Monday 31 December 2007

Beryl - Fixing Graphical Dropouts After Installation

Add the following line to /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
The edited file should read.....
Section "Device"
Identifier "Card0"
Driver "nvidia"
BoardName "unknown"
Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps"
ANOTHER SOLUTION:

Now you need to edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file and do the following changes...
kate /etc/X11/xorg.conf
... then add these two lines under the “Screen” section....
Option “XAANoOffscreenPixmaps”
Option “AddARGBGLXVisuals” “true”
... then add these lines under “Device”...
Option “AllowGLXWithComposite” “true”
Option “RenderAccel” “true”
...then add this line under “Server Layout”...
Option “AIGLX” “on”
Finally at the end of the file add these lines...

Section “Extensions”
Option “Composite” “Enable”
EndSection
Now save the file and exit.

You need to reboot Mepis and now Beryl and nVidia with work.

nVidia Issues on Boot (Mepis 7.0)

Choose the VESA driver option, altering the string from
init=/etc/init vga=normal quiet drvr=vesa
to...
init=/etc/init vga=791 quiet drvr=vesa

Screen Resolution and Refresh Rate

On installing Linux, often the screen resolution displays incorrectly, as does the screen refresh rate. The first step is to install the correct drivers. This is done in Mepis by using the "MEPIS X-Window Assistant". Under nVidia, choose "nVidia (new)" before clicking "apply". The software should automatically download and install. Restart the x-server.

To set the correct resolution simply boot to the Live CD, choose 1280x1024 from the GRUB menu (by pressing f3) and let it install. Once it has booted, go again to "X-Window Assistant" and under the "repair" tab choose "copy the current xorg" configuration, altering the destination as applicable. Restart your computer.

To set the resolution correctly simply define the parameters of your monitor in the "X-Windows Assistant". For the "Neovo F-417" Monitor the refresh rate is 75Hz vertical and 80kHz horizontal (vertical 50Hz - 75Hz/horizontal 24kHz - 80kHz). Click on "apply" and restart the x-server.

NOTE: Although the refresh rate still shows as 50 to 60Hz in the Control Center>Peripherals> Display>Size and Orientation section, checking out the on screen refresh rate will show that all is as it should be, and that this is a just a false reading.

Sunday 30 December 2007

Mount Error In mtab

On boot, after a clean install of Mepis 7.0, Linux will throw up a error message of....

mount: according to mtab, sysfs is already mounted on /sys


To remedy, remove the sections in the fstab text file that are prefixed with "none", replacing them with the duplicate, complete entries from mtab. Save and reboot.

For example:

After a clean install, /etc/fstab will read as.....

# Pluggable devices are handled by uDev, they are not in fstab
/dev/sda5 / ext3 defaults,noatime 1 1
/dev/sda6 swap swap sw,pri=1 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /proc/bus/usb usbfs devmode=0666 0 0
none /dev/pts devpts mode=0622 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
/dev/sda7 /home auto defaults,noatime 1 2
# Dynamic entries below
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 ntfs-3g noauto,users 0 0
/dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2 vfat,ext3,ext2,reiserfs noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/sda3 /mnt/sda3 vfat,ext3,ext2,reiserfs noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0


Remove the values preceded with the word "none" and replace them with their mtab equivalents, as found in the /etc/mtab text file.

/dev/sda5 / ext3 rw,noatime 0 0
tmpfs /lib/init/rw tmpfs rw,nosuid,mode=0755 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
procbususb /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0
udev /dev tmpfs rw,mode=0755 0 0
tmpfs /dev/shm tmpfs rw,nosuid,nodev 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
shmfs /lib/init/rw/splashy tmpfs rw 0 0
fusectl /sys/fs/fuse/connections fusectl rw 0 0
/dev/sda7 /home ext3 rw,noatime 0 0
binfmt_misc /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc binfmt_misc rw 0 0


The resulting file should read as:

# Pluggable devices are handled by uDev, they are not in fstab
/dev/sda5 / ext3 defaults,noatime 1 1
/dev/sda6 swap swap sw,pri=1 0 0
proc /proc proc rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
procbususb /proc/bus/usb usbfs rw 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/sda7 /home auto defaults,noatime 1 2
# Dynamic entries below
/dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1 ntfs-3g noauto,users 0 0
/dev/sda2 /mnt/sda2 vfat,ext3,ext2,reiserfs noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/sda3 /mnt/sda3 vfat,ext3,ext2,reiserfs noauto,users,exec 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom udf,iso9660 noauto,users,exec,ro 0 0