Ubuntu LiveCD doesn't start with a "VIA Chrome9 HC" graphic card and, when Ubuntu is installed, it works only with VESA drivers

Please try Hardy alpha3, which uses a new driver for Via chips.

No reply, closing the bug. If you happen to try Hardy and it still doesn't work, please reopen and include the logfile.

This is still a big issue!

I have the same problem with Hardy 8.04. (And with 7.10 too)

The VIA Chrome9 HC IGP with VT8237 PCI Bridge is not recognized by the Kernel. The system crashes on every boot, even if you select in the grub menu just to boot to the console. I changed the device entry in the xorg.conf file manually to VIA and to OPENCHROME- no success. The VESA driver is NOT working, too.

I did the editing of xorg.conf by booting with the rescue cd of " http://www.sysresccd.org/ " that recognizes the VIA Chrome9 graphics adapter properly.
Why that? I think it's Kernel 2.6.22.

The booting stops with the line "<c0310000> svc_accept +0xC0/0x410", one time I've got the message "Bug: soft lockup - CPU#0/1 stuck for 11s, Modprobe 3114, 3125.
This is repeating in a loop.

The installation with the alternate CD crashes sometimes, too. The installation of the base system is succesful but when it starts installing the software packages it stops at 2% when "xresprobe" or "libx11-6" is installed. You can only switch off the laptop.

still a big issue for me

I have the same video card with the same problem :(

I wanted to try Ubuntu 7.10 on my wife's laptop. After gnome starts the mouse pointer appears for 1-2 seconds, and after the screen goes black.

Neither Ctrl+Alt+F1 works nor X-Org restart help. When I enter Ctrl+Alt+Del I hear a Beep from the PC Speaker, and in a couple of seconds the CD will be ejected, but the screen is still black, so I have to power off the PC.

Any solution?

Ok, reassigning to the kernel.

I've found that solution: I installed with the alternate cd just a basic system and could then boot to the console in recovery mode.(2nd option in grub). With "sudo apt-get install gnome-desktop" I installed manually the desktop package. During this installation, there appears a window, where you can select the resolution of the screen.

I start the desktop now with "gdm" from the root console in recovery mode, 1280x800er resolution, 24bit, vesa driver. Mpegs (youtube) playing fine. Only error after start is "cannot initialize HAL" and some of the system menues don't work (for ex. user and groups)

This is my working xorg-conf:

Section "Device"
 Identifier "Standardgrafikkarte"
 Driver "vesa"
 BusID "PCI:1:0:0"
 Option "ActiveDevice" "LCD,CRT"
 Option "NoDDCValue" "true"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
 Identifier "Standardbildschirm"
 Option "DPMS"
 HorizSync 30-67
 VertRefresh 30-60
EndSection

Section "Screen"
 Identifier "Default Screen"
 Device "Standardgrafikkarte"
 Monitor "Standardbildschirm"
 DefaultDepth 24
 SubSection "Display"
  Modes "1280x800" "1024x768"
 EndSubSection
EndSection

Yes in vesa it works! I told it when I reported the bug...
But vesa is not the best...
I'd prefer to use some other drivers...

Per the kernel team's bug policy, can you please attach the following information. Please be sure to attach each file as a separate attachment.

* uname -a > uname-a.log
* cat /proc/version_signature > version.log
* dmesg > dmesg.log
* sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log

For more information regarding the kernel team bug policy, please refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies . Thanks again and we appreciate your help and feedback.

Ok I attached all the files...
Let's hope ;-)

Please find attached the requested files.

Booting into root console (grub safety) works fine with 7.10 (not with ubuntu 8.04). Entering rc2 level crashes.(No log files are written)

I have now disabled nearly all rc2 daemons (only dbus, hal, gdm and the logservices are running) and will add every day a new daemon until the system gets unstable again...grafik is only vesa possible

regards, tux-fn

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:39:26 -0000
> Von: Leann Ogasawara <email address hidden>
> An: <email address hidden>
> Betreff: [Bug 179675] Re: Ubuntu LiveCD doesn\'t start with a "VIA Chrome9 HC" graphic card and, when Ubuntu is installed, it works only with VESA drivers

> Per the kernel team's bug policy, can you please attach the following
> information. Please be sure to attach each file as a separate
> attachment.
>
> * uname -a > uname-a.log
> * cat /proc/version_signature > version.log
> * dmesg > dmesg.log
> * sudo lspci -vvnn > lspci-vvnn.log
>
> For more information regarding the kernel team bug policy, please refer
> to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeamBugPolicies . Thanks again and we
> appreciate your help and feedback.
>
> ** Changed in: linux (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Incomplete
>
> --
> Ubuntu LiveCD doesn't start with a "VIA Chrome9 HC" graphic card and, when
> Ubuntu is installed, it works only with VESA drivers
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/179675
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Source Package "linux" in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: xorg
>
> I have a Siemens Amilo Li1705 notebook with a VIA Chrome9 HC IGP graphic
> card.
> When I try to start the LiveCD, X server reloads a lot of times and,
> finally, I must switch off the notebook.
> Installing Ubuntu with the Alternate CD, starting it in recovery mode and
> setting driver to VESA with the command line, it starts, but of course
> composite windows managers like Compiz or Beryl does not work.

Care to take a digital photo of the errors you are seeing when you attempt to run Hardy? Thanks.

I have the same problem on Ubuntu 8.04, Everex Impact PC bought from Walmart - Processor VIA C7-D, Video Card VIA Chrome 9 HC ICP.

{i don't speak english} Here, I have the same problem. I have a VIA Chrome9 HC ICP and Ubuntu 8.04 installed.
The video quality is poor. I can't use the desktop, all is confusing when the OS start.

I have attached a Picture of what the screen looks like

i heard gOS rocket seems to work since their cloudbook uses an integrated Via chip
http://dev.thinkgos.com/blog/gos-rocket-e-and-g-are-online

anyway i haven't tried it yet, since i don't have a Via chip available for testing at this time.

if gOS does work, i guess the same fix could be added to hardy..

if anyone gets a chance to try it please reply back.

I suffer the same problem (VIA Chrome9 HC IGP graphic card with VT8237).
Have not tryed gOS rocket, but I have tryed Debian-based Knoppix 5.3 (Linux-Kernel 2.6.x & KDE V3.x) and it works ok.
Thanks for working on it.

Confirmed as still broken in 8.04. Tried both Live CD and ALT.

Ubuntu 8.04 works but it doesn't recognize the right resolution...

Thanks Alessandro,

Since you are the original bug reporter, can you take a look at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Reporting and provide the information outlined there.

Now Ubuntu 8.04.1 LiveCD can load but it uses a too high resolution
(1440xsomething, I cannot check now sorry).
When I installed it, I can use it with opnchrome or vesa drivers, but
there are some problems:

---VESA---
- It takes a long while to load
- I can't change resolution when X is started: if I do it, all becomes
unreadable. This happens also if I pass from X to a console (this
changes resolution, 'cause consoles have a lower resolution)
- no 3D acceleration, of course.

---OPENCHROME---
- When cursor changes (example: when I move the pointer from a gnome
application to a wine one, that has a different cursor), it
disappears, and it returns when the cursor returns the original
(example: when I leave the wine window and return in gnome)
- Another time, no 3D.

I also tried stable and beta drivers from
http://linux.via.com.tw/support/downloadFiles.action but I get only
strange draws when X starts.
I have a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo Li1705

A simple and fast solution: Insert the LiveCD and at the prompt press F4 for more options and so choose the second item (start in secure mode).
In this way you start the LiveCD with vesa driver ;-)

PS: Now I hope to found the correct driver

I've tried Hardy and the last Intrepid with this chipset. Hardy only works attaching a lot of parameters in the kernel starting line and yet if you try to restart X or just switching to another terminal (Ctrl+Alt+F*) the screen hangs just the same as the Erwin Michel picture. But I could correct it after installing the OpenChrome driver. There's a script that does all the work: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=485646
I don't know how it works, but perhaps the Ubuntu team should update the openchrome driver.
I've tried with the latest VIA unichrome drivers, but it did not work.

With Intrepid, no way at all. These strange draws always hang the screen, no matter what you do to try a correction.

I marked bug 267115 as a duplicate of this bug. I could not get Intrepid to load the LiveCD. (But, I did not try the 'secure mode' install). I was able to get it installed by upgrading from Hardy to Intrepid and then manually selecting the xorg.conf.failsafe config file that uses the VESA driver.

For some reason, I never encountered this problem with Hardy, possibly because I used the kernel arg 'xforcevesa'. I tried that with Intrepid and it apparently had no affect. The X server would not start correctly until I explicitly set:

driver "vesa"

in xorg.conf.

Explicitly selecting the openchrome driver using:

driver "openchrome"

in the xorg.conf file locks up the X server exactly as described in bug 267115. So, I infer that the X server is selecting the driver correctly but that the openchrome driver is busted in Intrepid.

there's a new version available in intrepid, please test it.

I tried an install from an Intrepid CD on 2008-10-11 and the Chrome9 HC IGP still didn't work.

I could only perform a successful install by plugging a discrete VGA card into a PCI slot and hooking up the display to it, effectively disabling the CN986-based motherboard VGA.

I then tried adding xforcevga to the grub menu.lst entries on the hard disk to get VESA, but it made no difference. Copying xorg.conf.failsafe over xorg.conf however worked. I could remove the discrete VGA and hook up the display to the onboard video on my MM3500 C7-D motherboard. The machine works fine with the VESA driver (using xorg.conf.failsafe).

I conclude that the Chrome9 driver in the current Intrepid beta is broken and furthermore suspect that xforcevesa is not working.

I recently made the mistake of upgrading my HP 2133 (feat. Chrome 9) from hardy to intrepid, and now the only way that I've been able to get X to even come up at the correct resolution is by either using the openchrome driver with Option "NoAccel" or by using the vesa driver (neither of which provides any 3D or 2D acceleration, of course). In hardy I was using a 2.6.26 kernel from intrepid, and with that, 3D was working.

Followup: openchrome 2D acceleration has been working on intrepid on my 2133 without crashing for a couple of days now using Option "XaaNoImageWriteRect" (as recommended in Bug #274340 and http://www.openchrome.org/trac/ticket/258 )

I have a similar card. In Modules section, changing Load "dri" to Disable "dri" makes it run 4x faster, no crashes. Still a bit slow, but working. Glxgears at 50+fps, google earth about 1, stellarium about 3.

This is fixed (with no need for work-arounds) since jaunty-alfa4.

Please upgrade to Ubuntu Jaunty and check if this problem still exist.

For me, it's resolved in Jaunty.

Surely there is some support for Hardy? I am running vesa and would like to have a better driver?

@David Robert Lewis
Build/install the latest openchrome driver
The detail instruction is available at:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenChrome

It should resolve your problem.

After that, describe the result.

Not fixed
Posh Book P10

lshw output

 *-display UNCLAIMED
                description: VGA compatible controller
                product: CX700/VX700 [S3 UniChrome Pro]
                vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
                version: 03
                width: 32 bits
                clock: 66MHz
                capabilities: pm agp agp-3.0 bus_master cap_list
                configuration: latency=64 mingnt=2
                resources: memory:c0000000-dfffffff(prefetchable) memory:fd00000

Hello Tim.
Please submit new bug.

Attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file to it.

Please build/install the latest openchrome driver and enable debug mode.
The detail build instruction for Ubuntu/Debian is available at:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenChrome

After that, again attach your /var/log/Xorg.0.log file.