This only works on Hardy Heron 8.04 kernel version 2.26.19 if you have upgraded beyond that, i.e. if your webbook is currently up-to-date then the download on this page will not do anything useful and you will need to restore the backup of your xorg.conf to get it working again.
So now you know how to unbreak your webbook graphics, lets have a go at installing and using the via drivers.
First download this file Elonex Via Drivers.
This contains the binary drivers patched for the webbook and compiled against kernel 2.26.19 which is the current kernel at the time of writing this. When the next kernel upgrade happens there is a reasonable chance you will boot to a black screen. If that happens go to the recovery console and copy back your xorg.conf for the openchrome drivers.
So having downloaded the file start up a terminal window. I am assuming that you downloaded the file to the desktop (the default place if you just clicked on the link in Firefox), if you put it somewhere else then you may have to adjust the commands accordingly.
cd Desktop ls tar -zxvf elonexviadrivers.tar.gz cd ElonexViaDrivers sudo ./vinstall
so step by step
cd Desktop changes the current directory to the Desktop directory where you downloaded the file
ls lists the content of the current directory, it will show you everything on your desktop. I put this in just to confirm you are in the right place and to help you forget the dir dos command:-)
tar -zxvf elonexviadrivers.tar.gz
this one is a bit more complex the zxvf bit is 4 commands or flags we are passing to the tar program. z means uncompress the file using gzip (that is the .gz part of the filename). x means extract the files from the archive. v means verbose, so it will tell you what it is doing as it extracts them. f means the next parameter is the filename to work on.
cd ElonexViaDrivers
the extracted archive created a new folder on your desktop, we now change directory into that folder
sudo ./vinstall
sudo means run the next command as the super user. The single . means “the current directory” just as .. means the parent directory. cd . does nothing cd .. goes up a directory. ./vinstall means run the vinstall script that is located in the current directory. Now if you are familiar with the workings of other popular operating systems you may be a bit puzzled by this, why can’t you just type vinstall because you are in the right directory? Well this is a security feature, the current directory is not on the search path for applications to execute, you have to be explicit. Imagine if there was a script called “ls” in a directory, you go into that directory and use ls to list the contents but instead of doing that you just ran a script that does who knows what!
You can have a look at the contents of the vinstall script if you like. Just type
gedit vinstall
and the editor will open up so you can see what it does. It is always good practice to have a look at scripts before you run them. It is a great way to learn, and you can check that it is doing what you expect it to do.
So now you should have the via drivers installed, if you restart you will find the login window a bit stretched (not quite sure how to fix that yet) and you can log on to your desktop. Some things might be a bit smoother, but nothing dramatic is visible. For that we need Part 3 – Enabling Compiz, which I will crack on with right now . . .
Please shout if the instructions don’t work, there might be some typos in there
Almost done, just got to reboot. Im not quite a ubuntu user yet, but thought I would point out that cd ElonexViaDrivers is case sensitive, which is confusing for an old windows user.
oops, thanks for that. Updated it now. The filename started as ElonexViaDrivers.tar.gz but when I uploaded it Wordpress changed it to lower case. I updated a bit too much to match it. The directory that gets uncompressed has the capital letters.
Alan
Have followed the blog with interest. I’m not confident enough with Linux yet to take th plunge and try any of this as I wouldn’t have a clue if anything stopped working. However I do agree with our other correspondents and I applaud your efforts and extend my advance thanks for the day when I screw up my courage to try some of these ‘adventures in computing’.
@Alan Not sure why, but Gnome isn’t running at its native resolution. Also it was upset when booting at res being too low. Then when clicking continue, I think on another console or whatever its called “ctrl-alt-?” 1-7 it said something about not being able to start on device 0 clicked yes and started on 1. Not sure what this means. Did have a quick look in the readme an wondered if sudo cp viax.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf or did you adjust the script. Ill have a fiddle I think.
Hi Jostlin,
we are certainly on a bit of an adventurous streak here at the moment I would certainly advise waiting until we shake out any issues with these instructions!
@Paul
OK, that is less than ideal. sounds like it has gone into it’s automatic attempt to find a working resolution. I will try and figure out what was wrong in the instructions. Anyone else might like to hold off for a bit . . .
Alan.
@Paul, you should be able to copy back your xorg.conf.openchrome to get back to where you were I think.
looks like the xorg.conf in the archive isn’t quite as it should be. I took down the link for now so nobody else gets hurt.
I didnt copy back xorg.conf file, ran the final command in the readme, not sure how much this will upset it as it overwrites, but I am running at native again. Hope thats a little help for you.
OK, looks like the vinstall script does more of a merge than a copy. I had updated it with my xorg.conf and thought it would all work (and it did, because it was merging with my xorg.conf) If you do as you suggest and cp viax.conf over the top of /etc/X11/xorg.conf and reboot I think it will work. I will update the script and repost.
Im already ahead of you on that one. Ill have a good fiddle with the effects.
Well done Paul! I have updated the script, it just does a simple copy of the xorg.conf (and does a backup copy of the original first in case you forgot). I put the link back now, can some other brave soul try it and report back please.
I’ll do it tomorrow when I get up and report back as per usual.
Ok Adams Report.
Followed through section 2 fine. Rebooted and was presented with Grub Error 18. To resolve this I entered the BIOS during startup (by pressing del for all of you that don’t know how to do it) I went to the furthest right tab and selected “load optimum defaults” and then “save settings and exit”
Then it loaded ok, got to the login screen as usual and you say, it looked a bit out of shape.
Desktop wallpaper up and then nothing past this point. I waited a good 5 mins and did a dirty reboot and went into recovery mode.
ran “repair broken sectors” (I think it was called that)
Still nothing.
Went back into recovery and copied the old conf file back and rebooted and the laptop seems to have given up on me all together tbh.
Ubuntu loading screen and then boots to a black screen.
I will continue to play with it for a while and if not I think I will be need to reinstall ubuntu
Ok I’m dying here!
I downloaded a program that makes your usb stick into a bootable jobby dooby and have the ubuntu image on it ready, I had to make the usb into the primary hard drive in the BIOS to get it to boot? It wont boot from usb even though that’s first in the boot sequence and hitting F11 and selecting the USB drive still does nothing?
Anyway i select intall ubuntu from the menu and it does the usual ubuntu loading screen, but when I should be present with the select language, I get a blank screen! I’ve spent ages on this thing now and I’m about ready to eat it! HELP
@Adam,
well done on figuring out the magic trick to get it to boot from USB, took me ages to find that. We do now have a recovery image on a USB stick, this was delayed a bit because we found some dodgy USB hardware. Can you tell me a bit more about your program and how it boots the CD-ROM image? I used the Ubuntu Alternate CD to build the webbook image as that has the OEM config application on it which does the first-user wizard.
Being the stubborn git that I am, I wasn’t giving up and plugged in an external monitor and although the webbook screen was black, I had a sneaking suspicion that it was due to screen resoution on the ubuntu setup, so I stuck in the external monitor and low and behold I had me a setup menu! I’ve then got it installed again – yipee!
I copied over from usb to the /etc/X11 folder a copy of the xorg.conf file as a backup, but I’m not giving up on this updated driver thing THAT easy!
So i’ve just done step 2 again, changed the resolution and rebooted without the external monitor in. So far, so good!
Just logged in, opened synaptic and reloaded, installed all updates and rebooted and I get the arrow, but a black screen (so it doesn’t like it after the update it looks like)
I can however plug in the external monitor and get a nice screen! Just playing now and copied the xorg.conf that you put on a blog onto here.
Ok so I copied the old file back, restarted and working again.
Reinstall the via driver, restarted and I have my screen again on the new driver.
Installed all the compiz stuff and I have fully working 3d in your FACE Webbook
I don’t however have the mobile broadband app haha. Can you give me a file please Alan!
*pats own back for a day of fun and frollics!*
Persistence always pays off!
The development site for the mobile broadband client is here http://public.warp.es/wader
you can install it by going into Synaptic and adding a third party repository
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/wader/ubuntu hardy main
then doing a reload and install wader-gtk (it will pull in all the dependencies)
Hi Alan, great website – very useful and informative resource, and as a CPW employee I was very pleased to see Ubuntu laptops sitting on our shelves and have been doing my best to preach Open Source to the folks of Birmingham.
However, I seem to be running into problems trying to install the VIA drivers – first I edited the boot menu to automatically boot into kernel 2.26.19 to avoid the ‘black screen’ problems with 2.26.21, then downloaded and installed the drivers. But, when I reboot, my login screen does not appear ’stretched’ and after I enter my login details I get a blank screen for a few seconds then I get an error box with the following message:
“Your session only lasted less than 10 seconds. If you have not logged out yourself, this could mean that there is some installation problem…” etc
What am I doing wrong? It’s obviously something to do with the drivers as when I copy my backup xorg.conf file over the modified one it works fine. I thing I can even rule out my general cack-handedness with Linux as I followed your instructions verbatim. Any ideas?
Thanks
There’s something in the ‘new’ xorg.conf that my system doesn’t like, it just won’t let me in. It works in Failsafe mode but not in ‘normal’ mode – I keep getting that ‘your session lasted less than 10 seconds’ message and if I click for more details it says something about not being able to access something to do with fonts? And it looks for an nvidia gfx card and moans when it can’t find it… I don’t get this at all.
I keep trying, and keep having to copy back my old xorg.conf and try again, I’ve even started messing with the xorg.conf myself, with mixed effects, unfortunately not the right ones!
Can anyone help me?
OK, in case it helps, here’s the full error log I get when it won’t let me log in:
/etc/gdm/Xsession: Beginning session setup…
Setting IM through im-switch for locale=en_GB.
Start IM through /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/all_ALL linked to /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/default.
Checking for nVidia: not present.
Starting Xgl with options: -accel xv:pbuffer -nolisten tcp -fullscreen -br +xinerama
Waiting 10 more seconds for Xgl to start…
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/TTF/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/OTF/, removing from list!
Could not init font path element /usr/share/fonts/X11/CID/, removing from list!
FreeFontPath: FPE “/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc/” refcount is 2, should be 1; fixing
Xgl: via_content.c:246: calculate_buffer_parameters: Assertion `fb->Attachment[BUFFER_BACK_LEFT].Renderbuffer’ failed.
Aborted
cannot open display:
Run ‘/usr/bin/seahorse-agent –help’ to see a full list of available command line options.
I really haven’t a clue with this as several people seem to have got it running without this error, yet I followed the instructions exactly…
Hello,
I don’t know if anyone else is having this problem but every time I update my system(even a small update) my via driver goes walkabout, more recently it doesn’t load when I startup!!! Which is annoying!
I had a look at the ./vinstall script and I noticed that it copies the via.ko and via-agp.ko drivers then does a depmod -a. After that should there not be a modprobe via && modprobe via-agp or similar?
I added the modprobe lines and the via driver seems to be loading on startup, my system is up to date so I can’t try an update to see if the via driver loads but its looking good!!
So has anyone else had this problem?
Cheers,
Alasdair
@Neil, sorry, I have no idea what is going on there. The xorg log file is at /var/log/Xorg.0.log and there might be a further clue in that.
Ok, got the log file, what am I looking for?
not sure. Can you paste it here and I will have a look. (use
cp /var/log/Xorg.0.log /home/neil/brokenxorg.logto move it out of the way then get X working again)It’s very long to just paste in here so I’ve uploaded it to a file host, here’s the link:
!link removed!
Hope that sheds some light on it…
Also, in comment 20 I mentioned that the login screen doesn’t look stretched – correction, it does, it just doesn’t let me log in…
@Neil, ok, thanks got it but that site tried to do lots of nasty popups so I removed the link in case any Windows users follow the link and get hurt!
well that log file looks pretty good to me. Lines like this:
(**) VIA(0): *Default mode “1024×600″: 49.0 MHz, 37.3 kHz, 60.0 Hz
(II) VIA(0): Modeline “1024×600″x60.0 48.96 1024 1064 1168 1312 600 601 604 622 -hsync +vsync (37.3 kHz)
indicate it is using the VIA driver (or it would start CHROME(0):) and it is probing the 1024×600 resolution. I see no interesting errors at all.
@ comment 28: sorry, just googled file hosting & clicked the first one that came up…
@ comment 29: So, the drivers are working so what’s stopping me logging in? The error message seems to blame the fonts for some reason – I did notice the VIA modified xorg file had different font paths to the original, so I copied & pasted those in, but the whole system spazzes out when I do that and says it can’t find any display drivers at all…
Very weird. Think one of those restore USB sticks might be in order…
I’ve googled around and that last bit on the error report I get when I log in, “Xgl: via_content.c:246: calculate_buffer_parameters: Assertion `fb->Attachment[BUFFER_BACK_LEFT].Renderbuffer’ failed”, is apparently a fatal error relating specifically to VIA drivers, I’ve found lots of mentions of it occurring to various people using different VIA/openchrome related pieces of kit, but haven’t really found anything explaining how to fix it, or at least anything I can understand…
Ok, followed your instructions as above and after the final ./install line and entering my password i got:
“install the via driver!
…………cp: cannot create regular file `/lib/modules/2.6.27-10-generic/kernal/drivers/char/drm/’: Is a directory
……done!
Oringinal X config file was saved as /etc/X11/xorg.conf.viabak”
Then terminal window is open and waiting for another command??
Ok, restarted and now have this error:
“Ubuntu is running in low-graphics mode.
The following error was encountered. You many need to update your configuration to solve this.
(EE) Failed to load /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers//via_drv.so
(EE) Failed to load module “via” (loader failed, 7)
(EE) No drivers available.”
What’s Ubuntu trying to tell me I did wrong?
Ok, seems after rebooting I get the ubuntu logo, and then a blank dark screen for a while. Hitting Ctrl+Alt+F1 bringsup a DOS look-a-like. I can move around just like it was the real DOS (e.g. acess the desktop), but not GUI loads (If i understand this properly).
Have tried the reair option iun the BIOS menu, no joy. Ideas?
ah, that looks a bit broke. The VIA drivers only work for certain versions of the kernel, if you have upgraded to Intrepid (think you mentioned that in an earlier comment) then you will not be running a compatible kernel. VIA have sort of started talking to me again, but they have not come up with a new version of the drivers. OK to fix it plug it into a wired network connection and go to the dos-like thing (which is actually the “bash” shell) and type the following
cd /etc/X11
wget http://webbookblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/xorg.conf
and reboot. That should fix it I think.
Ok, connected to the site, got a response but then got “xorg.conf.2:Permission denied”
Cannot write to xorg.conf.2 (Permission denied).
What could be denying it being writing onto that file?
Sorry to continue to post, just trying to give you as much info as poss. Just did a uname -a to find out what kernal i’m running. And got “Linux Webbook 2.6.27-10-generic #SMP Fri Nov 21 12:00:22 UTC i686 GNU/Linux”
I’ve used your above command, but with sudo infront of it and it installed, but still nothing. Ctrl+Alt+F7 gives a balnk screen.
Pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 bring me to the “bash” shell and i see:
Starting up…
Loading, please wait…
19+0 records in
19+0 records out
kinit; name-to-dev-t(/dev/disk/by-uuid/7547d25e-b5d9-4f92-b88e-e3bb68968d98) = dev(8,5)
kinit: trying to resume from /dev/disk/by-uuid/7547d25e-b5d9-4f92-b88e-e3bb68968d98
kinit@ No resume image, doing normal boot…
Ubuntu 8.10 webbook tty1
webbook login:
OK, well the good news is that you are running Intrepid Ibex, give me a couple of hours to put the kids to bed and I will post a new xorg.conf and get your webbook running again.
quite right, I missed out the sudo, sorry about that.
try this one:
cd /etc/X11
sudo wget http://webbookblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/xorg.conf
then reboot by hitting the power button, or type
shutdown -r now.Everyone else i’ve spoke to has suggested i’ll need a total re-install of 8.04. So lets hope this will work.
Put in what you suggested and it installed ok. Rebooted the webbook and still left with a blank screen unless i hit Ctrl+Alt+F1. Then i get the same bash screen as before. I have talked to a friend who did suggest something else before he thought it would work…
[18:39] editor
[18:39] scroll down using arrows to where it says Driver
[18:39] what does it say there
[18:41] you’ll have many drivers
[18:41] ignore that
[18:41] go down
[18:41] add this:
[18:41] Driver “openchrome”
[18:41] Option “AccelMethod” “EXA”
[18:41] Option “ExaNoComposite” “True”
[18:41] Option “MigrationHeuristic” “greedy”
[18:41] Option “ExaScratchSize” “8192″
[18:41] Option “MaxDRIMem” “16384″
[18:42] there is a piece missing
[18:42] hrm
Not sure what he was suggesting… but thought i’d throw it out thre incase he was onto something. Thanks for your help, it’s much appreciated as i’m determind to make Ubuntu work and learn it!
well you might be headed towards a restore of some kind but lets try a couple of other things first. Can you try plugging in an external monitor to the VGA port and see if it works with that? if it does what resolution is it running at 1024×600 or 1024×768 or something else?
Tried plugging my PC moniter into it as I read in other topics on here (Spent about 3 hours reading through each blog in detail learning [or so I thought]). The moniter doesn’t pick anything up. Have tried Fn + F5/F10 to try to force the screen to the external, and still nothing.
When ubuntu loads, I see the loading sign/logo, then nothing. I do get the quick drum beat sound though when every I press return or exit. So could something be running in the background and I’ve just managed to break the VIA graphics drivers? Or would that stop me from going into the DOS like mode aswell?
It is x.org (the graphical windowing system) which is a bit poorly on your webbook. That can attempt to use the via drivers or the openchrome drivers. The /etc/X11/xorg.conf file is there to give it some information about which to use and what the screen resolution should be etc. (it will probe about and try to set it up automatically but that doesn’t always fully work). You should now have an xorg.conf that looks like this http://webbookblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/xorg.conf if you type
less /etc/X11/xorg.confyou should be able to view it and check it is the same. That should force it to use the OpenChrome drivers and set the resolution to 1024×600. I am a little puzzled that it isn’t working to be honest. Another place to look isless /var/log/Xorg.0.logand browse through that looking for interesting sounding error messages. Do a lot of lines in that start with(II) CHROME(0):or(--) VIA(0):?Right, ok I think i found the issue, less /etc/X11/xorg.conf didn’t display half the information in the Device, Monitor and Screen sections. This is what i see:
Section “Device”
Identifier “Configured Video Device”
EndSection
Section “Monitor”
Identifier “Configured Monitor”
EndSection
Section “Screen”
Identifier “Default Screen”
Monitor “Configured Monitor”
Device “Configured Video Device”
EndSubSection
EndSection
So, i’m guessing i need to re-download a file that will overwrite ths one with the full information needed? Although i thought thats what the wget line I did earlier would have done?
I’ve alos checked the log file you suggested, the lines all start with II so it’s using chrome and not Via i’m guessing??
Actually II just means informational so most of the lines would start the same for VIA or CHROME. Given you have an emptyish xorg.conf I think there will be a few lines at the top of the log file starting with (–) to say it probed for the settings as opposed to what we want which is to override them with settings from the config file (**) The full list of markers is:
Markers: (–) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting, (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational
You are quite right, the wget line should have overwritten that file, maybe try it again? If that doesn’t work you can edit the file by typing
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf, (ctrl+x to save and quit).Ok, since trying it for a second time still didn’t resolve, i’ve written them in manually. Ubuntu logo appears and then i get a blank screen for abour 3 seconds before getting a warning box that appears that says:
“Ubuntu is running in low-graphics mode.
The following error was encountered. You many need to update your configuration to solve this.
(EE) Problem parsin the config file
(EE) Error parsing the config file”
I can then click ok, and i’m given 3 options:
1) Run Ubuntu in low-graphics mode for just this session,
2) Reconfigure the graphics,
3) Trouble shoot the error.
Where should i go from here?
OK, well that seems like there is something not quite right somewhere in your xorg.conf. You can check through it carefully to see what is missing, but lets try a bit harder to download the one from here and replace your one.
Try going back to a console and type the following. The first cd command makes sure you are in your home directory. We then download the xorg.conf into your home directory, check it is right, then copy it over the one in /etc/X11 (we need to be superuser to do that bit) finally check that it looks right again and reboot.
I used cd .. to get into home , as before i was just in phil@webbook:, but using the cd .. it put me into something like phil@webbook:home#.
I’ve followed the above, and check the file and it’s the same as the online file you reference. Seems that i didn’t copy the correct spaces/word alignment when I did it manually (didn’t think it would effect it) as i checked the spelling letter by letter (Upper/Lower case too).
Not it loads as it should (even with the annoying screen flicker as it clears out the memory from last time).
Cheers for your help,
I’m guessing since everyone i’ve spoken too has told me 8.10 is not stable i should revert back to 8.04, with the bonus being i can then put on Compliz too. Any ideas how?
Great, glad you got it working! 8.10 is perfectly stable once installed, I use it on loads of desktops laptops and servers without issue. Compiz would be nice though and I am talking to some folk at VIA about that (not entirely sure they are listening, but we are talking).