[SOLVED] Intel i915 integrated graphics not working on MX 19

[d.j.yotta]

Ok fair enough I must have forgot they enclosed an xorg.conf

request 1
reboot with a # so the line reads
#Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
on 18.3......no need to post the log......you have posted your inxi....does it go higher?

request 2
copy that xorg.....with or without the # into mx19 and full reboot to see if it improves things please.
at this stage....no need to post log....you will know what you are seeing etc

I've tried request 2, and yielded no difference. I just gave a visual inspection though, didn't check the logs (oh, and still had the kernel param i915.modeset=1... I should try see if I can lose that now).

I'm off to bed now, but will try request 1 some time tomorrow.

[d.j.yotta]

I've seen my graphics frazzle even before grub2 loads

do you mean at the bios splash screen?

BTW have you checked what your bios VGA settings are set to?
I have a couple of pages to configure....including the ability to set max shared CPU
https://imgur.com/vccSfrP

Yes, but even before that, it was as soon as I turned it on before the BIOS splash screen there is another screen "Asus speedgate". It was the Asus speedgate that grabled. Pattern was the same as when it happens on the OS.
Only seen this singe installing MX19.

Yeah, I saw some settings as I was fiddling with some BIOS opts. Sadly, I did this fiddling some time at the same time as installing MX19, but I put the changes back when I was experiencing issues. Also MX18 still works on my current (hopefully restored) BIOS settings.

I was going to bump up the graphics mem, but was causious about it as I only have 4GB of RAM total. My PC is pretty old, hence why I wanted something real lightweight like MX (does a great job btw without looking crappy which is nice).

I'll try bump up the graphics mem (I think I too have the max shared mem option), maybe that's all it is...

[d.j.yotta]

Ok fair enough I must have forgot they enclosed an xorg.conf

request 1
reboot with a # so the line reads
#Option "AccelMethod" "uxa"
on 18.3......no need to post the log......you have posted your inxi....does it go higher?

request 2
copy that xorg.....with or without the # into mx19 and full reboot to see if it improves things please.
at this stage....no need to post log....you will know what you are seeing etc

re. request 1: no difference int inxi -Gxxx output. No visual difference in graphics either
re. request 2: the xorg.conf from MX18.3 doesn't help or hinder MX19 graphics. And I still can't get graphics at all without the i915.modeset=1 kernel param.

re. BIOS settings: tried bumping up the graphics to 256 MB and DVMT to max. No change.

[aus9]

Asus speedgate

try and find a bios setting and turn it off then retest?

2) Would you be interested in installing 18.3 on internal drive
do apt holds on your xorg type packages
changing your repo and doing an update of the others to 19x?

[JayM]

The Live USB had high res, but the first boot into the installed system had the 640x480 res.

Sorry to butt in, and I haven't read the entire thread, but I have a suggestion to try.

1. First, create a personal snapshot of your current installed system and save it. That way you can easily restore everything to its current state and no harm done.

2. Boot from your original MX-19 installation live USB but hit F5 at the boot menu and enable persist_root. Also press F8 and select save.

3. Do whatever magic you did in your original post to get that 1920x1440 resolution on the live USB.

4. Run MX Tools/MX RemasterCC and remaster the live USB to write your changes into the squash file system that it will install from. Reboot from the USB when its finished and verify that you still have that resolution.

5. Reinstall MX, re-using the existing partitions and preserving /home and reusing your home directory. For good measure, also check the checkbox in the installer to save Live USB changes.

If that happens to fix it, ¡bueno! If not, run Live USB Maker, burn your snapshot to a USB stick and reinstall your existing system the same way, using existing partitions, preserving home and reusing your home directory to put everything back to the way it is now.

It' s worth a try. *shrug*

[d.j.yotta]

The Live USB had high res, but the first boot into the installed system had the 640x480 res.

Sorry to butt in, and I haven't read the entire thread, but I have a suggestion to try.

1. First, create a personal snapshot of your current installed system and save it. That way you can easily restore everything to its current state and no harm done.

2. Boot from your original MX-19 installation live USB but hit F5 at the boot menu and enable persist_root. Also press F8 and select save.

3. Do whatever magic you did in your original post to get that 1920x1440 resolution on the live USB.

4. Run MX Tools/MX RemasterCC and remaster the live USB to write your changes into the squash file system that it will install from. Reboot from the USB when its finished and verify that you still have that resolution.

5. Reinstall MX, re-using the existing partitions and preserving /home and reusing your home directory. For good measure, also check the checkbox in the installer to save Live USB changes.

If that happens to fix it, ¡bueno! If not, run Live USB Maker, burn your snapshot to a USB stick and reinstall your existing system the same way, using existing partitions, preserving home and reusing your home directory to put everything back to the way it is now.

It' s worth a try. *shrug*

Thanks JayM.
To clarify, I got good res (not certain if it was 1920x1440, or jush 1680x15050) out of the box on the USB... no magic. HOWEVER, I ended up having to boot the USB up in fail safe graphics mode due to some glitch in my graphics (kept freezing during install).
Would those settings somehow have got embedded somewhere on my install because they were set whilst booting off the live USB?

If so, then it sounds like I should try reinstall MX19 without booting into failsafe mode. It's possible the glitching graphics was due to BIOS and I think that issue maybe fixed... so hopefully will get through the install if I try again.

At this stage, doing a fresh install is somewhat undesirable as I've already reinstalled most my apps and it's a bit of a pain.

[d.j.yotta]

Asus speedgate

try and find a bios setting and turn it off then retest?

2) Would you be interested in installing 18.3 on internal drive
do apt holds on your xorg type packages
changing your repo and doing an update of the others to 19x?

Yeah, I've tried turning it off already. It takes a few seconds longer to boot because of the "slow"gate... didn't seem to make any difference though. I put it back to rule out BIOS changes.

Sounds like some form of fresh install (either 18.3 or 19) is the next step... I may not do that. I could try installing MX 19 onto USB perhaps first? If it was just because of doing the install with failsafe graphics on, then I could verify that easy enough. Maybe I could then take a diff of my root and see what is different between the installs...

[aus9]

@JayM and OP

OP has asked you a question or two but let me re-confirm that
at post 52 and post 56 OP has only achieved resolution past the bootup screen of
1680x1050

Secondly I tried to find out about the Asus speedgate....a quick search was not helpful but I wonder if the type of cable being used by OP makes a diff?
manual is here
https://dlcdnets.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/s ... T-M_LX.zip

Manual alleges max res 2048x1536 page ix
Manual page ix also claims GPU is max of 1G shared.....but OP can only see 256?
Manual page 50 confirmed max 256

Interestingly....OP reports issues with Asus speedgate.....but if he means.....Express gate.....that looks like firmware.....that could be the source of the problem as hinted by this post 2 and post 9
https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums ... s-gate-os/

Manual page 13 claims express gate can

"instantly access the internet and key applications before entering the Windows (TradeMark) OS

OP....read page 58....I am pretty sure you need to set the express timer countdown to 1 sec......this might be the reason you saw a slowness?
and can you confirm you are using a shielded VGA cable because my eyesight can not spot a HDMI connector on this motherboard?
Manual page 10 says you have only VGA

[d.j.yotta]

Ok, so here is what I've found:

Installing MX 19 onto USB works no problem.

Initially, I had an issue where my screen froze, so I went into the BIOS, reset to factory settings, turned off ASUS Express Gate (sorry, I put speed gate on accident), bumped up gfx mem and tried installing onto usb again.

Finally, success.

There is a small chance I got lucky, and the install finished before the freeze. OR, I had some funky settings in BIOS contributing to that.

At this stage, I am prepared to try fresh install preserving /home on my HDD. BUT before I do that, I want to diff my usb and my current system. I'm assuming that when I installed MX19 under failsafe graphics mode, I somehow baked some weird graphics settings deep down in the image... is that jumping to conclusions? Let me know of specific places to look if any come to mind.
Should I set /home to point to my HDD on the USB install and boot off of USB again to see if all is well? I guess there is still a chance something in /home is screwing this up...

1) diff file system to see if any obvious differences in /etc and other places
2) set /home of USB install to my HDD /home partition to see if that makes any differences
3) maybe freshly install MX 19 again onto HDD, but this time not in failsafe graphics mode

Let me know your thoughts on 1), 2), and 3).
I'm off to bed though for the night. Will take a look tomorrow.

[JayM]

aptik-gtk can make a "snapshot" of your installed apps. Save its results in a subdirectory inside your home directory, then after reinstalling just install aptik-gtk again and restore.