Acer Veriton N2620G PC flashing like it's on an acid trip!
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I’m testing out an Acer Veriton N2625G PC with Linpus Linux on it (stock) as a test for Linux alternatives. Normally we use N281G PC’s with Windows 7 Pro, and these work like a champ with FOG. I have another Linux image on my FOG Server I was planning to throw on this machine. I was also planning to upload this image as a “just-in-case” measure.
I choose to boot from LAN like normal, and choose to register the PC. I see the typical readouts “loading yadda yadda this, loading yadda yadda that”, but then things get interesting. The monitor starts flashing all the colors of the spectrum! Reds, blues, greens, whites, purples! It’s like the machine is on an acid trip!
My version of FOG is 0.32
I think my kernel is 3.3.3.
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sounds like you have a video drive problem. You might want to take the .config file from the 3.3.3 kernel and use it as a base to compile a new kernel with drivers for your computer and remove drivers that might conflict.
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Shoot. I really don’t know where to even begin with that. I’m not a programmer at all. I can do some scripting but that’s about it.
Should I try to update to a new kernel? How can I tell what the current FOG kernel really is?
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There is a relatively easy-to-follow article on the wiki for compiling your own kernel. The hardest part is knowing what drivers to include or remove. I got lucky and based on my experience and the documentation in the xconfig, I was able to get my kernel setup and working after a few tries. I had some compile errors, but a quick look on the internet showed that the failing modules were things I’d never use, so it was a no brainer to remove them.
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Is there a way to see what kernel I’m currently using? Like I said, I /think/ I recall having downloaded the 3.3.3 kernel. I just want to know what to go back to in case I mess up royally.
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try booting a machine to debug mode from the pxe boot menu or by creating a task in the webUI. You might be able to do a uname -r from the prompt.
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Thanks that worked like a champ! Now onto trying to compile a kernel.
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[quote=“chad-bisd, post: 10562, member: 18”]There is a relatively easy-to-follow article on the wiki for compiling your own kernel. The hardest part is knowing what drivers to include or remove. I got lucky and based on my experience and the documentation in the xconfig, I was able to get my kernel setup and working after a few tries. I had some compile errors, but a quick look on the internet showed that the failing modules were things I’d never use, so it was a no brainer to remove them.[/quote]
On that topic, could I just add the video drivers for this thing?? I’m guessing FOG can access the LAN as I see the splash page. It doesn’t start going all LSD till after I make a selection.
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For me, it was removing the agpgart drivers and adding in the radeon drivers. I used the core.config rather than the kitchensink.config, and I had to remove the ndiswrapper stuff that gave errors during the compile.
Make note of your changes as you compile, so you can revert or try new combinations without wasting time.
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[quote=“chad-bisd, post: 10590, member: 18”]For me, it was removing the agpgart drivers and adding in the radeon drivers.[/quote]
But what if I needed both for different machines? Granted it’s a “what if” question. The majority of machines I use FOG on ([B]Acer Veriton N281G[/B]) seem to use the [B]Intel
NM10 Express Chipset[/B] with the [B]Intel D425 integrated GFX core graphics solution[/B].Currently trying to find the specs of the [B]Acer Veriton N2620G[/B] – machine in question.
Also, in reading through the walkthrough you mentioned: [url]http://www.fogproject.org/wiki/index.php/Building_a_Custom_Kernel[/url] When it’s referring to the linux kernel, does it mean THE Linux kernel, or the 3.3.3 kernel in FOG.
For the drivers, I’m guessing I’d have to find the Linux drivers, no? -
Unless you have older machines that still use an AGP based video system, you don’t need the AGPGart drivers. I’m talking like 2005 or before most video cards moved to PCI Express (even the built in ones)
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So about that kernel, do I follow the wiki walk through verbatim? Where does the 3.3.3 come in?
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I just followed the wiki for Ubuntu Desktop 11.10, with the following changes:
[LIST=1]
[]downloaded linux-3.7.7.tar.gz from kernel.org
[]had to add g++ compiler to the system in addition to the libqt3 components mentioned in the wiki.
[*]I ran the make commands from inside /usr/src/linux-3.7.7
[/LIST]
I ran ‘make xconfig’ and added in the .config and /proc/config.gz options and ran the ‘make bzImage’
I’m going to play around with it a bit today and see if it works with my FOG setup. -
Thanks for the help, man. I appriciate it, as this is the first time I’ve done anything like this.
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I just tested the 3.7.7 kernel I compiled using Ubuntu Desktop 11.10. The only changes I made to the kitchensink.config was to add the config and /proc/config.gz options. It works for most of my machines except my problem child acer tablets that use a ASIX88772B usb network adapter and SSD drive. It finds neither the drive nor the network adapter. I’m going to recompile tonight adding in more drivers I need.
The 3.7.7 kernel boots significantly faster than my old kernel that was based on 2.6.38 I believe, but doesn’t support all my workstation and laptop configurations yet.
The whole point of this is to let you know that following the basic steps in the wiki with the few modifications in the posts above, I was able to compile a “mostly” working kernel.
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So I’ve done some hunting. The integrated driver for the Acer Veriton 2620G is, according to my research, an Intel GMA 3150. Of course Acer doesn’t state this on their data sheet of the product. I had to go hunt down, comparing the Windows 7 driver file to a snippet I found on the internet. And of course, Acer doesn’t acknowledge that this particular specimen, came with Linux Linpus (not a good flavor of Linux, IMHO), only showing me the Windows 7/8 drivers.
Yet, hold on. The Veriton N281G, which DOES work on my FOG setup also, according to the Acer Datasheet – which is filled out more completely – also uses the Intel GMA 3150. The only differences as far as that goes, is one machine, the N2620G uses an HM70 Express model chipset, while the N281G uses an NM10 model chipset.
Veriton N2620G datasheet: [url]http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model-datasheet/DT.VFGAA.001[/url]
Veriton N281G datasheet: [url]http://support.acer.com/acerpanam/desktop/2011/acer/veriton/VeritonN281G/VeritonN281Gsp2.shtml[/url] -
Still trying to figure this out. With no help from Acer. If both working and non-working models use the same graphics controller (still don’t know for sure due to Acer’s lousy documentation.) could the weird display problem be due to the general chipset on the motherboard?
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If you’ve got one already running some flavor of linux, we can use that to figure out what driver we need to compile into the FOG kernel.
try:
[CODE]lspci -k[/CODE]
or
[CODE]lsmod[/CODE]and look for your graphics card info.
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Hi, I got the same problem with Acer Veriton N2620G, though what I tried to install is Ubuntu 12.10, like Hunter had mentioned above, the same symptom was encountered. Some modification were made that made the installation successful with Ubuntu but without the optimal performance. The unit is okay with Debian, no problem at all.
Acer Philippines relayed to us Acer HQ’s (Taiwan) advice:
[SIZE=2][FONT=sans-serif]"The below details are the best recommendation from our HQ side. Btw, have they tried to compile their linux base on kernel 3.6.6-lp.1? Because as per discussion with our HQ team, this is the initial solution.[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Please rebuild kernel to disable below feature:[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]-Device Drivers–>[/FONT][/SIZE][SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]
-Graphics support–>[/FONT][/SIZE][SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]
-Direct Rendering Manager (XFree86 4.1.0 and higher DRI support)–> Enable modesetting on intel by default[/FONT][/SIZE][SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri][/FONT][/SIZE][SIZE=3][FONT=Calibri]Or add kernel parameter “i915.modeset=0” in the booting.[/FONT][/SIZE][SIZE=3] "[/SIZE]As of this moment, only Debian Linux is tested to run with this Veriton model.
[SIZE=3][/SIZE]