Which ubuntu version works fine with sis driver 671 771
I unfortunately have notebook ASUS K50C which uses a sis graphics driver. I tried many different options from different forums but I am still having screen resolution problems. Its screen resolution is still really low. Despite that, I cannot watch any kind of video as computer becomes overloaded is not able to play the video normally. I am currently using UBUNTU 14.04. Can anyone help me to solve the problems or does anybody know which version of Ubuntu works fine with this computer? Thanks in advance
Solution 1:
I've just finished loading Ubuntu onto a Dell fx160 thin client that has the SiS 771/617 video adapter as standard. I originally loaded 16.04 and it acted like a dog, you could see the interlacing and the whole system was slooow.
Looking through Xorg.0.log I noticed that the Sis driver native in Xorg wasn't rated for the 771/617, and the only driver I could find for the 771/671 was noted here: https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/sis
One developed by Antonio J. de Oliveira, most of whose work is now missing from the internet. Pity, coz he's the only guy who seemed to do much with the SiS cards. And maybe due to the age of his driver, it was compiled against the kernel used in Ubuntu 12.04.1. (note the ver 1. I loaded 12.04.4 which I had handy, and it didn't work. I had to go back in Ubuntu archives and get v1).
Bunged sis671_drv.so into /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers edited xorg.conf so that Section Device had sis671 as driver and fired it up.
No problems! and plenty of resolutions to choose from in display settings.
For some reason settings can't detect the monitor and insists on calling it a laptop, and I cannot get dual monitors to work. They did work as desktop in one test iteration, so it can be done, but the two monitors were different resolutions and I couldn't find the way to alter them independently. The larger monitor, on dvi, wasn't lined up properly and it's resolution was awry. I tried a virtual monitor definition in xorg.conf, but that just made it lock up and I'd have to go back to root cli to rename xorg.conf so that it would start on defaults not conf. The fx160 has a vga and a dvi on the one SiS card. In the end, I had to put the main monitor on the vga output. I don't know if sis671_drv has the functionality for dvi or dual monitors. I know it makes the xorg log ten times normal length, so there's a lot going on in there. After all the driver is over 500kb.
If anyone gets dual head on a Ubuntu FX160 I'd be interested to hear.
Solution 2:
There is no currently supported version of Ubuntu which supports SiS 671/771 cards (this is bug #301958). Your options are:
Use an obsolete unsupported version of Ubuntu and never update. Not really recommended since you will not get security updates, but if you want to try it then 12.04.2 has been reported to work.
Try Linux Mint 13. There have been reports that it contains some older modified SiS driver that works.
Give up and buy a laptop with supported graphics. An old Thinkpad with ATI graphics can be bought for $50 on Ebay and it will run Xubuntu/Lubuntu well.
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If you are a developer, you can fix the source. The issue has been brought up on the Xorg mailing list, and an Xorg developer responded (1 2)
If those still don't work, get your hands dirty... if any particular strings appear in error messages, find those strings in the source and figure out what function is failing. Then compare the execution of the broken copy to the last working copy you remembered. If the API of some dependency changed, use git bisect to repeatedly compile the kernel or the Xserver until you find the exact line of code in the dependency that made the difference. Hacking the driver might sound hard, but it's not so hard that you have to pay someone to do it.
The problem here is not that some gigantic reverse engineering effort is needed. The problem is that a few tiny janatorial fixes were required. And it's easy to miss one when the developer implementing the fixes doesn't have a SiS card on which to test.
Basically nobody knows what the actual problem is, so someone with the affected hardware needs to git-bisect the Xorg driver source and figure out how it got broken.
Related:
- How to enable 3D acceleration with Sis Vga 771/671 on Ubuntu 12.04
- Ubuntu 14.04 screen resolution too low (SiS 671 graphics card)
- How to install SiS 671/771 Video Drivers in ubuntu?
- How to install SiS 771/671 video drivers on 13.10?