Laptop running Lisa freezes when connected via vga

[Khalil Ibrahim]

Hi There,

A week ago or so we began experiencing a problem when we connect our cinema projector via vga using Mint 12 (I am on an Hp Pavillon dv7 laptop along with Windows Vista and Ubuntu 11.04) . So once you plug the vga cable Mint freezes and all you could still do is force shut-down, restart on Ubuntu 11.04 and view your movie. Does anyone have any idea why is this happening? I tried to login with all Gnome variations and with Mate. All the same.
I think the only thing besides the regular updates are some new dependencies that my wife tried unsuccessfully to install to run the ipod.

Thanks in advance.

K.I.

[Khalil Ibrahim]

It happened after we were trying to mount the IPOD to Mint,
following the instructions in this thread:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=64033

Any Help would be appreciated

Thanks in Advance
K.I.

[AlbertP]

What graphics card do you have?
Please post the output of:

Code: Select all

inxi -Gx

[Khalil Ibrahim]

What graphics card do you have?
Please post the output of:

Code: Select all

inxi -Gx

Graphics: Card: ATI RS780M/RS780MN [Radeon HD 3200 Graphics] bus-ID: 01:05.0
X.Org 1.10.4 drivers ati,fglrx unloaded: vesa,fbdev,radeon Resolution 1440x900@59.9hz
GLX Renderer ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics GLX Version 3.3.11251 - CPC Direct Rendering Yes

Thanks in advance,
K.I.

[cavedweller]

What graphics card do you have?
Please post the output of:

Code: Select all

inxi -Gx

tu
Graphics: Card: ATI RS780M/RS780MN [Radeon HD 3200 Graphics] bus-ID: 01:05.0
X.Org 1.10.4 drivers ati,fglrx unloaded: vesa,fbdev,radeon Resolution 1440x900@59.9hz
GLX Renderer ATI Radeon HD 3200 Graphics GLX Version 3.3.11251 - CPC Direct Rendering Yes

Thanks in advance,
K.I.

I don't if this will help, but the short version is it is the video card and gnome 3. I have a desktop with nvidia and had a laptop with ATI. Lisa running Gnome was a lost cause on the desktop. Graphics were flacky at best so I installed the proprietary driver and that was the end of that install. I ended up putting Julia on it for now. It will probably end up with debian and xfce in the near future. The laptop installed fine but flaked out when the proprietary drivers were installed. Going back in and removing the proprietary drivers made the system usable again, but no 3D rendering. Tried Ubuntu with the laptop, and had the same issue. The catch to this is it has something to do with Gnome 3, because the laptop running Kubuntu Oneiric loaded out with the proprietary video drivers and is working fine. I gave it to my son.

[AlbertP]

You can use the proprietary driver from AMD's website to get Gnome working on mint 12. The outdated version in Additional Drivers indeed causes strange effects like a rainbow top panel.

[cavedweller]

You can use the proprietary driver from AMD's website to get Gnome working on mint 12. The outdated version in Additional Drivers indeed causes strange effects like a rainbow top panel.

I did that with the laptop I was talking about it only marginally corrected the issues. Still had skewed fonts in drop down menus and terminal. Interestingly if I installed debian squeeze and updated my /etc/apt/sources.list to wheezy with the multimedia repositories, then ran sudo apt-get update and then sudo apt-get dist-upgrade all worked fine. In the end my son wanted kde so that is what he got.

[AlbertP]

AMD have promised to fix all the Gnome 3 issues in the 12.1 driver which will be released somewhere this month.

[cavedweller]

AMD have promised to fix all the Gnome 3 issues in the 12.1 driver which will be released somewhere this month.

I figure Gnome 3 has been out long enough that those drivers should have already been out. To be more correct though the distos pushing Gnome 3 should have held off until these issues were addressed. Best I can say on this issue is someone sure Microsofted this one. We expect the premature release of the next version out of Redmond, and then the continual on slot of updates and service packs trying to keep the boat built full of holes floating until it is replace by the next sinking ship. People complain about the slow release cycles of debian stable. Kind of funny that when debian puts their new boat in the water it just floats with out the need of someone trying to patch it up to keep it from sinking.

[AlbertP]

ATI/AMD is the only manufacturer having Gnome 3 problems and running the open-source driver it works fine. Intel and nVidia also work, no matter which driver you use. AMD has a market share of around 30-40%.

For many people the latest proprietary drivers 11.11 and 11.12 work reasonably well. But unfortunately not for everyone.

[cavedweller]

ATI/AMD is the only manufacturer having Gnome 3 problems and running the open-source driver it works fine. Intel and nVidia also work, no matter which driver you use. AMD has a market share of around 30-40%.

For many people the latest proprietary drivers 11.11 and 11.12 work reasonably well. But unfortunately not for everyone.

nvidia doesn't work no matter which driver you use. You spend a little time on google you would know that.

[AlbertP]

I use nVidia myself on all of my computers and with both open-source and proprietary driver Gnome 3, Shell, Cinnamon, VGA screen, laptop screen, etc. ALL WORK FINE.

Perhaps a few people are having problems with new card types (or older driver/distro versions) but most of nVidia is fine. However on the ATI/AMD side all cards cause problems with certain proprietary driver versions (most notably pre 11.10) and some of them still don't work 100% fine with 11.1x.

[cavedweller]

I use nVidia myself on all of my computers and with both open-source and proprietary driver Gnome 3, Shell, Cinnamon, VGA screen, laptop screen, etc. ALL WORK FINE.

Perhaps a few people are having problems with new card types (or older driver/distro versions) but most of nVidia is fine. However on the ATI/AMD side all cards cause problems with certain proprietary driver versions (most notably pre 11.10) and some of them still don't work 100% fine with 11.1x.

Glad yours works, there are alot of us it only screwed their system up. My system with the nvidia is 3gig P4 hyperthread, 1 gb sdram, 160gb western digitla hd, 5200fx agp video, on an abit mb. Not the newest system but you think it would run it. When it crashed my system I googled and found it was a common occurrence in nvidia as well as AMD/ATI. Like you said AMD/ATI have a good share of the market. So like I said it should have been held back until it was a little more stable.

[cavedweller]

What I find ironic about the whole thing is that on my the laptop I was installing it on was an HP with 64bit amd, AMD/ATI graphics, 2 gigs ram. The graphics would only run 2D without having issues. I re-installed with debian squeeze. Bumped it up to wheezy, which installed Gnome 3.1.0.1 and all worked fine. Bought a new laptop, and gave the one in question to my who wanted kde on it. So I reloaded it with Kubuntu 11.10 and bumped the kde up to 4.7.95 and all worked fine.

So makes me wonder where the issue really lies.

[AlbertP]

Cavedweller, any card prior to GeForce 6 series uses a legacy driver and not the newest driver version. Those legacy drivers aren't maintained well, that's why you run into problems. On my FX 5200, Compiz doesn't work either in Mint 10/11 with the legacy driver (with the open-source nouveau it works fine). Any modern nVidia or Intel card works fine with Gnome Shell, and there are also a lot of people running open-source drivers on AMD hardware. The majority of people has no problem at all with Gnome 3 and graphics. It's just the users of ATI/AMD proprietary and some old GPU's from other manufacturers.

[cavedweller]

Now that's interesting. The desktop running the 5200fx I installed 10 on because of the issues with 12. It's working fine.

My point in all this is simply this. It has been the practice and one of the bragging rights of the linux community is that our OS runs on legacy hardware that newer versions of Windows doesn't. It has been one of the selling points, because it means you aren't having to upgrade your hardware every time a new release come out.

Considering that the AMD/ATI gpu has a 30-40% market share and it was effected also, is kind of like saying to people, "Do to the rising price of oil and gas we have come up with a new fuel. Here is the catch though, you will only be able to drive on the highways if you have a 2008 or newer vehicle. Owners of vehicles made between 2004 and 2008 are only going to be able to do 35 and will be limited to around town use until the manufacturers come up with a part to make it possible to attain the speeds you need for highway travel. All owners of models built prior to 2004 will have to look for an alternative fuel or means of travel.In addition to these issues the owners of vehicles produced by manufacturer X you will also be effected. We do not consider this an issue though because it doesn't effect the other 60-70% of the vehicles in production. They are running fine. Manufacture X says they will manufacture a part in the next month or so, and you will no longer be limited to around town driving and you will once again be able to take full advantage of the highway system. Until then we are sorry for any inconvenience but like the other fuel manufacturer says we will get it working before we change it again."