Could Any of You Guys Help Me With A Linux LiveUSB Error?

RazorWolf19 · February 18, 2016

Hey guys,

So, its been a while since I've been active on this website, and, honestly, the only reason I'm posting here as opposed to an official Linux forum is convenience. This account already exists so I might as well use it.

Here's the deal: I have an old computer (Windows XP era) that I am attempting to install Linux on for my father to use for web browsing and potentially document writing (LibreOffice is included). The old HDD was an 80GB WD IDE drive with Windows XP SP3 + all updates on it. Honestly, I'm kind of attached to XP, so I didn't want to wipe it. Since the HDD was so small, I decided to get a second one; this one is a SATA-based 1TB WD Blue. I have purchased adapters and installed all of the new hardware - I also tested everything and it is confirmed functional; there are no hardware errors and the original Windows XP install still functions correctly. So I know everything is okay as of this point.

Now here's the issue: every time I attempt to install a Linux distro, I get a different graphical error. I have tried multiple distros, multiple editions of each distro, and I even went as far as to burn a CD to install from. All of this to no avail. I thought that maybe the mounted distros were corrupted, so I attempted to live boot on a laptop and it worked correctly, so that's not the issue. Then I thought that my 16GB USB was too large for the old hardware to handle, so I re-mounted the ISO on a 4GB stick; same issue.

I honestly don't know what to do anymore, if I can't install Linux on this machine, its only really good for nostalgia. Windows XP, as much as I love it, is simply not a viable option for a computer that is mainly in existence for web browsing, especially since its for an old man who doesn't really have a handle on what is / isn't a virus.

For anyone who may be able to help me, I want to describe the errors. Keep in mind that it cannot be a hardware issue since Windows XP runs just fine. Now, on boot to either the LiveOS or directly to the installer, I see many horizontal lines shooting across the screen. All of the elements present appear to "jump" up and down, almost as if the monitor is breaking. The graphical glitches vary from distro to distro, oddly enough. For example, Zorin OS (Windows 7 -like) experiences this "jumping" most aggressively. I tried the Core (Standard) and Light editions of Zorin OS and they experienced the same trouble. Conversely, LXLE (a very light OS designed for old computers; Lubuntu - based) DOES experience this "jump," but more evidently displays vertical bars. These bars seem to have been lifted from the left side of the screen and dropped to the right (and vice - versa). The effect is that a window in the middle of the screen will be missing slices that will appear, magically almost, translated several inches to the left and / or right of the screen. These bars even update in real time.

Now, I don't know how helpful that was, but I tried my best. I just have one last thing to say: on boot, I receive errors from the terminal, I don't know what they mean - its all gibberish to me. I have recorded my screen when they popped up, however, so I'm going to copy it all out over here. Hopefully, someone can make sense of it:

[

34.044144] sis630_smbus 0000:00:02.0: SIS630 compatible bus not detected, module (the screen cut off at this point, the rest of this line cannot be read, unfortunately)

[

36.758384] ata3.00: exception Emask 0x100 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x6

36.758403] ata3.00: failed command: SET FEATURES

36.758416] ata3.00: cmd ef/05:fe:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 tag 0

36.758416] res 51/04:fe:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/40 Emask 0x1 (device error)

36.7584534] ata3.00: status: { DRDY ERR }

That's all. I really hope someone could lend a hand. Thanks.

Edited February 18, 2016 by RazorWolf19

HebaruSan · February 18, 2016

My advice is to post what kind of graphics card this is and a photo or video of the screen when it's doing this. We might be able to find a thread on a Linux forum where someone already reported the problem if we can piece together the right keywords.

steve_v · February 18, 2016

Yeah, hardware specs needed - particularly GPU. My guess is this machine includes an ancient and slightly unusual graphics adapter.

I assume the graphical corruption only occurs in X, not at the CLI?
Up the contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log and the output of 'lspci' so we can see what hardware you have and what driver it's loading.
IIRC, there are issues with the current driver (or lack thereof) for older SiS video - the mention of sis630_smbus makes me suspect SiS motherboard chipset, so perhaps SiS video too?
All those distros likely use the same X release, so the same GPU driver with the same problems.
It may be worth trying the generic VESA driver, you won't get any acceleration but it should work with anything.

OTOH, if it'll take a cheap AGP/PCI graphics card (and you have a junk-box containing such items), this could be an excuse for installing something better.

The sis630_smbus not detected warning isn't a problem AFAICT, blacklist the driver if the message bothers you.

The ata SET_FEATURES error is probably due to the (I assume) use of a PATA to SATA adapter... is this drive otherwise working?

Edited February 18, 2016 by steve_v

RazorWolf19 · February 18, 2016

19 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

My advice is to post what kind of graphics card this is and a photo or video of the screen when it's doing this. We might be able to find a thread on a Linux forum where someone already reported the problem if we can piece together the right keywords.

The GPU is an integrated chip, no dedicated card. This is the motherboard page. If you navigate to the "Specification" tab, you'll find that the board runs "Integrated SiS Ultra256 2D/3D Graphics"

Thanks for responding.

RazorWolf19 · February 18, 2016

18 hours ago, steve_v said:

Yeah, hardware specs needed - particularly GPU. My guess is this machine includes an ancient and slightly unusual graphics adapter.

I assume the graphical corruption only occurs in X, not at the CLI?
Up the contents of /var/log/Xorg.0.log and the output of 'lspci' so we can see what hardware you have and what driver it's loading.
IIRC, there are issues with the current driver (or lack thereof) for older SiS video - the mention of sis630_smbus makes me suspect SiS motherboard chipset, so perhaps SiS video too?
All those distros likely use the same X release, so the same GPU driver with the same problems.
It may be worth trying the generic VESA driver, you won't get any acceleration but it should work with anything.

OTOH, if it'll take a cheap AGP/PCI graphics card (and you have a junk-box containing such items), this could be an excuse for installing something better.

The sis630_smbus not detected warning isn't a problem AFAICT, blacklist the driver if the message bothers you.

The ata SET_FEATURES error is probably due to the (I assume) use of a PATA to SATA adapter... is this drive otherwise working?

I mentioned the GPU in my other reply, check there for the motherboard manufacturer's website - if you're so inclined.

Could you explain what you mean by, "I assume the graphical corruption only occurs in X, not at the CLI?" I'm not particularly understanding of the lingo. This is, afterall, my first dive into anything non-windows.

Also, it was my understanding that,since drivers are installed from a CD, that they are stored on the HDD? If so, there shouldn't be any drivers installed yet because I'm booting into the LiveUSB environment. Correct me if I'm wrong, I'd love to learn if you're willing to teach me.

Additionally, could you tell me where I could attain a generic VESA driver? Is it built in? Again, I'm sorry if these are stupid questions, I'm not too knowledgeable in this area.

Now, on the topic of another, dedicated GPU. I do have one, actually. However, the card seems to have been manufactured from some no-name company.I can't find download pages anywhere for drivers, save for single driver on https://driverscollection.com, which I have been told is trustworthy. If it helps, the GPU has this identification on it: "AG315p - 64 v1.1"

As for the HDD, yes its fully functional. I saw the "ata3.00" error and thought that perhaps the HDD was damaged in shipping. Not the case, however. I ran Ultimate Boot CD off a USB and tested RAM (Memtest x86) with no errors, GPU with no errors, and then I ran both the short and full tests on the HDD from a WD-specific HDD checker; no errors. On top of that, I inserted my Windows XP SP2 installation disk to look for the same graphical stutters, but it ran well so I couldn't reproduce the issue. To the best of my knowledge, all of the hardware is fine.

EDIT: Just reread your post; it's not a PATA to SATA adapter. The board supports both IDE and SATA interface, the only adapter is a Molex to SATA Power. SATA Data is through a genuine SATA cable.

Thanks for replying; this stuff is really helpful, guys. I hope to converse more with both of you because I'm pretty hopeless on my own, honestly.

steve_v · February 19, 2016

3 hours ago, RazorWolf19 said:

"Integrated SiS Ultra256 2D/3D Graphics"

This is not a chipset, try 'lspci' to get the exact model and ask Google about the state of support. IME, all SiS GPUs are rubbish and support is somewhat flaky, but you might get lucky.

2 hours ago, RazorWolf19 said:

Could you explain what you mean by, "I assume the graphical corruption only occurs in X, not at the CLI?"

The GUI interface is your/your distros choice of Desktop Environment (Unity/Gnome/KDE etc.) running on top of the X window system, which in turn runs on GNU/Linux. When I say 'X' that's what I'm referring to.
CLI = Command Line Interface / console / terminal / VT / TTY. Switch to/between them with Ctrl-Alt-F1 through F12, how many are enabled depends on the distro. X will be running in one of these TTYs, usually #7 or 8.
A CLI is also what you get when you louse up X configuration , and it's the best place to be when debugging the GUI

Short version: corruption only in the GUI, CLI ok?
If so, then the problem is the sis driver shipped with X, and you have a functional CLI to fix it from.

2 hours ago, RazorWolf19 said:

Also, it was my understanding that,since drivers are installed from a CD, that they are stored on the HDD? If so, there shouldn't be any drivers installed yet because I'm booting into the LiveUSB environment.

Unlike Windows where drivers are provided by the hardware manufacturer, all Linux drivers are included in the kernel (all open-source drivers anyway, a few exceptions exist) Ergo, the livecd/usb has drivers included.

2 hours ago, RazorWolf19 said:

Additionally, could you tell me where I could attain a generic VESA driver?

Comes with X, on Debian derivatives it's in the 'xserver-xorg-video-vesa' package, and usually installed by default. You will have to enable it in /etc/X11/xorg.conf though, something like:

Section "Device"
    Identifier    "Name"
    Driver        "vesa"
EndSection

Note this is from memory, see 'man xorg.conf' for the full manual or search the web for examples. Many modern distros don't have this file at all, relying on autodetection - a somewhat sane template (in which you would just need to change the "Driver" line) can be generated by running 'xorg -configure' from the CLI.

Looks like the sis driver was removed from Debian some time ago for being horribly broken and unmaintained. It appears that Arch is still shipping it in some form though. Post xorg logs so I can see what driver you're actually running - it might be falling back to VESA already.

2 hours ago, RazorWolf19 said:

Now, on the topic of another, dedicated GPU. I do have one, actually.

As long as it's not something properly obscure, this may be easier than fighting the old buggy SiS driver... bung it in and check 'lspci' output to find out what it is.

2 hours ago, RazorWolf19 said:

As for the HDD, yes its fully functional.

Cool, it's not a fatal error anyway, probably trying to set some features the disk or hba doesn't support. Should be safe to ignore.

----

If you upload/pastebin the Xorg log and lspci output then there'll be less guessing.

HebaruSan · February 19, 2016

To try to sum that up slightly more accessibly, it looks like this PC is using hardware that is a bit too old and obscure to run well on a contemporary Linux system, but you might be able to work around some of the problems by using more simplified/standardized drivers.

In the grand olde days of MS-DOS, PCs had a non-graphical text mode, in which a default of 80x25 characters could be printed on the screen, usually white text on a black background, but with the ability to change both of those colors as well as the resolution. Linux inherited this capability and uses it for its virtual terminals, which @steve_v called "CLI" and which are available if you press ctrl-alt-F1 through F6, usually. No desktop Linux distribution that I know of uses this as its normal desktop environment, but they're usually still present in the background, and they sometimes show up in the installer that runs if you boot off a CD.

In the grand, slightly less olde days of Windows 3, you would boot into text mode DOS and then run a program to start Windows in graphical mode. X is a graphical platform based on the same concept, which is used by most if not all distributions to present a graphical desktop environment.

Boot off your live USB
Press ctrl-alt-F1, which should switch you to a text mode login prompt
Note whether the screen is messed up; if not, then "the graphical corruption occurs only in X" is confirmed
Log in
cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | nc termbin.com 9999
Report to us what that previous command says
lspci | nc termbin.com 9999
Report that as well

steve_v · February 19, 2016

9 minutes ago, HebaruSan said:

Linux inherited this capability

Well, to be fair, *nix had a CLI before DOS was around (early 1970s)... hence the reference to typewriters in the 'TTY' wikipedia link. So while Linux indeed 'inherited' it, it wasn't from DOS.

12 minutes ago, HebaruSan said:

nc termbin.com 9999

Cool trick, one I did not know about. I tend to use 'pastebinit', but yours works wherever there is netcat.

HebaruSan · February 19, 2016

Just now, steve_v said:

Well, to be fair, *nix had a CLI before DOS was around (early 1970s)... hence the reference to typewriters in the 'TTY' wikipedia link. So while Linux indeed 'inherited' it, it wasn't from DOS.

I guess both are true. Conceptually it's indeed inherited from Unix, 1973. I had more in mind the specific capability and quirks of the PC video hardware, which was first available under DOS and later used by Linux to re-implement what was available on the old PDP-10.

Just now, steve_v said:

Cool trick, one I did not know about. I tend to use 'pastebinit', but yours works wherever there is netcat.

Heh, I googled that just now and only tested it once. I really hope his system has netcat.

steve_v · February 19, 2016

One more thing worth mention: Pick a distro to work with, (i.e. the liveUSB you are using) and tell us what it is.

Ordinarily I'd suggest something common like Debian stable or Ubuntu LTS (particularly for older hardware) but in this case it may also be worth trying Arch Linux or an Arch-based distro, as it appears Arch still includes the SiS driver.

---

Do try the ideas posted so far, but TBH I think the easiest course of action is going to be installing a supported video card. Almost anything else would be less hassle and should cost practically nothing.

If you want to persevere with it, you may find someone else who has this hardware if you ask about your chipset on the appropriate forum for your distro.
If that distro happens to be Debian, I'll be over here from time to time too... but be sure you ask Smart Questions, because:

Quote

Debian forums strive for the charm and ambience of a skinhead bar in Bacau. We intend to keep it that way.

Edited February 19, 2016 by steve_v
Shameless plug for catb and dfn :P

RazorWolf19 · February 20, 2016

Guys, here is my Xorg.0.log on pastebin.

Also, most of the graphical corruption DOES indeed occur in X. Not all of it, however; it seems even the CLI experiences a bit of "jumpiness." The screen is occasionally interrupted by a little horizontal strip of white pixels. They don't even cover the whole screen and only last for a fraction of a second; its mostly fine, but I'm curious as to why its there at all. Additionally, I typed lspci into the CLI, but I have no idea where to find its log to show you guys the output.

Thanks again.

BTW: The chipset is also on the manufacturer's website, which I linked earlier.

Edited February 21, 2016 by RazorWolf19

HebaruSan · February 21, 2016

7 hours ago, RazorWolf19 said:

The screen is occasionally interrupted by a little horizontal strip of white pixels. They don't even cover the whole screen and only last for a fraction of a second; its mostly fine, but I'm curious as to why its there at all.

Huh. Check out lines 180-185 of your log (emphasis mine). A number of other people have asked about "Dear SiS76x user" on other forums, and at least one of them reports that lowering the color depth or the refresh rate (he didn't say which) helped. Can you try that?

Dear SiS76x user, your machine is using a shared memory framebuffer.
Due to hardware limitations of the SiS chip in combination with the
AMD CPU, video overlay support is very limited on this machine. If you
experience flashing lines in the video and/or the graphics display
during video playback, reduce the color depth and/or the resolution
and/or the refresh rate. Alternatively, use the video blitter.

RazorWolf19 · February 23, 2016

On 2/21/2016 at 1:39 AM, HebaruSan said:

Huh. Check out lines 180-185 of your log (emphasis mine). A number of other people have asked about "Dear SiS76x user" on other forums, and at least one of them reports that lowering the color depth or the refresh rate (he didn't say which) helped. Can you try that?

Dear SiS76x user, your machine is using a shared memory framebuffer.

Due to hardware limitations of the SiS chip in combination with the

AMD CPU, video overlay support is very limited on this machine. If you

experience flashing lines in the video and/or the graphics display

during video playback, reduce the color depth and/or the resolution

and/or the refresh rate. Alternatively, use the video blitter.

WOW!

Lowering colour depth was the answer, it seems. Everything's working fine now, thanks. I installed the OS and have customized the desktop to my liking, the system appears to be stable.

Thank you so much, really. There's no way Google could have helped me in the way you have.

There's just one thing...

When I installed Chrome, I received a message on top of my browser telling me that Chrome will be dropping support for 32-bit Linux machines in March of this year - which is about a week or two's time from now. This isn't as bad as it seems, however, because I just happen to have another processor that fits the same socket; that one is 64-bit (and at a slightly faster clock rate, too). So, I guess I'll just upgrade the CPU and reinstall Linux, but this time in 64-bit. I'll probably have to go through the same trouble again, but at least now I'll know how to deal with it, right?

Since I'm on the topic, is there any reason as to why my browser runs so slowly? Now, I understand that this is an old machine, and my internet isn't top of the line, either, but even when I run Chrome in Windows XP (on the same physical computer) it is significantly more usable. Pages on this version of Chrome regularly take 5 - 10 seconds to load. The CPU is a 1.8 GHz AMD Sempron (apparantly "mobile", for some reason), and the one I want to upgrade to is a 2.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 (not even sure if it works, honestly - but it'll have to do).

Do you think this upgrade will make any noticeable difference? It is only 200 MHz extra, after all.

Thanks a bunch.

steve_v · February 23, 2016

Looks like the answer was in the logs after all, in plain english even.

On 20/02/2016 at 0:02 PM, RazorWolf19 said:

I typed lspci into the CLI, but I have no idea where to find its log to show you guys the output.

FWIW, you can use *nix pipes (|) and redirects (<>) with any CLI application, e.g. 'lspci > /tmp/lspci.txt' to save output to a text file, 'lspci | nc termbin.com 9999' or 'lspci | pastebinit' to upload it to a pastebin etc.

Not sure on the browser slowness though, I don't use Chrome.
If disk / cache is the bottleneck, you might try mounting /tmp as tmpfs (if it isn't already) and possibly chrome's profile / temp directories too. Here's a lazy link to the Arch wiki on the subject.

Edited February 23, 2016 by steve_v

HebaruSan · February 23, 2016

2 hours ago, RazorWolf19 said:

WOW!

Lowering colour depth was the answer, it seems. Everything's working fine now, thanks. I installed the OS and have customized the desktop to my liking, the system appears to be stable.

Thank you so much, really. There's no way Google could have helped me in the way you have.

Cool! You're welcome, and I'm glad you're up and running. For what it's worth, nearly every Linux problem I've had follows that same pattern: check whatever output is available, find a string that sounds like it would be specific to the problem, google it, and find people talking about how to solve it.

2 hours ago, RazorWolf19 said:

There's just one thing...

I'm sorry, but I don't know too much about tuning Chrome's performance or 32-bit systems. The easiest thing would probably be to try another browser or two to see whether they're any better. I'd probably give Firefox a shot first.

RazorWolf19 · February 24, 2016

22 hours ago, steve_v said:

Looks like the answer was in the logs after all, in plain english even.

FWIW, you can use *nix pipes (|) and redirects (<>) with any CLI application, e.g. 'lspci > /tmp/lspci.txt' to save output to a text file, 'lspci | nc termbin.com 9999' or 'lspci | pastebinit' to upload it to a pastebin etc.

Not sure on the browser slowness though, I don't use Chrome.
If disk / cache is the bottleneck, you might try mounting /tmp as tmpfs (if it isn't already) and possibly chrome's profile / temp directories too. Here's a lazy link to the Arch wiki on the subject.

Thanks for letting me know - you two are better than Google, I swear. I'll read up on that Arch Wiki article for my own curiosity.

Good stuff, thanks again, Steve.

20 hours ago, HebaruSan said:

Cool! You're welcome, and ...

Don't worry about it; I'll either figure something out myself or otherwise just live with it. In any case, you've been more than helpful -

Thanks again.

I guess I'll see you around, then.

Could Any of You Guys Help Me With A Linux LiveUSB Error?

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