Issue with Intel XWS drivers on FreeBSD - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 10:14:41 am
content: So I'm here complaining about XWS drivers on FreeBSD again....So I got a free Mac Mini, and being the crazy nutjob I am, I decided that OS/X was completely useless and dead to me after I typed cc and nothing happened, so the only illogical course of action was to install FreeBSD.Welp, here I am FreeBSD is working perfectly. The issue I am having right now is that the Intel drivers for what X11 detects as an Intel 945GM refuse to detect the DVI output. It detects that a VGA (which is likely since I think it's a DVI-I port) and a TV output, which to my knowledge doesn't exist in any real form on the machine. It could be referring to DVI, but the issue is that there is no EDID on both ports (which would make sense if neither of them were DVI), so it finds nothing on both ports, decides to presumable pick VGA (which is disconnected) upon which it initializes on that port (if it exists) and then completely locks the device, even when I believe using working settings to end the X server.So, I need to know how to kindly convince the driver that I do indeed have a DVI port on the machine, and how to get it to find it. I haven't tried to use VGA to see if it works, but I have no wish to use it whatsoever, so even if it does work on VGA, it is of no use to me.I am running FreeBSD 12 (which despite being "not ready for the forefront" has seemed to work better for me than FreeBSD 11 in all situations) and I tried using the driver from both pkg's repositories, and as built from the ports tree (which seem to be the exact same package). Any help or suggestions are appreciated.

author: BradC
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 11:31:43 am
content: Not much help as you've not told us the Vintage of mini.I will say I have a 2006 which from memory had the 915. I managed to get that working dual-head (VGA/DVI) under Linux, but I had to poke a fake EDID into one of the heads as the wiring on the board only allowed talking to one head to retrieve the data. That took some driver based hackery to work around.Finding a cable that broke the DVI-I out into both analogue and digital was another thing entirely.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 11:43:45 am
content: I haven't told you because I have no clue. Its got a Core 2 Duo running at 1.8Ghz, so make whatever deductions you want from there.I'm going to experiment a bit with ArchLinux to see if I can get any XWS session working on Intel drivers. VESA drivers work fine, but Intel ones do not.

author: sstepane
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 12:18:21 pm
content: I would suppose You'll get more luck with some linux (red hat or something) for desktop use, FreeBSD is like more for networking/servers that don't even supposed to have any display. Linuxes have more hardware support and often even from manufacturers. plus a bit more X-windows stuff.IMHO of course.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 12:32:58 pm
content: Quote from: sstepane on May 23, 2018, 12:18:21 pmStop telling me to stop doing stupid things.Anyways, I tried ArchLinux 32 bit, and it decided to not boot it. It's usable with VESA at the moment until I can figure out how to fix this driver.Also, FreeBSD has a LOT of X11 gear ported over. It might not be something everybody has on their desktop, but to say that it's not meant for XWS is not entirely accurate.

author: sstepane
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 12:48:27 pm
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on May 23, 2018, 12:32:58 pmNever told you to stop doing something, just a suggestion, I have no idea on the context - do You need it badly to work, it's just out of curiosity or whatever. Well, on the other hand - I would dig into driver/kernel sources - there might be some dev notes in driver sources on how to overcome this problem. Or find that routine that does not detect the port and hack it a bit.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 01:01:50 pm
content: I'm joking.It shouldn't be that hard to get it to work. I don't need this for anything, I'm just messing around with it. Maybe I'll use VGA if it's going to get it to work.For now, I have other things to do. Additional suggestions are appreciated, and I thank everybody who has given me some. I'm just a crazy weirdo working with shit I don't properly understand.

author: borjam
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 01:36:53 pm
content: In OS/X you need to install X Code and the "Command line utilities" if you want to compile. They include some nice goodiesSo, FreeBSD. I would try to mention the problem in the FreeBSD mailing lists. There is even Intel staff monitoring driver issues, at least for network cards. It may be an easy fix for someone familiar with the code.(Using FreeBSD since 1995, but as a workstation OS/X is more convenient for me)

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 23, 2018, 02:10:58 pm
content: I suppose I could try that. I'll assemble an email. Thanks for the tip.

author: borjam
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: May 24, 2018, 06:22:01 am
content: Quote from: TwoOfFive on May 23, 2018, 02:10:58 pmAlso, posting an issue to bugs.freebsd.org can help.What's the name of the driver? I can do some searches and see if anything has been reported before.

author: Ampera
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: May 24, 2018, 11:28:21 am
content: It's the xf86-video-intel driver available packaged and in the ports tree.I've just decided to use VGA out, because it's simpler than going on about how to fix DVI.