MX Linux Forum

I have a bunch of these old Optiplex PIII GX110s that I am trying to get Antix onto, but I am having a problem with the graphics. In 12 full, graphics is fine. In 17 base, it loads but is terrible. In 19 base the GUI will not load at all. I then skipped to 22 base and found that I am back to 17 base again, although it appears to be a bit better.

I did some searching and came up with some threads on other forums that appear to suggest some solutions but I do not undertand them very well, as I don't speak 'command line' very well.

intel 82810e dc-133 vga controller driver update
https://www.linuxquestions.org/question ... 175694158/

Intel i810 graphics working as expected in openSUSE Tumbleweed, not in Stretch, Buster or Bullseye
https://groups.google.com/g/linux.debia ... TiIu6D133k

So, if these solutions makes sense to you all, I would need specific simple instructions for this.

The difficulty seems to be that vesa is loading instead of the applicable driver.

I am also wondering whether it would make more sense to install the driver package I found here:

Package: xserver-xorg-video-intel (2:2.99.917+git20200714-1+deb11u1)
X.Org X server -- Intel i8xx, i9xx display driver
https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/xs ... ideo-intel

as it does include the i810 which is the exact chipset that I have, unless the problems is that, it is already installed and it is not working?

Does it even exist in the synaptics package manager? (I don't know because I have not installed antix yet.)

And btw, I have no internet connection on this machine at the moment, as my ethernet is no good and the machine has no wifi; so, I am not even sure how I would install this anyway, but would there be a way to tell if it is available?

I should also add that the graphics work flawlessly in Q4OS.

Stick with Q4OS.

anticapitalista wrote: Mon May 08, 2023 2:27 pm Stick with Q4OS.

For a very long list of reasons I really would rather not. Otherwise, I would not have asked for help.

I very much doubt any supported antiX is able to boot on that hardware.

Something to keep in the back of your mind is that the Optiplex PIII GX110s were introduced in 2000 and that was at the beginning of the capacitor plague that came to light in 2002 - 2004 and which hit Dell really hard. Any of those machines that don't work or only partially work should be sent for recycling. I also think that you should be really wary of cannibalising them for spare parts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

j2mcgreg wrote: Mon May 08, 2023 4:12 pm Something to keep in the back of your mind is that the Optiplex PIII GX110s were introduced in 2000 and that was at the beginning of the capacitor plague that came to light in 2002 - 2004 and which hit Dell really hard. Any of those machines that don't work or only partially work should be sent for recycling. I also think that you should be really wary of cannibalising them for spare parts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

Thanks for the warning. I am aware of the capacitor thing, but these particular machines actually are dated 1999, and have been being used for many years as servers at an organization I know very well, with no such problems. The only reason I am getting a few is because they are no longer needed.

anticapitalista wrote: Mon May 08, 2023 3:56 pm I very much doubt any supported antiX is able to boot on that hardware.

Well, it does and the link which I supplied above explains how to adjust the graphics, but I am not sure I understand the instructions, and that is what I need help with; so, here it is again:

https://www.linuxquestions.org/question ... page2.html

Your link shows that you have to build your own kernel with CONFIG_DRM_LEGACY=y set in the configuration.
Unfortunately while that option unblocks the dri for the old Intel GPUs it also makes the kernel very insecure. That's why the kernel devs disabled it by default a few years back. At MX we've removed kernels from our repositories for milder vulnerabilities than enabling this option would create.
You can do it yourself if you want.
https://linuxconfig.org/building-kernels-the-debian-way

Unfortunately, I have no idea what you are talking about. I mean, I had to go look up the "cat" command in the thread I cited because I had forgotten what it meant! But, in the meantime, I have found some more information here:
https://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index. ... 60174.html

which along with the previous instructions seems to be indicating that what is being suggested is to edit the /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/50-device.conf file to include the following:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Default Device"
Driver "intel"
EndSection

And that is as much as I think I understand at the moment.

To be more precise, at https://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index. ... 60174.html, it says:

"To help address that case (where automatic graphic card recognition fails)" there is "an /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/ directory, with a series of .conf files, where the graphic configuration can be specified (which if specified will take precedence over the Xorg software automatic configuration)," one of which is "50-device.conf," which will enable one to force the specified graphics driver.

If you have loaded mx21 onto one of these machines, please post your QSI