Resolution stuck at 640x480
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Yes, you read that right.
Just today, I offered to upgrade my mom's computer, which had been running Trisquel 6, to Trisquel 7. The installation went smoothly, but there's one serious problem:
The resolution is stuck, not at 1024x768 or something like that, but at 640x480. Insane. This resolution isn't even really usable, so many things just don't fit into such a tiny display size. The monitor is actually capable of 1280x1024, but I'd be happy just getting her back to 1024x768.
Just to make sure this doesn't fix it, I upgrated Linux with the linux-generic-lts-xenial package. That didn't help.
So then I tried to search for "ubuntu 640x480" to see if someone has experienced this with Ubuntu 14.04, and they have. The only problem is that the proposed "solution" is to install a proprietary driver. That's no good.
For reference, my mom's computer is some sort of custom-built computer (bought second-hand) containing an Intel Pentium 4, with an integrated ATI graphics controller (this is from back before Intel had its own integrated graphics controllers). The ATI graphics controller has always caused problems, but this is the first time I've seen it cause the resolution to be forced so low.
Can anyone help me find a solution to get her computer's resolution back to something reasonable? I don't have physical access to the computer, so I'll need to tell her exactly what to do; because of this, I'd like to just tell her what command(s) to type into the terminal. The solution doesn't have to work for all users because this is effectively a single-user machine (she's the only one who uses it).
Yeah, the radeon module in newer kernels falls over and dies when the proprietary blobs are not present, even though some testing has shown that it doesn't need to although it's not clear if this works for all cards or not. The current options are to use an old kernel, help Linux-libre gain blobless activation of that card (this is already possible with evergreen radeon cards starting from kernel version 4.8) or replace the video card (with something not radeon.)
At a high level, the idea of enabling blobless activation involves making the blob loading code a conditional (so that it doesn't fall over & die when it's not present) and see if the card still works. If it does, it can be incorporated into Linux-libre.
http://www.fsfla.org/pipermail/linux-libre/2016-May/003217.html
http://www.fsfla.org/pipermail/linux-libre/2016-July/003224.html
http://www.fsfla.org/pipermail/linux-libre/2016-August/003228.html
Yeah, the big shock to me was that the resolution it fell back to was so small.
So what would be the easiest way to replace the Trisquel 7 kernel with an older one (e.g. the Trisquel 6 kernel)? I seem to remember you had something like that somewhere, right?
I have a public APT repository at https://jxself.org/linux-libre/ but I imagine that the ones in there currently are probably too new to be helpful.
My understanding is that Trisquel 6 used kernel version 3.2. I could add something like that into the repository but according to Longterm release kernels chart at https://www.kernel.org/category/releases.html the 3.2 series is only going to be supported for a few more months, until May 2018. That would bring up the question of what to do at that point.
Something newer than 3.2 might work (if you'll notice in the chart, the 3.16 series is supported until April 2020) but I'm not sure at what point this change to the radeon kernel module was made and if this will still work or not with that version.
If you want to go the route of trying an older kernel I could compile a special version of Linux-libre to try out before adding it into my repository. But even if it does work, support will eventually end anyway, also bringing up the question of what to do at that point. In a way, it seems like kicking the can down the road. Let me know. If you decide to go this route, I imagine that the best way to coordinate distributing the software would be via email.
Honestly, "kicking the can down the road" is perfectly fine in this case, because I'm going to give her an EOMA68 computer setup to replace it whenever it becomes available. I'd even be fine with using a version of Linux that can't be updated or hasn't been updated in a while. I know that there are vulnerability concerns, but I think she would be better off with that than being stuck at such a tiny resolution.
OK; I'll work on this and get in touch with you through email.
I am a translator!
> but I'm not sure at what point this change to the radeon kernel module was made
I am sure for I had one such laptop with an amd crap when the switch occurred.. The last working kernel was 3.10
Pretty sure about that.
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