Description of problem: The mode created by the installer for X on a Dell Latitude C800 with the ATI Rage Mobility M4 chipset does not work properly - half the screen is obscured, with the effect that firstboot is unusable. The problem seems to lie with using 24-bit colour. When I booted the phoebe2 system and manually changed XF86Config to 16-bit colour, the screen problems were fixed (though it would be better if 24-bit colour worked). Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable): XFree86-4.2.99.3-20030115.0 How reproducible: Every time Steps to Reproduce: 1. Install from CD 2. boot in runlevel 5 3. Actual results: Screen is unusable Expected results: Screen should be usable Additional info:
Created attachment 89499 [details] X config after colour mode altered
Created attachment 89500 [details] X log
I am having the same problem on my dell c800 laptop and have reported it in another bug report.
Just upgraded XFree86 to the latest in rawhide dated 1/22/2003. Still get white screens of death. This must be an extemely difficult problem--it has continued forever.
To be quite honest, I haven't looked at this problem at all whatsoever on the debugging level, and that is why it hasn't changed. With 200+ bugs on XFree86, I regretably am unable to drop what I am doing, and work 18 hours per day in parallel on all 200 bugs simultaneously. This bug report will be updated with a note to the effect "I am working on this right now" when that time comes. Lack of such a message indicating that, can be taken as a sign that one or more of the other 200+ bugs that are reported in bugzilla against XFree86 currently have higher priority over this one. Apologies for any inconveniences.
As an added note - problems like this tend to require *physical* possession or direct physical access to the problematic hardware. I have _zero_ laptop hardware. As such, this problem most likely will be resolved when XFree86.org or someone else in the community who has access to the hardware fixes it and contributes the fix to XFree86.org.
Thanks for the communication. I have offered to somehow try to help since I have the hardware but need your guidance and skills. Another idea might be for you to network into my laptop over the internet and look at what you need to just as I do with my servers from remote. Let me know if any of these options look workable.
These types of problems really do require physical access, and anywhere from a day to a week of nonstop debugging and troubleshooting, requiring nonstop reboots, etc. Remote access is not really useful, as it requires a physical person on the other end, whom is available 24/7 to reboot the machine, and whom is also available instantly. It also does not permit the person working on it to see the screen. Also, for security reasons and liability, I do not accept offers from people to have remote access to their machines. All I can suggest, is that you experiment on your own to try to find a workaround in the mean time, or request help on XFree86 mailing lists, as I am unable to provide technical support in bugzilla. Bugzilla is strictly a bug tracker, and not a tech support forum. The bug has been reported, and is being tracked now. When the time comes that I can allot time resources into investigating this issue, I will do so, and will update the bug report to request more information if needed. I simply can not however provide tech support in bugzilla. Sorry.
Maybe for now, that this bug should be filed against anaconda and also setup to default to 16-bit to at least get a working system?
Mike, Below is a copy of a reply from Dell that i received the other day when I inquired about the status of Dell supporting Linux for my laptop C800. Does this mean that you will soon have access to the laptop engineers at Dell and have hardware in your lab to use to debug this X problem that so many of us with Dell laptops are having? "Hi Don, I found out that we are not currently supporting Linux on any laptops or on our mobile Precision M50. However, we will be releasing a new laptop line at the end of next month (the D-series) that should have Linux support."
Please upgrade to Fedora Core 2 or later, and if this issue turns out to still be reproduceable, please file a bug report in the X.Org bugzilla located at http://bugs.freedesktop.org in the "xorg" component. Once you've filed your bug report to X.Org, if you paste the new bug URL here, Red Hat will continue to track the issue in the centralized X.Org bug tracker, and will review any bug fixes that become available for consideration in future updates.