CentOS - Feb 2014 - Old harware (intel 82845G card) stopped working after update (centos 6)

Hello.  I apology in advance if I am not reporting things correctly,
but my knowledge about these things is very limited.

I have five Transtec computers, approximately born in July 2005; they
have an intel 82845G video card.

The last 'yum update' was on January 30, 2014.  I did not reboot the
machines at that time.  I cannot be sure about the date of the 'yum
update' preceding that one, but I think is was on September 7, 2013.

Last Friday (February 14, 2014), 4 of those 5 computers stopped
working properly after some action on them.

The problem is: black screen with only the arrow of the mouse (mouse
is working correctly :-).  Apart from that, the computers are OK: one
can use Ctrl-Alt-F1, etc.

For sure, one of the action which led to the problem was a reboot.  I
cannot be 100% sure about the action, which was simply a change of
screen: the machine was OK; then I changed the screen; it did not work
any more; then I rebooted. But my experience is that, sometimes, even
under normal condition, it does not work right away, or perhaps not at
all, after changing the screen.

The 5th computer, on which nothing has been done, is still working
just fine.

NB: for sure, there has been at least one reboot on at least one of
the 5 machines between September (or whatever date at which the
previous 'yum update' has been performed) and January, and the problem
did not show up.

For what it's worth, the following 2 packages are installed:

xorg-x11-drv-intel-devel-2.21.12-2.el6.i686
xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.21.12-2.el6.i686

Also, here is the output of 'lspci | grep 82845':

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM
Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 01)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE
Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)

Based on the data, my best guess is that the problem I have is due to
some recent change in the centos packages.  Perhaps it was supposed to
be so? (I.e., no longer supporting old hardware?).  If so, at any
rate, I'll be grateful if someone can suggest a workaround, or perhaps
a hint towards that goal.

Regards,
Alain


-- 
EOST (?cole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre) 
IPG (Institut de Physique du Globe) | alain.cochard at unistra.fr
5 rue Ren? Descartes   [bureau 106] | Phone: +33 (0)3 68 85 50 44 
F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France    | Fax:   +33 (0)3 68 85 01 25     







-- 
EOST (?cole et Observatoire des Sciences de la Terre) 
IPG (Institut de Physique du Globe) | alain.cochard at unistra.fr
5 rue Ren? Descartes   [bureau 106] | Phone: +33 (0)3 68 85 50 44 
F-67084 Strasbourg Cedex, France    | Fax:   +33 (0)3 68 85 01 25

On 2/17/2014 6:20 AM, Alain.Cochard at unistra.fr wrote:
> I have five Transtec computers, approximately born in July 2005; they
> have an intel 82845G video card.
that chipset was new in 2002, and already bordering on obsolete by 2005 
(Intel ended all support for the 845 in December 2005).   It supported 
Pentium-4 "Northwood" CPUs, which were 32bit only, via socket 478 and 
first generation DDR SDRAM PC133.

its quite likely that stuff that old is no longer being tested for 
compatibility with new builds.


-- 
john r pierce                                      37N 122W
somewhere on the middle of the left coast

Running current bits on ancient hardware is always risky.

Test first with LiveCD.  Or better yet, stay back with known working bits.


On 02/17/2014 09:20 AM, Alain.Cochard at unistra.fr
wrote:
> Hello.  I apology in advance if I am not reporting things correctly,
> but my knowledge about these things is very limited.
>
> I have five Transtec computers, approximately born in July 2005; they
> have an intel 82845G video card.
>
> The last 'yum update' was on January 30, 2014.  I did not reboot
the
> machines at that time.  I cannot be sure about the date of the 'yum
> update' preceding that one, but I think is was on September 7, 2013.
>
> Last Friday (February 14, 2014), 4 of those 5 computers stopped
> working properly after some action on them.
>
> The problem is: black screen with only the arrow of the mouse (mouse
> is working correctly :-).  Apart from that, the computers are OK: one
> can use Ctrl-Alt-F1, etc.
>
> For sure, one of the action which led to the problem was a reboot.  I
> cannot be 100% sure about the action, which was simply a change of
> screen: the machine was OK; then I changed the screen; it did not work
> any more; then I rebooted. But my experience is that, sometimes, even
> under normal condition, it does not work right away, or perhaps not at
> all, after changing the screen.
>
> The 5th computer, on which nothing has been done, is still working
> just fine.
>
> NB: for sure, there has been at least one reboot on at least one of
> the 5 machines between September (or whatever date at which the
> previous 'yum update' has been performed) and January, and the
problem
> did not show up.
>
> For what it's worth, the following 2 packages are installed:
>
> xorg-x11-drv-intel-devel-2.21.12-2.el6.i686
> xorg-x11-drv-intel-2.21.12-2.el6.i686
>
> Also, here is the output of 'lspci | grep 82845':
>
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE/PE DRAM
Controller/Host-Hub Interface (rev 01)
> 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation
82845G/GL[Brookdale-G]/GE Chipset Integrated Graphics Device (rev 01)
>
> Based on the data, my best guess is that the problem I have is due to
> some recent change in the centos packages.  Perhaps it was supposed to
> be so? (I.e., no longer supporting old hardware?).  If so, at any
> rate, I'll be grateful if someone can suggest a workaround, or perhaps
> a hint towards that goal.
>
> Regards,
> Alain
>
>