#21 2018-02-03 21:01:54

sexynsmartjenny

Member

From: Boston, MA

Registered: 2016-07-17

Posts: 161

Re: upgrade graphic drivers in linux?

^ If its a laptop, it could be a backlight issue as well.

Yes, it's a lapttop, what's a backlight issue.

@Head_on_a_stick, I will start another thread if the problem continue.

sexynsmartjenny

Member

From: Boston, MA

Registered: 2016-07-17

Posts: 161

Re: upgrade graphic drivers in linux?

This is a problem I had after I upgraded my video driver, see thread here https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=4587

So basically, when my laptop is idle for a certain amount of time, the screens go blank. But my current problem is, once it goes blank, it can never come back. There will just be a single dash line blinking on my screen and no matter what I press, I can't even go to a TTY screen, just nothing works, and I had to press the power button to force it shut down.

Head_on_a_Stick

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From: London

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 9,093

Website

Re: upgrade graphic drivers in linux?

Sorry, I meant that a new thread might be needed for the "inodes" error, not the "blank screen" problem.

The inode error message may not mean anything anyway, please use https://packages.debian.org/stretch/gsmartcontrol to confirm that there is an actual problem before opening a new thread.

EDIT: the inode errors are probably because you tried a hard reset.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2018-02-03 22:37:32)

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Head_on_a_Stick

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From: London

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 9,093

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Re: upgrade graphic drivers in linux?

my current problem is, once it goes blank, it can never come back. There will just be a single dash line blinking on my screen and no matter what I press, I can't even go to a TTY screen, just nothing works

So <Ctrl>+<Alt>+F3 doesn't work?

If not then you will have to either disable screen blanking completely or try different video drivers ASAP.

I had to press the power button to force it shut down

...and that probably explains the inode error message

Doing that any more than once or twice will permanently corrupt your filesystem (unless you use btrfs), are you fully backed up?

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sexynsmartjenny

Member

From: Boston, MA

Registered: 2016-07-17

Posts: 161

Re: upgrade graphic drivers in linux?

So <Ctrl>+<Alt>+F3 doesn't work?

yes, once it goes blank, even <Ctrl>+<Alt>+F3 doesn't work

so should I try different video drivers then? How should I proceed? What do you suggest I do? I am not backed up at all.

But my matlab is working now and if I uninstall the video driver, I need to find another video driver.

Last edited by sexynsmartjenny (2018-02-04 01:42:15)

stevep

MX Linux Developer

Registered: 2016-08-08

Posts: 381

Re: upgrade graphic drivers in linux?

There's a newer version of the fglrx-driver in the jessie-backports repository (backports.org).  But no guarantee that will fix the screen-blanking issue.

You can also install inxi and run

inxi -G

to see what current version of openGL you have supported now.  What it reports depends on your video hardware and driver.

tknomanzr

BL Die Hard

From: Around the Bend

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 1,057

Re: upgrade graphic drivers in linux?

^ I would just disable the screen power management and if you set up a swap file, set it to hibernate after a period of time.

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Head_on_a_Stick

Member

From: London

Registered: 2015-09-29

Posts: 9,093

Website

Re: upgrade graphic drivers in linux?

What do you suggest I do?

We can try the backported drivers, as stevep suggests.

It should be as simple as

sudo aptitude install -t jessie-backports fglrx-driver

But please post back immediately if `aptitude` starts asking tricky questions and if the command completes, make sure that it was successful by running this afterwards:

echo $?

This shows the error status of the last command and it should be zero (0) — this means that the command worked and the new driver was built.

I am not backed up at all.

You should back up any and all important data as a matter of urgent priority, don't do anything else until you have a working backup strategy in place.

my matlab is working now and if I uninstall the video driver, I need to find another video driver

The newer backported fglrx-driver package should offer improved performance for MATLAB.

If all else fails we could try helium-dev, the amdgpu driver is available there and should be significantly better again (if it works with your card).

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