# FreeBSD 9.0: startx fails with Ivy Brigde



## Kringel (Nov 4, 2012)

I just installed FreeBSD 9.0 on a machine with Ivy Bridge (i7-3770K). After installing xorg I get the following error from startx(1):

```
Fatal server error:
AddScreen/ScreenInit failed for driver 0
```

See the full log on pastebin.

Searching the net I found out that the Ivy Brigde GPU is not yet supported by FreeBSD (but will be with 9.1).

But I wonder what is going wrong: The vesa driver seems to be loaded successfully and there is only one (EE) line telling fbdev could not be loaded. So what leads to the fatal error? Why doesn't it just start with the vesa driver?

Is there a painless way to get xorg working?


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## darcsis (Nov 6, 2012)

works here.

I have got an ivy bridge i5 3210m with hd4000 plus a nvidia external display card.
I disabled nvidia optimus mode in BIOS and everything works fine either with hd4000 or with the nvidia card, but not with both(i.e. optimus mode).


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## Kringel (Nov 6, 2012)

So something has to be wrong with my setup? But I just did a fresh install...

I tried again after installing the fbdev driver. It resulted in two new error lines:

```
(EE) LoadModule: Module fbdevhw does not have a fbdevhwModuleData data object.
(II) UnloadModule: "fbdevhw"
(II) Unloading /usr/local/lib/xorg/modules/linux/libfbdevhw.so
(EE) Failed to load module "fbdevhw" (invalid module, 0)
```
Full log on pastebin.

Xorg --configure also fails because of a driver problem. Any help appreciated


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## wblock@ (Nov 7, 2012)

Short version: 9.0 was before the Intel KMS stuff.  Upgrade by source to 9-STABLE, or install a 9-STABLE snapshot.


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## Kringel (Nov 8, 2012)

I just tested with world and kernel from RELENG_9: Still the same problem.

Do I have to rebuild xorg or some parts of it to make them recognize the new features?


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## wblock@ (Nov 9, 2012)

Yes, and add a couple of entries to /etc/make.conf first.  There are threads here about doing that, but I don't know which one is the most current.


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## Kringel (Nov 9, 2012)

Damn! I saw that information before but my rusty brain refused to recall it the moment it was relevant :\

Thank you. After rebuilding xorg and its drivers it works.

It is very bad that currently there is no way to get back from X to the virtual terminals. Also I do not understand why X didn't use the vesa driver when the new intel stuff was missing. But that's probably something I have to live with at the moment.


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## ahavatar (Nov 9, 2012)

Kringel, how stable is it? And I'd like to hear your impression on its 2D and 3D performance. Thanks.


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## Kringel (Nov 10, 2012)

I have used it for around two days.

The good things:

it works: no crash, no screen artifacts
no problems with my dual monitor setup, xrandr works
Performance is good. I did no benchmarking but I tried nexuiz and xonotic and they felt as smooth as on linux.

The bad things:

At the moment it is not possible to switch to a virtual console. Once you started X you are trapped in graphics mode until the next reboot. So far my desktop worked without problems, so I can live with that and just use a terminal window instead.


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## Beastie (Nov 10, 2012)

Kringel said:
			
		

> The bad things:
> 
> At the moment it is not possible to switch to a virtual console. Once you started X you are trapped in graphics mode until the next reboot.


But you can always shutdown Xorg using your window manager/desktop environment, no? Or does this just give you a black screen where you can only type but not see what you're typing?


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## Kringel (Nov 11, 2012)

Beastie said:
			
		

> But you can always shutdown Xorg using your window manager/desktop environment, no? Or does this just give you a black screen where you can only type but not see what you're typing?



Exactly. Exiting X gives a black screen. Switching to a vt while it runs does mess up some colors instead of showing a terminal (but you can switch back to the vt with X and continue working in graphics mode). In both cases the input works. You just dont see anything


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