problems using ATI: RV370 graphics card: Mint 13

[notwatson]

Please help !

I have an AMD system (AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3400+) with an ATI Radeon RV370 graphics card. I found a topic where it was stated this card is fully supported with Mint 13.

I could not boot the live DVD normally so followed the instructions here (viewtopic.php?f=46&t=122257&view=unread#unread) and added the command "nomodeset xforcevesa" to the end of the "linux" line. This got me in and I installed Mint 13 (overwriting my 100% functional, but no longer supported Mint 10......)

Upon reboot after installation, I was unbable to boot (the display went blank and eventually said "no input detected", so I booted in via the same route as above - this gets me in and all is not well - the graphics card is not functioning correctly.

In System settings: Details: Graphics, the driver is "VESA:V380" and the Experience is "Fallback".

Please does anybody know how I can make the system actually use my graphics card correctly ?

I have installed some ATI graphics drivers from the software centre and now when I boot, the resolution is better (if I edit grub, the text is much smaller) but I get dropped to a prompt and a message pops up telling me the X server has terminated and the log file ends with the line No displays detected.

Please help me !!! I really want Mint 13 to function properly - I am very keen to try Cinnamon (that's the ISO I've installed from [32 bit, obviously]).

Any help at this stage would be *so* good !

Thanks,
Jon

[notwatson]

I have two monitors connected to my graphics card. They are connected using a simple splitter.

If I remove the second one and just plug my main one into the graphics card, I can boot straight in - but I am still in fallback mode and I cannot get into Cinnamon.

Is my graphics card not supported ? It would seem strange, as 10 minutes before installing Mint 13, Mint 10 was running like an absolute dream - in fact, the only reason for upgrading was to get LTS status and also, the software centre was no longer working in Mint 10, as support has stopped.

Please - somebody help - I feel completely let down by this as I was so looking forward to Mint 13.

Thanks - and I do hope somebody can help me.

Jon

[AlbertP]

The Grub resolution has nothing to do with your drivers. It is indeed right to install the ATI driver, but which one did you install? fglrx from the repository / Additional Drivers?

[notwatson]

Thanks for your reply.

But - I've opted to install Mint 13 MATE over my present installation.

One thing I did differently is this: I unplugged the video splitter and ran using only one monitor. This worked fine - the resolution is great and all seems well - basically I am happy.

However - I have one minor problem:

My two monitors are: Main one - Fujitsu Seimens 19" (this is detected as "FUS 19" in the monitors section of Control Centre, when running with just this one plugged in). Second monitor - VideoSeven 17" flat panel. The main monitor is connected to a KVM switch so basically that one switches between my Linux box (Mint 13 now) and my Windoze XP box which I use for my day-to-day work. The second monitor then always displays MINT and I use it in this configuration because I sometimes need to edit files in Windows from corrected PDFs displayed at the same time in Mint - hope this makes sense !

If I plug the splitter back in (whilst the computer is on) then everything keeps working fine - when I switch my second monitor on it displays the correct image. However, if I switch off, plug the splitter in and then boot up again - the boot goes weirdly - after about 5 seconds, the monitor(s) display "no input detected" and that's it - I get no further.

Is it possible to force the Mint 13 to boot up to use the "FUS 19" monitor regardless of what is plugged in ? Perhaps there is a setting I need to edit in one of the config files.

Sorry to change this thread a bit - I've been pulling my hair out a bit and just want this to all work !

Thanks in advance,

Jon

[AlbertP]

What kind of splitter is that? Is it used for connecting two monitors to one output, to have the same image on both monitors?

[notwatson]

absolutely correct - same image - both monitors.

I think the problem comes from the fact that one is 19" and the other is 17". Of course, I could be wrong.

Does GRUB detect a screen on boot-up - and if so, maybe the splitter is stopping this from happening.

Is there something I can edit to force it into thinking only the 19" one ("FUS 19") is connected - maybe in a GRUB file somewhere ?

In the meantime, I have ordered an HDMI to two VGA splitter cable, as at the moment the graphics card outputs to HDMI, then I have an HDMI to VGA converter plug and then the VGA to 2VGA splitter - perhaps the new cable will be better, I don't know......

Thanks for you continued help !

[AlbertP]

You'd probably better connect both monitors to separate outputs, and then choose to mirror them in Monitors (no need for a splitter to have the same image on both).

It is indeed true that splitters may not be able to detect the monitor if there are different monitors connected. Regardless of the size, different monitors send different information about themselves to the computer and mixing two monitors' informations does not really work. The HDMI to VGA converter might mess with this even more.
If the monitors support the same resolution & refresh rate then it's indeed possible to connect the 2nd one afterwards; then the computer has already detected the screen and doesn't notice at all that a 2nd monitor is listening to the same signal too.

What outputs does the graphics card have? Maybe I can give you some advice how to connect the monitors. Do your monitors only have VGA inputs?

[notwatson]

Thanks again for your reply.

The graphics card is an ATI RV370 X300 PCIe 128Mb card. It only has the one output (HDMI)......

Do I need to buy a new graphics card - like this one, maybe ? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300851918013? ... 97.c0.m619

---or---

Can I not simply force the operating system to go with the main monitor setup even though the other one is also "connected" (I never actually power it up until the system is completely booted in any case) ?

This used to work absolutely fine with Mint 10 - the only problem I had there was that the resolution was not correct - I had to add a mode (1280x1024) using the details in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=49&t=76085 (the first reply to the original message) - then both monitors just worked (although the smaller one [second one] was never switched on at boot - only afterwards [which is fine by me...]).

Any ideas ?

Thanks.

Jon

[AlbertP]

Ok, it's a Radeon X300 card... those cards haven't been supported by the AMD proprietary driver for long. Installing fglrx would only make things worse and on Mint 10, this proprietary driver didn't improve anything either. Probably todays version of the radeon driver is more picky about undetected monitors.

While the graphics card you are mentioning of course have a splitter, you really do not need a card with splitter (this is a decent one, though, which won't cause problems). Any cheap GeForce 210 card should do the job. There are many of those cards available which have two or more outputs such as a VGA and a HDMI port.

[notwatson]

Thanks AlbertP !

I had been wondering about the X300 cards.....

However - the plot thickens.

I have just installed Cinnamon (to give me the choice of which desktop session to go for) and it works absolutely brilliantly ! Now the monitor is detected as : Fujitsu Siemens Computers GmbH 19" : slightly different, but in a way, more informative !

So - all I need now is to have a setting carved in stone somewhere to tell the installation that the monitor I am using is Fujitsu Siemens Computers GmbH 19" - even though there is another monitor plugged in too. Surely this must be possible - as with Mint 10 this issue was completely non-existent - other than the resolution problem, which was sorted out in the other thread.

Is there a way to edit some configuration file somewhere in order to force the installation to go for this monitor ? (to save me climbing under the desk every morning where all the wires live [and I mean *all* the wires !]) ?

If one of those GeForce 210 cards - like this one ? (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251219197262? ... 97.c0.m619) needs to be installed - I have one question - do both of those outputs work simultaneously ? I imagined that either the VGA or the HDMI worked - or does it output the same image to each ? (obviously my perfect solution, other than having to buy new hardware, that is !)

Thanks for your continued help.

Jon

[AlbertP]

Yes, you can just mirror the screens on a card with two outputs (I think that is even the default on Linux).
The card with DMS-59 splitter that you proposed before, is also a card with two outputs: nothing different from a card that has both VGA and HDMI. DMS-59 splitters just combine two outputs, which can be driven separately, in one cable. Any cheap card with two or three outputs would work.

Note that DVI > VGA converters are far cheaper than HDMI > VGA converters because many DVI outputs support analog signalling too (just like VGA).

Could you try to find a Xorg log of a failed attempt to boot in the /var/log folder? Usually Xorg.0.log is the one that's currently active, the previous boot is Xorg.0.log.old, so if you boot with 2nd monitor, and then reboot without 2nd monitor, /var/log/Xorg.0.log.old would be the log of the previous boot attempt with two monitors. You can attach the file on the forum (may need to rename it to a .txt file or something like that) or post the contents on dpaste.org.

[notwatson]

Hi again,

Great idea.

The two files are "Xorg.0.log_single_monitor.jon" (just the Fujitsu Seimens monitor attached) and "Xorg.0.log_both_monitors.jon" (both monitors plugged into the graphics card via the simple DVI to two VGA cable splitter (sorry - before, I said HDMI - I meant DVI -oops !).

Both monitors version: http://dpaste.org/8I24O/

Single monitor version: http://dpaste.org/VFXn1/

Thanks for wading through this with me !

Jon

[AlbertP]

Ok, it clearly says No outputs definitely connected. Probably load detection might be broken in the driver, and no one noticed since all current monitors have a proper EDID anyway. I can't find a bug about this at the radeon driver.

It could help to install the kernel updates from Synaptic Package Manager.

With the mentioned GeForce 210 card, you can connect one monitor directly to the computer with VGA and one monitor using the DVI>VGA converter plug. I've also done such a thing for a while; my previous monitor's VGA cable was just too short to reach the VGA connector on the computer.