bjoernvold.com

I'm quite happy for those whom the new kernel and new Xorg1.9 is working; however, they are not working for me, and I want to kill them both. There are two issues that if they do not get fixed soon, or if I don't find a way to figure out how to troubleshoot them properly, I may have to leave Linux for the while, and try out something like Dynebolic or Ulteo. They appear to be quite serious issues for me. One is the monitor blanking issue, and the other one is that my sound card is not being detected on boot (it out and out fails, it and my sound chip), yet loads when I get into the desktop, and THE ERROR GOES BY SO FAST I CAN'T SEE WHAT IT IS, OF COURSE, NEITHER DOES IT SHOW IN DMESG, JUST MY DAMN LUCK. I can no longer leave my computer up overnight, which causes complications for my IRL life (it's how my family and I communicate cheaply).

I do not want to fry my monitor. I can not afford a new one. I flat refuse to chuck out what I know is a good sound card. I flat refuse to disable the chip as well, because I need it and I know it works, too.

None of this ever happened until sometime into the 2.6.35 kernel, and late Xorg1.8, when I updated. None of it gave me a bit of flack or inconvenience, none of it ever even whispered up to that point. Now, I have hard drive noises because it has to run so much to cut the slack for memory that's being lost constantly on top of all this. I had not changed a damn thing, I had not done anything to this computer but UPDATE IT, but now I spend one helluva LOT of time going through manuals, wikis, filing bugs that turn out not to be the issue in the end, doing one thing that the Arch forum suggests, then turning 'round and listening to someone else who says "don't do that", all in the hopes that SOMETHING will FIX IT.

New kernel/Xorg1.9 sucks. World, give me some REAL troubleshooting steps to take please, other than throwing balls to the wall, and expecting it to work. I'm WAY fed up with the bull, and wish they'd get it right finally in updates. Tell me WTF changed during that time of those frikking updates, PLEASE, so I can fix it.

Thanks.

Signed, a fully updated, completely totally 100% FRUSTRATED, FED UP Arch Linux/Fedora 14 computer user (these issues are in Fedora also since Fedora 14)

P.S. Oh, also, PLEASE, DON'T give me your "Mandriva just works for me" - I have absolutely NO interest in Mandriva - don't even mention it to me.

Or Mageia.

Also, if you need info to help me troubleshoot this, just ask - I'll tell you straight up how the cow ate the cabbage with this, and anything else you want to know.

Also, I would prefer non-extreme-gurus in this thread. I don't understand a word you guys say. Talk to me like a frikking human being, like I'm any other user.

Lots of information there;
I'll try to break it down a bit:
Ulteo - You cannot use it. It needs at least two computers. And that does not compute with you not beeing able to buy a new monitor.
Dyne - Why not? I have no knowledge of it so we could need a review

How do you know that your sound card is working perfectly? (I am no sound guru so you can lie as much as you like here:) And your chips?
Have you tested them with Windows? Or did they just work with prior versions.

You want to kill both the Kernel and Xorg versions.
But if I am not mistaken you already did that? Maybe that is the problem?
Being a simple mind from the countryside (that is a flat out lie but I thought it sounded good), I cannot understand why you would want to do that.
Yes I am that corny! In spite of your abundantly clear diagnoses of the Kernel and Xorg I still don't get it. Thats how corny I am.
I have an old computer with similar specs and Arch is working fine there. So I am really puzzled by your problems and I have not been able to recreate them.
Also I have tried to tell you how I got it working. But I get the distinct impression that dedanna is not in listening mode.

Then you start the "vote for my bug campaign" - I would love to vote for it, but I just don't have it - so I can't.

Allthough I'll have to admit that it makes sense that it could be the Kernel or Xorg if you have the same problem in Fedora. It is a very minor possibility that you make the same mistake in both of them too.

And now you want some REAL troubleshooting steps better than the Arch wiki? The pressure the pressure I do not dare! The Arch wiki is better than anything I might suggest.

I am not stupid - I can read between the lines that you will kill anyone who comes up with something that doesn't fix it. Especially since I do not know when those "frikking updates" happened.
So I will have to leave this one to some other suicidal candidate in here.

However since I am a fearless sky diver:
Does everything work with a live CD? (Puppy Ubuntu Suse Peppermint - and dare I say it: Mandriva?) If yes check the kernel version and Xorg version to confirm your suspicions.

Arch is working just fine here and so is Mandriva! It just works
If so - install the one that works and set the kernel and Xorg to "no updates".
Now that is a plan - kind off

The live cd - good idea. The problem with reinstalling Arch, is I'll end up with the same thing probably since it's a rolling release and stays on the very latest of everything.

I'll check anyway the release versions on live cds and go from there.

I think I mentioned it over in the Arch thread when it started this, in Distro Talk. I'll go look and see if I can find it and link it here, but I'm thinking somewhere just before Oct. 21st - those updates that I did then.

So here we have it - it was sometime between Oct. 19th & Oct. 21st, with the pam authentication error, which then moved to no xscreensaver, gnome screensaver, or anything - just this blanking issue, which got worse with each update from there.

I'm not entirely sure though that I can blame Linux - it does it at the bios password point, too, which I still need to test with a different monitor.

The Ulteo, Dynebolic statement wasn't literal btw; the point was try *something* other than Linux.

Knowing you - you probably dissected you computer immediately too? Making it somewhat harder to say exactly what it is?

No, haven't bothered with the hardware, other than reseating cables when needed (not inside ones).

Yes OK. Time to test that Live CD theory first then. I guess it will confirm that your Hardware is OK.

I hope to Odin it does. If not, I'm sunk.

We can only

Nah, we just need to pour a whole lot of this over it--->

That, and some of this too:

It's the monitor. I had the computer completely off this morning (just a few ago), forgot I did, so tried turning on the monitor like I normally do when the computer's up. Guess what. With the computer completely off, I had to try some half dozen times to get the monitor to come on and stay on by turning it on and off.

Damn.

I think it may be the power source - it's acting like it's not getting enough power - the monitor won't come on, but the power button light is on.

Damn damn damn - there's no way I can get a new monitor right now.