Ubuntu Lucid (10.04) daily build for March 15, 2010 runs with nomodeset on Intel 830m video!!!
I thought Linux in general and Xorg in particular were throwing those of us with "older" Intel video chips under the virtual bus. I couldn't even get Ubuntu Lucid Lynx (10.04) Alpha 3 to boot on my Intel 830m (aka i830m and in my case Intel 82830 CGC)-equipped laptops, where my old standby of dropping i915.modeset=0 or nomodeset on the boot line would clear things up.
Today I decided to download and burn the daily build ISO of Lucid for March 15.
I booted it, hit Escape as soon as the first screen came up (that's a new one, having to do that), then hit F6 for Modes, arrowed down to nomodeset, hit Enter to select it, then Escape, then Enter again to boot ...
And a short time later I was in the less-brown-more-purple world of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS Lucid!
Never mind that it's ... purple.
It works! Video is perfect on my Toshiba Satellite 1100-S101 laptop with the Intel 830m chipset.
Whatever wasn't working for me in Alpha 3 has been fixed at the time of this daily build.
I'd like to thank any and all developers who were able to make this happen, and I'd also like to let the rest of the Intel 830m-using community know that the following WILL work if you turn off kernel mode setting with nomodeset in the boot line:
Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 (as of this 3/15/10 daily build)
Fedora 12
Sidux 2009-04
I have an alpha image of Fedora 13 but haven't yet burned it, and I have heard that Slackware 13 runs with no problem.
So the future for the older-Intel-video-using world is looking a whole lot brighter than it did a few short weeks again.
At this point I have no comment on purple or the window buttons moving from the right side of the window to the left. I have no comment because I DON'T CARE. I HAVE WORKING VIDEO AND THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS AT PRESENT.
I'll address purple and window buttons at a later time. One thing I can say for sure is that this ain't the usual orange/brown.
Before I go, I've been testing Firefox 3.6 on the Mac OS X and Windows XP platforms, and this instance of Ubuntu Lucid is the first time I'm seeing FF 3.6 in Linux.
My first impressions are that not much is different in the PowerPC build for OS X, but I'm seeing huge improvements in the browsing experience in terms of speed in both Windows and Linux.
I can't say for sure, but I think it all boils down to a faster Javascript engine in 3.6 vs. 3.0 (and also 3.5 perhaps).
Getting back to Intel 830m for the moment, this means I'm upgrading my Debian Lenny laptop to Squeeze as soon as possible.
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Hey, Steve -- Great blog. Nomodeset has helped a lot of older machines keep going, and glad you got Lucid running on your Toshiba. Keep up the great work in keeping the older machines going.
Larry, I'm very close to running Fedora 12. While I'm fairly accustomed to GNOME, I really liked that Xfce spin.
So far you have good news for us! But one question ist still unanswered: Does 3d accelleration work?
I can run Compiz on my Gateway Solo 1450 (also Intel 830m) with Ubuntu 8.04, but I turn it off because all that screen-motion gives me a headache.
I've noticed that in recent versions of Ubuntu, there is no Compiz. That's OK by me, but I can understand if you want it and it's no longer an option.
All of this makes me continue to wonder why they didn't split the Intel driver in half and have separate "old Intel" and "new Intel" drivers for X. That would make users of i830m very happy. I didn't have trouble in the old i810 days, but since the driver was renamed and recast as intel, it's been nothing but pain.
Neither nomodeset nor i915.modeset=0 works on a Fujitzu Siemens Lifebook after upgrade from Kermic to Lucid.
This leaves two options - live with a Vesa driver or use an old kernel 2.6.31-x. Both is bad PR for Intel in the long run.
This is odd.
I have an 82830 CGC (rev 03) running (on an Acer TravelMate 260), and had problems with Jaunty as well as Karmic. The "nomodeset" option worked in both versions, and I was preparing for a workaround in Lucid, too.
But with Lucid (clean install), everything works just fine out of the box. How is this possible?
I regularly test with the various parameters, and I've also noticed recently that you don't have to turn off kernel mode setting with 82830 CGC. In the recent past there were problems running with KMS on, even when video did appear, but in the past couple of days, I've had the same experience as you - no boot-line change (and still no xorg.conf) is needed to get 82830 video running.
This is a very positive development that I hope continues - and not just in Ubuntu but in other Linux distributions as well.
I don't know if this works the same way with other i830 chipsets.
It's extremely important that users of machines like these be able to get a live CD, boot from it and have a usable machine without a lot of Googling for answers and the subsequent fiddling involved. The vast majority is seldom willing or able to get X working from a totally blank screen.
Whoever made the change that allows for such easy booting in 82830 CGC, I'm very thankful.