Linux Format forums

codswallop

Hello

I'm trying to resurrect an old laptop (specs are here) with the latest version of CrunchBang Linux and everything has gone smoothly install-wise except the X configuration. Apparently there's an issue with siliconmotion drivers and X fails to configure automatically. Having followed the ideas I found here I've ended up with a partial screen (photo - I did try a screenshot from within CrunchBang but the image showed the full desktop and nothing wrong!).

My current xorg.conf after much-poking-and-blindly-changing-values attempts to get it working correctly is this

arochester · Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2012 9:59 pm Post subject:

How much RAM have you got? The technical specs say"Memory Options 64,128,196MB SDRAM "

Have you tried Antix?

codswallop · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 8:50 am Post subject:

128MB of RAM; I was kind-of hoping the answer would not be "try another distro" but I suppose I might have to resign myself to that...

I have not tried Antix but I have tried Debian, Tiny Core, Puppy and all the others that were on the LXF Performance Pack of a couple of issues ago.

All failed or crashed in Live or install when it came to running X. Only Puppy actually told me that the silicon motion drivers had a known issue.

Do you think it's a RAM thing?

arochester · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 12:47 pm Post subject:

128 is on the low side. Xfce or Lxde needs about 192 to run smoothly.

Puppy increased their minimum hardware requirements so you are better to use an older version.

DSL only needs 64 but it hasn't been developed for years. I think the same guy who did DSL went on to create Tiny Linux.

Slitaz may not be very good with Wireless.

codswallop · Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2012 1:14 pm Post subject:

Do you really think it's the RAM limit and window manager? I would have thought you'd still see the whole screen even if it was running at 1 FPS

CrunchBang uses OpenBox and I also installed fluxbox with the same issue

Dutch_Master · LXF regular Joined: Tue Mar 27, 2007 2:49 am Posts: 2359

Try changing the driver to "vesa" instead of "siliconmotion" (in the "Device" section) as every chip, and Linux distro, supports vesa by default.

If X fails again, it's the (video) RAM...

codswallop · Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:07 am Post subject:

I tried that and the display came up blank (backlit but black), not even the partial screen

It's a shame as i like this laptop because it's got a built in gameport and I wanted to connect up my midi keyboard for use with bristol

codswallop · Posted: Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:47 am Post subject:

As an update, I did manage to get a working X session going using Puppy and selecting Xvesa instead of Xorg in the start up session.