No luck displaying X, please help!

[Maverick1970]

Hello all, this is my first post, and i'm a complete newb when it comes to linux, so you'll have to excuse my ignorance!

I am attempting to run Debian/Sarge on a Toshiba M65-S9065 laptop. (1.73 centrino, 512 ram, Intel GMA 900 video).

I am dual booting with XP, which is working fine. When i try to boot linux, i get the following error:

(EE) no device detected
Fatal error: no screens found.

lspci gives me this:

0000.00:02.0 VGA Compatible controller Intel Corp. mobile graphic controller (rev 03)
0000.00.02.1 Display controller: intel corp mobile graphics controller (rev 03)

I have tried setting my video card up as a i810 and as a "vesa" (which i was told would work with just about anything!). When setup as a vesa i get no error messages, just a black screen. the i810 gives the errors above.

My XF86Config-4 reads:

Section "monitor"
Ident. "LPL:0000"
Horizontal sync: 28-49
Vert. refresh: 43-77
Option dpms

Section "screen"
ident. "default screen"
dev. "generic video card"
monitor "LPL:0000"
default depth = 24
then my resolutions are listed: 1152x864, 1024x768, 800x600, 640x480

My video card is capable of 1400x900, so all of those resolutions should be okay (??).

I'm kind of thinking i might need to install video drivers (found them on intel's site), but i have no clue how to do that from the command prompt!
Thanks for any advice anyone can offer, and sorry for the long first post, i browsed through enough threads to see a pattern of necessary information!

Thanks,
Chris

p.s.--copied info to paper, so syntax probably isn't right

[genesus]

first of all those resolutions and depth are a little high for vesa, try good ol'800x600 with a low depth, 4 or 8 or so, then try startx again...if you get a black screen remember it is on vt7 you can go to your 1st terminal ctr-alt-f1 and see the text output...also check your monitors vertical and horizontal sync ranges...many times these have been the problem that appears with this type of error, you can find these in your monitors manual, which you should be able to check online.

[Maverick1970]

Okay, i will try vesa with 800x600 and a low depth. I haven't been able to find my monitor sync ranges anywhere (it's hard enough finding anything out about this particular laptop!), but i'll keep looking.
What about downloading and installing the correct drivers?

[burnit]

try www.linux-laptop.net/

maybe your laptop is there!!! Try out also different (but similar laptops) and don't care about dstros...

[Maverick1970]

ooh! Great site! Thanks!
I did try VESA with 640x480 and both 4 and 8 bit color--no dice. I'm thinking the problem may be being caused by my video card having "no memory" (steals system memory), but i did specify in dpkg-reconfigure that it had 64mb of memory.
This is frustrating, but i'll get it sooner or later!
Thanks for all the help!

[DoctorDan]

its possible you just need drivers

[jack92129]

I got black screens too until I got the complete X system. Try

apt-get install x-window-system
or
apt-get install x-window-system-core
(if space is an issue)

The intel link:
http://support.intel.com/support/graphics/linux/
http://support.intel.com/support/gra.../CS-010512.htm

What sucks is they only offer RPM type downloads. Good Luck

[vremenno]

I have same problem, Inspiron 6000, Intel 900 Graphic card on board
can't get to GUI. Please help

[d38dm8nw81k1ng]

have you tried the above solutions?

[vremenno]

Yes I did, tryed everything, no luck. Anyway, after screwing around for 24 hours with my debian instalation and reading other problems and solutions, I have decided to give a try to Ubuntu - wow, 10-15 minutes installation and everything working, my screen, resolution, mopuspad etc... My hell is over, or maybe it is just a begining?