You have been subscribed to a public bug: If you try to install ubuntu in any Via based notebook, it won't work. You'll get just a black screen. It would not happen if openchrome drivers were included on the live cd. Openchrome drivers are free drivers. You have to work with the alternate cd to install ubuntu. But for people new to linux, that"s a no go.. this is needed to ma ke it work: When you try to run the Ubuntu Karmic live cd the graphical login will not work. The screen starts cycling through primary colors, plus white and grey. Wait until it's finished booting, then drop to a console using 'Ctrl+Alt+F1'.
An easy workaround is as to download the the 2 .deb packages here from https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers/+archive/drivers-only/+build/1307486 and put them in a USB key. In the terminal of the Ubuntu Karmic live cd mount the usb stick and install the drivers with the following commands: sudo mkdir /media/disk sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /media/disk sudo dpkg -i /media/disk/xserver-xorg-video-via_0.2.904~svn814-0ubuntu0tormod_i386.deb sudo dpkg -i /media/disk/xserver-xorg-video-openchrome_0.2.904~svn814-0ubuntu0tormod_i386.deb sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart This steps will install the drivers only for the installation process. You should be able now to use the graphical installer. Once the system is installed, you will need to go through these steps again to install the updated drivers on your hard drive. You can also build an updated driver from SVN. Build from SVN Before starting this tutorial, notice that the openchrome implementation of the driver is far from complete. Check at this website what has been implemented and what not for the VX800 chipset: http://www.openchrome.org/trac/wiki/SupportedHardware In particular, DRI has not been implemented and this will result in a very slow 2D graphics experience and slow playback of videos on the screen. The following instructions are taken from the OpenChrome wiki entry. * Firstly get the required build tools sudo apt-get install build-essential subversion autoconf automake1.9 libtool * Next you need to get the build dependencies sudo apt-get build-dep xserver-xorg-video-openchrome * Get the driver's sourcecode svn checkout http://svn.openchrome.org/svn/trunk openchrome * Change into the newly created directory cd openchrome * Run autogen to set up the driver build ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr * Compile openChrome make * Install openChrome sudo make install * Edit the Xorg configuration You can use the nano editor or any command line editor that you are comfortable with to make the changes sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf This is my configuration which is minimal but gives the full 1280*800 resolution with 32-bit colour. The key settings are specifying the openchrome driver and the activedevice option. Section "Device" Identifier "Configured Video Device" Driver "openchrome" Option "ActiveDevice" "LCD,CRT" EndSection Section "Monitor" Identifier "Configured Monitor" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Default Screen" Monitor "Configured Monitor" Device "Configured Video Device" DefaultDepth 16 EndSection * Restart GDM and install Ubuntu. You will need to restart GDM so that you can install Ubuntu. After installing the driver will need to be installed in the same way again or else you could try copying the openchrome directory to removable media and run make install on it after the reboot. [Update: for Karmic Koala this latter step is now unnecessary - the computer boots perfectly after installation.] To restart GDM and begin installation run this command sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart ** Affects: hundredpapercuts Importance: Undecided Status: Invalid ** Affects: xserver-xorg-video-openchrome (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: New -- No openchrome drivers included on live cd (for via processors) https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/495901 You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu-X, which is subscribed to xserver-xorg-video-openchrome in ubuntu. _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat Post to : ubuntu-x-swat@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-x-swat More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
