Xorgwizard: nouveau/nv/sis fixes

Testing Precise pup 5.6beta1 on my "white tower" with SiS video, I have discovered some issues with the Xorg Wizard...

The Wizard offered the choices of 'nouveau', 'nv' and 'vesa'. Even though there is no NVIDIA video hardware. Also it didn't offer 'sis' driver.

Hmmm... I discovered a fault in the logic in xorgwizard-cli that was causing nouveau and nv to be offered when they shouldn't. Fixed.

The lack of 'sis' though, that is weird. At first bootup, automatically going to desktop, the Xorg 'sis' driver is automatically chosen, and it works. All is fine, no need to run the Xorg Wizard -- however, if I do, exit to console then run "xorgwizard-cli", only 'vesa' is offered, not 'sis'.

In other words, Xorg does detect SiS video when in fully automatic startup, but not when run from the commandline as "Xorg -configure". The latter creates /root/xorg.conf.new, which is supposed to contain all found compatible Xorg drivers, except in this case it fails, no 'sis'.

I don't know what to make of that. I suspect that the Xorg developers are not giving much attention to the code for the "-configure" option, as they probably consider it to be a legacy thing.

Anyway, I figured out a workaround. At first automatic startup, the chosen Xorg driver is stored in pupdesk.flg and /var/local/quicksetup-pupmode5-autodriver, which xorgwizard-cli can read.
To see exactly how this works, examine the scripts /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit, /usr/sbin/quicksetup, /usr/sbin/xorgwizard-cli, changes dated "130509".

Woof commit:
http://bkhome.org/fossil/woof2.cgi/info/41c52d00ad

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Comments

ATI video
Username: james c
Pemasu's latest Wheezy 3.5.6.2 boots to a prompt and xorgwizard allows a choice between "modesetting", "radeon" and "vesa". Choosing the correct "radeon" driver led to the correct 1024x768 resolution. Forum post http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=703028#703028

ATI video more
Username: james c
"Precise 5.5.9.2 boots directly to the correct 1024x768 resolution. [code]VIDEO REPORT: Precise Puppy, version 5.5.92 Chip description: VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI RS480 [Radeon Xpress 200G Series] Display controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Radeon Xpress Series (RS480) Requested by /etc/X11/xorg.conf: Resolution (widthxheight, in pixels): 1024x768 Depth (bits, or planes): 24 Modules requested to be loaded: dbe Probing Xorg startup log file (/var/log/Xorg.0.log): Driver loaded (and currently in use): ati Loaded modules: dbe dri dri2 exa extmod fb glx kbd mouse radeon ramdac record Actual rendering on monitor: Resolution: 1024x768 pixels (270x203 millimeters) Depth: 24 planes ...the above also recorded in /tmp/report-video[/code]

Re booting to prompt
Username: BarryK
"james c, I have set things up so that pup should be built in Woof to automatically go straight to the desktop. If that fails, a hard reboot will force the Xorg Wizard to run. This now works even when you don't have a save-file, ie the very first bootup.

fwiw..
Username: 01micko
"When I first saw the idea of the creation of 'pupdesk.flg' I cringed. Many users will object to this and a regular already has.. See http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=703129#703129

Re "sniffing" partitions
Username: BarryK
"01micko, Well, it already happens, "sniffing" that is, in all pups, always has done. The 'init' script in the initrd scans all partitions looking for Puppy files, including when boot off a CD. The only exception is when boot off a usb stick. I can make it optional in 3builddistro, whether you want the 'pupdesk.flg' feature. Something that I was considering, in fact I might do it, is move the code that creates 'pupdesk.flg' into the 'init' script in initrd. As the partitions are being scanned anyway, creating and removing pupdesk.flg is just one small extra thing. Then, the responsibility can be taken out of 'quicksetup', and all it will have to do is post a flag in the save-file that the desktop succeeded, which init (in initrd) can read, and remove pupdesk.flg. The same thing would hold, all partitons get sniffed, except when boot off usb. ...in fact, that way looks better, I'll do that. Note also, pupdesk.flg only gets created/removed in PUPMODE=5. So it doesn't happen after installation, nor in full HD installation. In other words, it is a "one off" thing. ...to object to that is really being paranoid.

Re pupdesk.flg
Username: BarryK
"Another thing that can be done, regarding where pupdesk.flg gets created, is to give preference to a Linux partition, if one exists. Currently, the first writable partition is used, which would normally be a vfat or ntfs partition for most people. Note also, moving creation of pupdesk.flg to the initrd, users won't see a partition temporarily mounted when the desktop first starts up and quicksetup is running -- which I see from the forum has alarmed some people.

Tags: woof