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

[aus9]

3) maybe freshly install MX 19 again onto HDD, but this time not in failsafe graphics mode

To clarify...please confirm that on usb install 18.3 you never needed to install as failsafe

To clarify....it was not clear to me.....at what post number....you were able to install 18.3 or 19 on internal or USB .....with normal graphics.

turned off ASUS Express Gate

I thought you said you found slowness in turning if off in the past?

[d.j.yotta]

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.

Good to know. I'll probably use that.

[d.j.yotta]

3) maybe freshly install MX 19 again onto HDD, but this time not in failsafe graphics mode

To clarify...please confirm that on usb install 18.3 you never needed to install as failsafe

To clarify....it was not clear to me.....at what post number....you were able to install 18.3 or 19 on internal or USB .....with normal graphics.

turned off ASUS Express Gate

I thought you said you found slowness in turning if off in the past?

I never had to install 18.3 in failsafe mode. First time I tried that was installing MX19.
Posts 54-56 cover my MX 18.3 install. I did not mention in any of the posts that I never entered failsafe graphics mode. So to clarify, I did a normal boot of MX18.3 live usb and normal install to USB and then normal boot from installed USB without any kernel parameters. Everything normal as of out of the box.

Post 67 I mention I'm about to try MX 19 install onto USB and post 69 I confirm that it works (didn't have to go into failsafe graphics mode BUT did experience issues with freezing during install until reverting to factory BIOS settings).

Re ASUS express gate, I find it slow booting up (a few seconds delay - can set to one second of course). I've disabled it now. I see no difference to anything whether enabled or disabled.

[d.j.yotta]

Ok, here is what I have done since my last post:

1. Copied the initrd.img (4.19.0-6) from the working MX19 USB install to /boot, keeping the original as a backup.
2. Reboot.
3. Edited the grub bootloader to remove the i915.modset=1 parameter.
4. Everything is working fine.
5. Edited the /etc/default/grub to remove the addition of i915.modset as it's no longer needed.
6. Reboot.
7. Automatically boots into 4.19.0-6

That was a bit of a hack, so I checked that installing new kernels works.... it did not.
Installing 5.4 and 4.4 linux resulted in no graphics when booting into either of them.
Also, update-initramfs broke the working (copied from the USB install of MX19) initramfs.

Doing a diff of /usr/lib, I found this file on my original HDD MX19 install, but not on the USB install:

Code: Select all

$ cat /usr/lib/modprobe.d/no-mode-set.conf 
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# file: /lib/modprobe.d/no-mode-set.conf
# disble modesetting in the following modules
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

options i915 modeset=0

The smoking gun.
So every kernel image I install is doomed to not work, and update-initramfs is always going to add i915.modset=0 to the kernel params.

My conclusion is that the no-mode-set.conf file was installed to the system due to booting the live USB in failsafe graphics mode.
This may or may not be a bug, depending how you look at it.

I commented the line in the file to look like this:

Code: Select all

$ cat /usr/lib/modprobe.d/no-mode-set.conf 
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
# file: /lib/modprobe.d/no-mode-set.conf
# disble modesetting in the following modules
#-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

#options i915 modeset=0

Rebooting into 4.4.19.0-6 worked fine - no modifications to kernel params.

Installed 5.4 linux kernel and that works too.

Sorry for the wild goose chase.

Thanks to all of you for helping. I never would have solved the problem if I hadn't tried installing MX19 to USB.

In conclusion, it looks like these things caused the issues:

1) mucking with BIOS settings (caused the install to freeze after a few minutes - didn't hit this on MX 18.3 install though)
2) doing install from failsafe boot of live USB to work around issue encountered due to 1) leaves /lib/modprobe.d/no-mode-set.conf file which sets i915.modeset=0 for all kernel images.

IMHO:

• It's interesting that MX18.3 didn't seem to be affected by my BIOS changes.

• It's an open question in my mind as to whether /lib/modprobe.d/no-mode-set.conf should be included in the initramfs as there is a valid use case for completing a normal install from failsafe mode. For example, in the past I've found that sometimes live USBs don't work on graphics cards from ATI/nVidia, but a full install has all the things needed (or one can install them via apt or from proprietary driver install scripts supplied by the vendors) to work without needing failsafe graphics. Not sure it always makes sense to bake the failsafe graphics options into the initramfs (and all future created initramfs), but then again, on a system that does need these options permanently, I guess that is the desired behaviour...

Again thanks to you all for helping. It's greatly appreciated.

[JayM]

If this is (finally, whew! ) working can you edit your first post #1 using its pencil icon and add [SOLVED] to the subject? Thanks.

[aus9]

Yep congrats on getting there but

cat /usr/lib/modprobe.d/no-mode-set.conf

I would have thought I might have this raw file.....to be copied into /lib/modprobe.d/
but I have no such file on MX19 hd install.

It may be that some script is being called to generate the raw file before putting a copy into lib/modprob.d?

[K-mik@Z]

I was thinking I'm happy enough with what I have working with the i915.modeset=1 kernel param.

But now I get this when trying to load a game I would play on MX 18.3 just fine:

What about libwine:i386 libwine
See https://wiki.debian.org/Wine#line-30

Code: Select all

0009:err:wgl:init_opengl Failed to load libGL: libGL.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
0009:err:wgl:init_opengl OpenGL support is disabled.
0009:err:x11settings:X11DRV_ChangeDisplaySettingsEx No matching mode found: width=640 height=480 bpp=8 (NoRes)

Perhaps 32-bit libGL.so files (needed for some games)?
libgl1-mesa-glx:i386


HERE: how to make recognize the library to PlayOnLinux (to the whole system in fact)
https://www.playonlinux.com/en/topic-11861.html#m48106

[aus9]

libgl1-mesa-glx:i386

thats my fault I suggested a 64 bit package post 31-36

I can now sneak away

[d.j.yotta]

Yep congrats on getting there but

cat /usr/lib/modprobe.d/no-mode-set.conf

I would have thought I might have this raw file.....to be copied into /lib/modprobe.d/
but I have no such file on MX19 hd install.

It may be that some script is being called to generate the raw file before putting a copy into lib/modprob.d?

I guess you get it when you boot up in failsafe mode on the live usb and install from there.
My guess is the failsafe mode adds that conf to the /lib/modprobe.d of the live system to be "safe", and then this gets baked into the hdd install.
So if you didn't get that file on your install, it's not surprising as you probably did not install from failsafe mode.

I didn't do any of the thumb drive installs from fail safe mode. So that's why I never got that file on those installs.