Weird Intel video problem

Yesterday I was helping someone who had an infected Windows XP. It was running soooo slow, yet she persisted in using it. Then a document that she was editing in Word just disappeared. That's when she phoned me.

I booted Spup 0.4 from CD, and the desktop came up ok -- but so weird, all text displayed with some characters missing. Not just the desktop, in the applications too. For example, the text "file" under the file-manager icon top-left of screen displayed as "f le" (from memory I think the "i" was missing) -- the missing characters were just transparent gaps.

However, text did display ok in the rxvt terminal.

This is the KMS-enabled intel video driver. I have actually run Puppy on her PC before, no problem, so the issue is with this recent driver.

I rebooted and choose the 'vesa' driver and all was well.

Regarding her missing file, yeah, it really was missing. I used 'find' in Puppy to search the entire drive, it was gone. Maybe it can still be recovered off the drive although deleted, but I am not familiar with tools to do that. Her XP is installed on a fat filesystem.

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Comments

Windows Rescue
Username: cthisbear
Recuva http://www.piriform.com/recuva """""""""" Freeware Data Retrieval http://whirlpool.net.au/wiki/?tag=freeware_data_retrieval """""""""" Not my favourite >> System Rescue cd But also other hints. http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/1056523.html """"""" " Run GetDataBack 3.03 for NTFS or FAT32, depending on your OS formating." http://117.53.171.171/forum-replies-archive.cfm/708863.html """"""""" Hirens link - handy >> Recovery Tools Two thirds down the page http://www.hirensbootcd.net/download/Hirens.BootCD.10.6.zip " Now up to 10.6...direct link. Copy and paste it in your browser...hit enter and it will start downloading " http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=57132 """""""""" Falcons mini rescue...47 megs http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5373232/FalconFour_s_Micro_Boot_CD_2.5_-_Live_XP__Spinrite__Kon-Boot_ """"""" FalconFour's Ultimate Boot CD http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/5283510/FalconFour_s_Ultimate_Boot_CD_USB_2.0_-_Hiren_s_9.9__ERD Chris. Username: 22 Jul 2010, 12:21
"01736"60.242.95.64'SeaMonkey 2.0.6 released !"panzerpuppy""SeaMonkey 2.0.6 brings numerous stability and security fixes - a highly recommended upgrade." @BarryK: It's time to upgrade :) Username: 22 Jul 2010, 12:23
"01736"77.28.164.152'Breaking News: Intel revives userspace (non-KMS) drivers for older and new hardware (!)"panzerpuppy""Once KMS (Kernel Mode Setting) was stabilized, Intel was quick to kill off the user-space mode-setting (UMS) support and force its customers to use the new KMS/GEM code-paths. This has been fine for a majority of users, but particularly those with the old Intel i8xx series chipsets have had stability problems and other issues. Intel also quickly killed off EXA and DRI1 support. The dropping of non-KMS support in the Intel X.Org driver even led Canonical to shipping an older xf86-video-intel driver in their Ubuntu 10.04 LTS release so that those with this very old Intel integrated graphics hardware would still have one more Long-Term Support release with modest support by having the option to using the older UMS code-paths. Ubuntu and practically every other major distribution has since upgraded to a newer KMS-only Intel driver since there are significant benefits for other users with new hardware, such as much faster 2D performance, new hardware support, and H.264 VA-API support. If though you happen to be one of the few Intel i8xx hardware owners left, there is good news coming. Intel's Chris Wilson has been working on re-introducing a GEM-free UMS code-path to the Intel DDX driver. Yes, Intel may be going back to supporting user-space mode-setting, but along new code-paths. By going with a GEM-free UMS code-path, Chris hopes to workaround the problems that have been affecting those with antiquated Intel hardware. Ubuntu has already announced this work and is offering up PPA packages to encourage users of problematic Intel hardware to try out this work. This UMS code-path hasn't yet reached the mainline xf86-video-intel driver, but with enough testing it's expected that it will be pulled back into the code-base. This could be a candidate for xf86-video-intel 2.13.0 that would be released near the end of this quarter. Testing out this new Intel driver that adds back user-space mode-setting support is requested just not for Intel i8xx hardware, but it should work for everyone with existing Intel hardware support. In less than two months though at the 2010 X Developers' Summit in France, it could also be decided during the "kill it with fire" session to just end the i810 series hardware support altogether." Source: Phoronix http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=ODQzMQ Username: 22 Jul 2010, 12:30
"01736"77.28.164.152'KMS = crap"panzerpuppy"KMS is crap for both Intel and ATI(Radeon) hardware and will stay that way for a couple of years. The performance of the kernel modeset drivers is several times worse than the userspace drivers. Username: 22 Jul 2010, 12:35
"01736"77.28.164.152'Re slow"BarryK"panzerpuppy, Interesting your comment about slowness. I also read that somewhere. I have been getting a subjective feeling of slowness -- like if I close a large window it takes noticeably longer to redraw the underlying desktop. I was wondering if it was just my imagination, haven't quantified it. Can't say I'm surprised. Even though the basic idea of KMS may be good, the implementation seems to be complex and code size is enormous -- shear size of the code is bound to cause slowness. Username: 22 Jul 2010, 17:00
"01736"114.129.167.148'on line saving"adi"at docs.google.com there is an on line text editor which saves every letter on server. no matter on what operating system is used. it can also handle both docx or odt extention file if they are saved from computer. so why to lose a document because of a virus... just save it into your gmail account if you do not want to edit with google docs."22 Jul 2010, 18:01"01736"188.26.181.247'use testdisk for file recover (and partition recovery etc)"disciple"> Maybe it can still be recovered off the drive although deleted, but I am not familiar with tools to do that. I didn't realise until the other day, but recent versions of testdisk (testdisk itself, not photorec) can undelete files really easily: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk:_undelete_file_for_NTFS http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk:_undelete_file_for_FAT http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk:_undelete_file_for_ext2 When simple undeletion doesn't work then something like photorec still might, but it will not be nearly as nice :("22 Jul 2010, 18:59"01736"123.100.93.238'Restoration file recovery"zygo"I used Restoration with success recently (though on a file deleted from a memory card) www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html Pros: File Size:229 kB; Standalone so no install needed Cons: With many but not all deleted files; simple interface Username: 23 Jul 2010, 3:19
"01736"92.40.189.201'Really easy file recovery tool"chrisdev"I am seconding cthisbear's recommendation of Recuva. It is very simple; perhaps your acquaintance could even use it herself. It works on FAT. It has also found and recovered more data for me than GetDataBack and TestDisk on two occasions. http://docs.piriform.com/recuva/recuva-quick-start/quick-start-if-you-know-the-file-names"28 Jul 2010, 22:58"01736"71.192.253.100'

Tags: puppy