Intel ValleyView Gen7 on Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 10 (kernel)

[Cigydd]

Hello everybody,

I managed to install Linux Mint 17 Qiana on my Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 10 notebook.
I have kernel 3.13.0-24 installed with the distribution. No newer kernel I tried to install from the Ubuntu FTP (http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/) runs.

After Grub, I always get a black screen. In rescue mode, I get two lines, the second one mentioning ramdisk, and nothing more.

A guy from forums.linux-mint-czech.cz pointed out that the issue may be graphics card related, hence posting in this subforum.

My problem is that I can't run newer kernels and that I'd like to try because sometimes even though rarely I get strange graphics behavior (missing letters throughout the screen, e. g. O's or s's, and scrambled glitches in the MATE terminal window).

My question is, what exactly causes the glitches and/or what exactly prevents the newer kernels from running (and, hopefully, how to fix it).

If you tell me how to compile a kernel (I did it several times), I'd go into it knowing that it will serve as some sort of debugging material.

Here are my hardware specs, please ask for more if needed.

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pavel@lenovo:~$ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: lenovo Kernel: 3.13.0-24-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.2) Desktop: N/A Distro: Linux Mint 17 Qiana
Machine:   System: LENOVO product: 20324 version: Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 10
           Mobo: LENOVO model: MELON version: 31900042Std Bios: LENOVO version: 93CN19WW date: 11/07/2013
CPU:       Quad core Intel Pentium CPU N3510 (-MCP-) cache: 1024 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 16000.6 
           Clock Speeds: 1: 498.00 MHz 2: 498.00 MHz 3: 830.00 MHz 4: 498.00 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel ValleyView Gen7 bus-ID: 00:02.0 
           X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1366x768@60.0hz 
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Bay Trail GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card: Intel ValleyView High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-24-generic
Network:   Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9565 / AR9565 Wireless Network Adapter driver: ath9k bus-ID: 01:00.0
           IF: wlan0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Atheros usb-ID: 0cf3:3004
           IF: N/A state: N/A speed: N/A duplex: N/A mac: N/A
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 500.1GB (36.8% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: ST500LT012 size: 500.1GB 
Partition: ID: / size: 18G used: 12G (65%) fs: ext4 ID: /home size: 104G used: 39G (40%) fs: ext4 
RAID:      No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A 
Info:      Processes: 184 Uptime: 1:07 Memory: 1163.2/3770.9MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.2 Client: Shell inxi: 1.8.4 

[systembaguette]

Hi,

I experienced similar problems with a ValleyView Chipset on my HP250 Notebook. I messed around with it quite a while until I finally did a BIOS/UEFI-Update. After that everything worked just fine. Not sure if this is gonna work for you (as you are runnin a Lenovo) but you might give it a try.

[Cigydd]

Wow, that's a great suggestion.

I don't have Windows anymore so sadly I think I can't upgrade my firmware by other means than installing Windows back At the time I had a dual boot I tried to upgrade my firmware but there was no upgrade available yet.

Have been investigating and the only way to upgrade my BIOS is to run an EXE file. Which would be silly to try to run under WINE since WINE is experimental stuff and I could damage my laptop.

It's strange that the Lenovo webpage with the firmware upgrade mentions Red Hat, SuSE and even VMWare as appropriate OSes for the BIOS upgrade to run on (http://support.lenovo.com/cz/cs/product ... beta=false). This is very misleading. Wrote them a feedback note about it.

Now, ducking (not googling) further, I found an Ubuntu page with tips for BIOS update. There was a hint that I could use the ThinkVantage bootup utility (be it on another model) to upgrade my firmware.

Entered BIOS setup, seeking something as the ThinkVantage utility. Found the Setup Mode option. Tried to reboot to the Setup Mode and oops, realized that it's the Windows Setup Mode which is gone because Grub started as usual.
I preserved every partition on the hard drive that seemed to have something in common with the recovery process before.

Well, figured out what partition is the rescue one. It's /dev/sda1. Found a WindowsRE(covery) directory on it and something that appears to be a boot image and a Windows image there. Going to boot it with Grub

[Cigydd]

Wasn't able to start the Windows Recovery Environment from /dev/sda1 by Grub. Don't know how to start that system.
Tried

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chainloader (hd0,gpt1)/Recovery/WindowsRE/boot.sdi

but it failed (I don't remember the exact error message).

But I managed to „burn“ the Windows Preinstallation Environment to an USB flash drive (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_P ... nvironment).

Copied the Windows based BIOS flasher to the flash stick.

Booted the Windows PE and actually managed to run that flasher.

Rebooted to Grub, booted a newer 4.x kernel and … (!) … it freezed again with a black screen

No luck here. But nevertheless, thank you, systembaguette, for your advice. You made me into upgrading my firmware, which is a positive step anyway.

Any other ideas?

[Cigydd]

It’s been three and half a year since my last post. Read some Manjaro forum post where the author was able to run a 5.3 kernel. I’m apparently missing something. What could that possibly be?

The Manjaro forum post is here: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/solved-syst ... n/97877/12.

[rene]

Read some Manjaro forum post where the author was able to run a 5.3 kernel. I’m apparently missing something. What could that possibly be?

A 5.3 kernel? 5.0 is the latest series available for Mint 19.2 through the regular update manager. So unless you went of your way somewhat to install 5.3 -- which I suppose you would have described -- it's not there yet...