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Home > Archive > Linux Debian support > December 2007 > Why does Debian installer sabotage X?
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Why does Debian installer sabotage X?
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| Anton Ertl 2007-12-10, 7:12 pm |
| Today we installed first Etch and then Lenny on a new machine. We
tried a few new things (in particular, dm-crypt and lvm) and noticed
some breakage along the way, but the one thing that I will rant about
in this posting, is that, as usual, the Debian installer botched the X
configuration both times, and both times the solution was just to not
have an xorg.conf file.
Details: the graphics was the integrated graphics of the Nvidia 6100
chipset, the monitor was a ViewSonic VP211b monitor, and we installed
the AMD64 versions of Debian from the netinstall CD.
Ok, the installers started out by asking us unnecessarily about the
resolution we want (the X server can determine that by itself through
DDC EDID data); in both cases I added 1600x1200 (the native resolution
of the monitor); if I run dpkg-reconfigure for the X server, I get
asked even more unnecessary questions, and the result is at least as
bad as what comes out of the installer.
Anyway, the result of the installer's effort on Etch was that I got a
1024x768 display. On Lenny X did not start successfully, and we were
thrown back into the console. In both cases X did start up in the
1600x1200 resolution once I had removed (actually renamed) the
installer-generated xorg.conf.
That's not the first time I have noticed the installer botching
xorg.conf, and the solution was typically to delete some of the
unnecessary nonsense that the installer had written into that file
(or, for Radeon cards, to replace "ati" with "radeon"); this is the
first time that I tried to do without xorg.conf, and it was a success.
If the installer is worse than X at configuring X, maybe it should get
out of the way.
- anton
--
M. Anton Ertl Some things have to be seen to be believed
anton@mips.complang.tuwien.ac.at Most things have to be believed to be seen
http://www.complang.tuwien.ac.at/anton/home.html
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| draeath 2007-12-13, 7:12 pm |
| On Mon, 10 Dec 2007 20:31:04 +0000, Anton Ertl wrote:
> Today we installed first Etch and then Lenny on a new machine. We
> tried a few new things (in particular, dm-crypt and lvm) and noticed
> some breakage along the way, but the one thing that I will rant about
> in this posting, is that, as usual, the Debian installer botched the X
> configuration both times, and both times the solution was just to not
> have an xorg.conf file.
>
> Details: the graphics was the integrated graphics of the Nvidia 6100
> chipset, the monitor was a ViewSonic VP211b monitor, and we installed
> the AMD64 versions of Debian from the netinstall CD.
>
> Ok, the installers started out by asking us unnecessarily about the
> resolution we want (the X server can determine that by itself through
> DDC EDID data); in both cases I added 1600x1200 (the native resolution
> of the monitor); if I run dpkg-reconfigure for the X server, I get
> asked even more unnecessary questions, and the result is at least as
> bad as what comes out of the installer.
>
> Anyway, the result of the installer's effort on Etch was that I got a
> 1024x768 display. On Lenny X did not start successfully, and we were
> thrown back into the console. In both cases X did start up in the
> 1600x1200 resolution once I had removed (actually renamed) the
> installer-generated xorg.conf.
>
> That's not the first time I have noticed the installer botching
> xorg.conf, and the solution was typically to delete some of the
> unnecessary nonsense that the installer had written into that file
> (or, for Radeon cards, to replace "ati" with "radeon"); this is the
> first time that I tried to do without xorg.conf, and it was a success.
> If the installer is worse than X at configuring X, maybe it should get
> out of the way.
>
> - anton
I agree. Most of the time it completely misdetects my monitor. Incidentally,
my monitor reports as a dell E772c when it is really an E773c (difference
of 1024x768 max and 1280x1024 max). I think in my case a chip-tray at the
fab plan might have got one of my chips mixed with those of the other
model, so the DDC/EDID data might be incorrect.
Usually I just wipe the xorg.conf and write it myself, since I know my
hardware and what it can do. I wish the installer gave you the option to
do this (vim-lite should be installed by now, or indeed nano)
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