Frozen: Dell Dimension 2400 Intel 82845G/GL/GE Chipset

[bishopbutu]

Hi, new to Ubuntu, and I have this video card and the same problems discussed here.

Have followed this thread, some things to add. Ubuntu 9.10, Ubuntu 10.10, Mint 8, Mint 9 have all given me problems I think because of incompatibilities with this Brookline card.

Ubuntu 9.10, which I am running now on this Pentium IV with just under a gig of RAM, gives the least problem of the bunch. But it has problems too...

Three benchmarks have given clues to this problem for me: "the ant" (GL 3d bug screensaver), the playing of high def videos full screen, and random seemingly unexplainable lockups.

The main differences?

1. 9.10 will let me not only see the GL ant screensaver, but also run it. All of the others require a hard boot to break out of the lockup this causes, even sometimes just previewing.

2. NONE OF THEM will consistently play hi def videos full screen without choppiness or lockups. I have tried with MPlayer, Movie Player, Dragonplayer, KMPlayer, SMPlayer, and VLC player in some combination on these systems. The closest I can get to doing this successfully is using 9.10 and VLC, but then VLC does strange things also when transitioning between videos and exiting full screen. A couple of lesser players crashed the system first run. The only time the others succeed full screen is with low quality videos played singly.

3. ALL OF THEM LOCK UP "RANDOMLY". I know they are not random.

Here are some more things. The lockups usually always occur when graphic-intensive and memory-hungry Firefox is running. I am thinking this is just enough at times to rob the system of what it needs to keep the desktop live.

When I ran the WinGates on this machine I had the same or better graphic and video quality at lower resolution. Meaning the screen I am seeing now at 1440x900 is not much sharper or different sizewise than when I was running 1024x768 with W...if that makes any sense.

I think the card is not made for the resolutions Linux is ascribing to it, no matter the driver, the metal and plastic just won't do. But I submit this to further the discussion, I really want to keep this system and put it on all my machines, and right now, stay up without having to reboot constantly.

So, I think 9.10 was closest to getting it right.

Oh, one more tidbit? In my CMOS I notice that this card is listed as a PCI card, when in fact is it an Onboard? I notice my .conf file is blank, and when I lspci I get no mention of any port...

[MyR]

Well I've been running Debian and to my knowledge it has never crashed in the way that ubuntu crashes... So the problem does not lie with Linux in general, but probably something related to Ubuntu or the apps it comes with.

[candtalan]

Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS fully updated.

Looks like the same problem I think, only with a Compaq Evo desktop 500MB ram, P4 2GHz

Reported random freeze, or more likely a weired graphic display - vertical black and white lines across the display in the upper third of the display.

When working, lspci gives
VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)

There are two apparently identical machines, with same problem, I have worked on only one here.

I used stellarium app game to test the problem, it installed ok but I could never run it because of the problem. This was a very useful test, and I am very grateful for it being mentioned in at least one thread here.

I used
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Bugs/Lucidi8xxFreezes
I tried Workaround A first then B. Neither worked and after B, I got no graphic display at all so I used a live CD to re instate the xorg.conf-original which I had carefully created before doing 'B'.

The next workaround which looked worth trying was workaround E.
=================
Workaround E: Disable DRI
Paste the following into /etc/X11/xorg.conf:

Section "Device"
Identifier "Configured Video Device"
Driver "intel"
Option "DRI" "off"
EndSection
=================

I restarted the machine and it worked - stellarium worked!

So it looks to me like the problem on this machine (I hope) is solved for the present time.

[MyR]

The problem is fixed in 10.10.

I've been using xubuntu on the 2400. Works great!

[candtalan]

The problem is fixed in 10.10.
I've been using xubuntu on the 2400. Works great!

Good to know, thanks.

Any idea if 10.04 LTS will get further attention with this?

Being LTS I have a number of people soon to be upgraded to it, and if you get caught, it is a significant problem. And bad publicity too - I have a relative trying 10.04 and his machine is affected. He runs a school IT facility and is very put off by this unfortunate problem, even though I have now belatedly found the fix (as my earlier post) for his same machine.

[candtalan]

Good to know, thanks.

Any idea if 10.04 LTS will get further attention with this?

Being LTS I have a number of people soon to be upgraded to it, and if you get caught, it is a significant problem. And bad publicity too - I have a relative trying 10.04 and his machine is affected. He runs a school IT facility and is very put off by this unfortunate problem, even though I have now belatedly found the fix (as my earlier post) for his same machine.

Err - I perhaps spoke too soon.
I have been using the machine for the afternoon and evening, with mostly firefox web use this evening. On a particular Register site
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11...l_centre_eels/
the machine crashed out! I restarted, and same again, after a short time. I did again go back and did get to actually read the site but I am un nerved by such crashes. I need to hand this to an elderly non tech user.

I am wondering if I should upgrade to Ubuntu 10.10 now??
any thoughts please

tia

[MyR]

I am wondering if I should upgrade to Ubuntu 10.10 now??
any thoughts please

tia

As you may already know, LTS releases are not necessarily more stable than regular releases. This means that the length of support is the only difference between LTS and regular releases. In my experience 10.10 has been more stable than 10.04, so I would recommend it.

Ubuntu 10.10 is supported until April 2012 as compared to April 2013 for 10.04 (desktop edition).

hth

[candtalan]

thanks,
I think I will upgrade

[abpriest]

Wow. I stopped checking this thread after going to opensuse 11.2 thinking it would solve my problem--it didn't and (sad to say) the opensuse community couldn't help me. I have learned that the ubuntu community has kept the issue alive. I am going to install ubuntu 10.10 today and I'll let you know how it works.

[abpriest]

SOLVED! Ubuntu 10.10 works great with my old Dimension 2400! Let it run for nearly a week (started it an restarted it, too) not one problem.