Ubuntu
xserver-xorg-video-unichrome package

VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 [S3 UniChrome Pro] Several applications do not work at all

Asked by Fábio

Hi,

I've installed Ubuntu 10.04 along with XP professional in dual-boot. In Ubuntu several applications do not work. I think It is related with graphic issues because if I try to enable desktop Visual Effects in the Appearance Preferences panel the system crashes and sends me to the logging screen. Totem Movie Player, Blender 3D and games are the kind of applications that are not working at all. Please help me! It's just impossible to stay with a system that can't perform tasks like that. In the XP partition, in this same computer I'm typing write now all these applications work fine, I mean Blender 2.5, several video players and games I don't really care about.

System Information

Motherboard
 Manufacturer: MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO., LTD
 Product Name: MS-7104
 Version: 20A

OS
 Running Ubuntu Linux, the Ubuntu 10.04 (lucid) release.
 GNOME: 2.30.2 (Ubuntu 2010-06-25)
 Kernel version: 2.6.32-24-generic (#41-Ubuntu SMP Thu Aug 19 01:12:52 UTC 2010)
 GCC: 4.4.3 (i486-linux-gnu)
 Xorg: unknown (21 July 2010 12:47:34PM)
 Hostname: desktop
 Uptime: 0 days 1 h 8 min

CPU INFORMATION
 GenuineIntel, Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.26GHz
 Number of CPUs: 1
 CPU clock currently at 2266.676 MHz with 256 KB cache
 Numbering: family(15) model(4) stepping(1)
 Bogomips: 4533.35
 Flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe constant_tsc up pebs bts pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl cid xtpr

MEMORY INFORMATION
 Total memory: 993 MB
 Total swap: 2907 MB

STORAGE INFORMATION
 SCSI device - scsi0
  Vendor: ATA
  Model: Maxtor 6K040L0
 SCSI device - scsi1
  Vendor: LITE-ON
  Model: COMBO SOHC-5236V
 SCSI device - scsi3
  Vendor: ATA
  Model: WDC WD3200AAJS-0
 SCSI device - scsi4
  Vendor: Kingston
  Model: DataTraveler 2.0

HARDWARE INFORMATION
MOTHERBOARD
 Host bridge
  VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
  Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/VN800/P4M800CE/Pro Host Bridge
 PCI bridge(s)
  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237/VX700 PCI Bridge
 USB controller(s)
  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 81)
  VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 86) (prog-if 20)
 ISA bridge
  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
  Subsystem: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8237 ISA bridge [KT600/K8T800/K8T890 South]
 IDE interface
  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06) (prog-if 8a [Master SecP PriP])
  Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7104

GRAPHIC CARD
 VGA controller
  VIA Technologies, Inc. CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 [S3 UniChrome Pro] (rev 01)
  Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7104

SOUND CARD
 Multimedia controller
  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 60)
  Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device b014

NETWORK
 Ethernet controller
  VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6102 [Rhine-II] (rev 78)
  Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Device 7104

Please Help me!

Many Thanks!

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Solved
For:
Ubuntu xserver-xorg-video-unichrome Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Solved by:
Fábio
Solved:
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Ok well you are using a poorly supported video chip:
S3 CN700/P4M800 Pro/P4M800 CE/VN800 [S3 UniChrome Pro]

You may need to form an xorg.conf to make it fly and I am not so sure you wil lget compiz working with it.

Try this:

gksudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf

add this code:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Tarjeta Integrada"
driver "openchrome"
Option "DisableIRQ"
Option "XAANoOffscreenPixmaps" "true"
Option "DRI" "true"
Option "XaaNoImageWriteRect"
Option "SWcursor" "true"
Option "VideoRam" "65536"
Option "ForcePanel" "true"
Option "PanelSize" "1024×768"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
Identifier "monitor01"
VendorName "Samsung"
ModelName "Syncmaster 591s"
HorizSync 30-55
VertRefresh 50-120
DisplaySize 270 203 # 1024×768 96dpi

Modeline "640×480@85" 35.71 640 672 736 832 480 481 484 505 -hsync +vsync
Modeline "800×600@85" 56.55 800 840 928 1056 600 601 604 630 -hsync +vsync
Modeline "1024×768@60" 64.11 1024 1080 1184 1344 768 769 772 795 -hsync +vsync

Option "DPMS" "on"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Pantalla01"
Monitor "monitor01"
Device "Tarjeta Integrada"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024×768" "800×600" "640×480"
Virtual 1024 768
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024×768" "800×600" "640×480"
Virtual 800 600
EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "ServerLayout"
Identifier "Default Layout"
Screen "Pantalla01"
EndSection

Section "DRI"
Mode 0666
EndSection

Save the new file and close gedit, then reboot. If you get no X server, reboot and hold shift, you can then select recovery mode, then select root. You can now run:

mv /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_old; shutdown -r now

and you will be back where you are now. I suggest you don't use compiz (as I said I don't think your chip is supported enough to give 3D accelleration but should give excellent 2D).

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#2

Theres also this:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/OpenChrome

Revision history for this message
Fábio (agostode77) said : 		#3

Hi,

You were right, no X server at all. I'm back where I was. I don't know what compiz is. All I want is to get the computer doing what it is able to do with Windows XP. Blender 2.53 is working fine there as well as video and sound applications. Can you guide through setting Ubuntu though I have it working well enough to run blender and videos. I thought Blender would work better in Linux. Using XP I'm able to model, texture and even make simple animations and then I save the result (render) in QuickTime format.

Appreciate your help
Fábio T. da Costa

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#4

Compiz is what gives the desktop effects. You will need to run:

sudo apt-get update; sudo apt-get -y upgrade; sudo apt-get -y dist-upgrade; sudo apt-get -y install ubuntu-restricted-extras

This will install a slew of codecs for video and audio.

Revision history for this message
Fábio (agostode77) said : 		#5

Hi AcionParsnip,

I'm following your instructions, right now the process is on the go. I copied the lines bellow from the Terminal. Is it a problem?

W: Failed to fetch http://ppa.launchpad.net/c-korn/vlc/ubuntu/dists/lucid/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz 404 Not Found

E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.

Thanks in advance.
Fábio T. da Costa

Revision history for this message
Fábio (agostode77) said : 		#6

Hi again,

I didn't work. The missing package above seems to be vlc for Ubuntu though I don't think that's the main cause of the fail. I am still not able to play videos and not even launch applications like Wings3D, SuperTux and Blender. I don't know, I think I will have opt for another Ubuntu version or another distro. I saw that you deal with Fedora as well, what can you tell me about it?

Thanks
Fábio T. da Costa

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#7

I suggest you go through the openchrome guide to compile the driver. It may . Fedora is the same OS, Linux, but it may have the openchrome driver compiled in. You need 3D accelleration for all those things and I am not sure you can do it in Linux.

Revision history for this message
Joe (jfarina) said : 		#8

You need to install the updates. There is probably about 200 of them. Go to system, administration, update mananger and get all your updates and then let me know if you still have an issue

Revision history for this message
Joe (jfarina) said : 		#9

You need to install the updates. There is probably about 200 of them. Go to system, administration, update mananger and get all your updates and then let me know if you still have an issue

Revision history for this message
Fábio (agostode77) said : 		#10

OK,

Anyway thanks. I'll try to compile the driver. But I still cannot understand why I cannot play videos. I don't care to games but Blender is a must have to me. I'm downloading Fedora and lets what happens. If you have something else to say mail me. I'll close this post now.

Thanks again
Fábio Tavares da Costa

Revision history for this message
Fábio (agostode77) said : 		#11

Joe,

My problem is exactly up-to-date stuff. My pc is old and what I need is to downgrade.

actionparsnip,

I tried to compile the driver but there were files "no found" then it's impossible to "make". I searched the web and a lot o people had the same issue. Couldn't find a workaround.

I'm downloading both ubuntu-studio and fedora to give it a try. Both are i386 packs. I think it has something to do with it.

By