&mode=filename&searchon=contents&keywords=i810
[2] https://01.org/linuxgraphics/gfx-docs/drm/fb/intel810.html
[3] https://www.x.org/releases/X11R7.7/doc/man/man4/intel.4.xhtml
[4] https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000007975/graphics/legacy-graphics.html

-- 
With kindest regards, Alexander.

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⣾⠁⢠⠒⠀⣿⡁ Debian - The universal operating system
⢿⡄⠘⠷⠚⠋⠀ https://www.debian.org
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Felix Miata

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May 10, 2021, 3:30:04 AM5/10/21

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didier gaumet composed on 2021-05-10 09:13 (UTC+0200):

> DRI not working in Debian while working in Opensuse: I would surmise
> that is a missing firmware in the former and not in the latter

ii firmware-linux-free 20200122-1 all Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kernel
ii firmware-misc-nonfree 20210315-2 all Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kernel
ii intel-microcode 3.20210216.1 i386 Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs

What other firmware could an ancient Intel GPU need?

didier gaumet

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May 10, 2021, 4:10:04 AM5/10/21

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Le 10/05/2021 à 09:28, Felix Miata a écrit :
> didier gaumet composed on 2021-05-10 09:13 (UTC+0200):
>
>> DRI not working in Debian while working in Opensuse: I would surmise
>> that is a missing firmware in the former and not in the latter
>
> ii firmware-linux-free 20200122-1 all Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kernel
> ii firmware-misc-nonfree 20210315-2 all Binary firmware for various drivers in the Linux kernel
> ii intel-microcode 3.20210216.1 i386 Processor microcode firmware for Intel CPUs
>
> What other firmware could an ancient Intel GPU need?
>

Sorry for the wrong suggestion: all troubles I have had in the past with
DRI not showing with Intel cards were firmware related

To be certain, search for the firmware word in the system logs.

But I think that firmware-misc-nonfree is the needed firmware for Intel
graphic cards and you have already installed it

Alexander V. Makartsev have good suggestions in his reply. If it does
not work (but I don't think so) you could have to manually specify a DRI
section in a Xorg configuration. I have forgotten how to do it but it is
probably indicated here:
https://dri.freedesktop.org/wiki/

Felix Miata

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May 11, 2021, 5:00:06 AM5/11/21

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Alexander V. Makartsev composed on 2021-05-10 12:29 (UTC+0500):

> Felix Miata wrote:

>> ...

>> <https://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-desktop-74/intel-82810e-dc-133-vga-controller-driver-update-4175694158/>
>>
>> I have Stretch, Buster & Bullseye all on my Dell. Basically, absence of /dev/fb0
>> and /dev/dri/* stuff legacy 80x25 text mode on the ttys, and VESA 640x480 in X. In
>> Debian, none of the required kernel modules for X graphics will autoload, but even
>> when manually loaded, /dev/fb0 and /dev/dri/* remain absent. The LQ user got
>> similar failure with Debian-based live AntiX.

> You should look for 'i810' or 'i810fb' kernel modules.
> From what I understood, i810 support is available in two flavors: DRM
> and Frame Buffer. [1]
> Probably you have to manually enable\load them or configure additional
> options. [2] [3]

Thank you for both comment and references! I did find it necessary to force load
i810 in order to enable full use of the Intel DDX driver, which also demanded
explicit configuration in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/. Using i810fb allowed enjoying the
display's native mode on the vttys as well, but disallowed using the Intel DDX,
while FBDEV did produce native mode via kernel command line specification.