SOLVED video driver for VIA, openchrome not working on recent X server

[Fonnie]

I have a spare HP Mini 2133 netbook, with Via processor and videocard, until recent PClinuxOS installed fine, and I had XFCE installed on it.

Since it is a spare (used for travel and things) I update whenever I use it, but it seems the latest update was already some time ago.

The last update I did went fine (as in: everything downloaded and installed via Synaptic without error) then the system demanded a re-boot. Seems logical, since X-server and all received a major update.

After this......  the system won't start, .... can't start X, can't find monitor.... and the OS gives me the promp. When I start video, I can select the correct driver (which is openchrome) the setting LCD 1024 x 600 and the resolution 1024x600, saving gives me the same problem.... can't start X.

I think the problem is that the openchrome driver is not working well with X-server 1.10.x, as I've seen mentioned by others in the forum
output from systeminfo before the update (PClinuxOS XFCE 2010.12)
id:   
localhost.localdomain
description:    Notebook
product:    HP 2133 (FU346EA#UUG)
vendor:    Hewlett-Packard
version:    F.06
serial:    CNU8364DFV
width:    32 bits
capabilities:    smbios-2.5 dmi-2.5 smp-1.4 smp
configuration:   
boot   =   normal
chassis   =   notebook
cpus   =   1
family   =   103C_5336AN
sku   =   FU346EA#UUG
uuid   =   4339F3C0-3861-1596-96CA-C3A35BDC2556

id:   
display
description:    VGA compatible controller
product:    CN896/VN896/P4M900 [Chrome 9 HC]
vendor:    VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id:    
0
bus info:    
pci@0000:01:00.0
version:    01
width:    32 bits
clock:    66MHz
capabilities:    pm agp agp-3.0 vga_controller bus_master cap_list
configuration:   
latency   =   64
mingnt   =   2
resources:   
memory   :   c0000000-cfffffff(prefetchable)
memory   :   fc000000-fcffffff
memory   :   fbff0000-fbffffff(prefetchable)

I will try to reproduce the exact errors, I'm updating the Mini as I type. edit: failed to start the X server (your graphical interface) It is likely that it is not set up correctly.Would you like to view the X server output to diagnose the problem?

trying vesa, does not help


I've found something, but don't know if it is helpful

http://dev.laptop.org/git/users/jnettlet/xf86-video-chrome/

[YouCanToo]

I too have a machine that uses the openchrome driver and when rebooted didn't work. Much the same things you tried I too tried. Wach time I got errors trying to startx. For what ever reason I ended up rebooting the computer and it came up to the desktop.  So I will ask if you have actually completely rebooted your machine. if Not perhaps you should give it a try, you really have nothing to loose.

[Fonnie]

restarting does not help, seems to be the viachipset, and an outdated openchrome-driver.

I've tried several distro's, the most popular ones (in distrowatch) and those having X-server 1.10.. I've finally found one that seems to recognize the via video chipset, and has a driver for it.

Is it possible to 'extract' the driver somehow from that distro? and porting it to my favorite PClinuxOS?

How can I find out what driver this distro is using and where can I find it.

fyi distro is K-.....tu alot

[Fonnie]

I've done a clean install from from the KDE PClinuxOS 2011.06, and after a littlebit of tweaking the resolution is fine, the display works.
Re-installing is no problem, it's my spare machine, and no important data on it.

If I do a full update (synaptic) some 258 packages are installed, but after the reboot, there is no way to log in, I can't get to a working desktop.

After that I re-installed the same release again, and did a full update again, this time I unmarked the openchromedriver update, leaving the openchrome 0.2.904-4PCLOS2011, and not upgrading to openchrome-20110523-1pclos. After the reboot everything works fine.

So now I did do the upgrade of the driver, and after restart, after grub, I'm left with a login prompt, no gui, no KDE.
Before I receive a comment on why I did the update if everything works, I was just curiuos if it is realy this driver that is the cause of the problem, and yes, it is.

Multiple questions:

1: can I return to the previous version of the driver? and this from the CLI? how please?
2: If I need to re-install (no probs, I know how) can I lock out this particular update of this driver? Permanently?
3: will locking out this driver update cause problems in the future? I see a lot of updating going on with Xorg and KDE

I would like to mark this thread as solved, because I see that other forummembers have had issues with this Via chipset.

[Fonnie]

Found a solution for myself see http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,96080.0.html

marking this as SOLVED