problematic Intel PMA500/Poulsbo graphic chip in a Dell Inspiron Mini black laptop

[peerlaan]

Hardwareell Inspiron Mini 1010 with the Intel Poulsbo graphic chip
Software = Linux

openSUSE 11.2 (i586)
kernel 2.6.31.12-0.2-desktop i686
4.3.5 (KDE 4.3.5) "release 0"

My graphic chip and sax2 only accepts 800x576, nothing can be changed at all.
I read forums about supporting the Poulsbo chip (mainly used by Dell and Sony-Vaio) as far as it concerns the Linux distributions. Only Ubuntu and Fedora seem to work.
The Fedora guy told just to install the xorg-x11-drv-psb, restart, and everything works fine.
Well, this is certainly not for openSUSE 11.2.
Although Intel is now promising to make drivers for other distributions, several files seem to be messy (also on the Phoronix site).

E.g. I downloaded from:

http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/lkundrak:/poulsbo/openSUSE_11.2_Update/

the rpm files:
xorg-x11-drv-psb-0.31.0-1.1.i586.rpm
and its necessary dependencies
libdrm-poulsbo-2.3.0-12.1.i586.rpm
psb-firmware-0.30-3.1.noarch.rpm
xpsb-glx-0.18-6.1.i686.rpm

installed them and then after restarting the X-server did not start up anymore. So, indeed messy.
Someone from another told me to download and install psb-kmp-desktop-4.41.1_2.6.31.12_0.2-6.4.i586.rpm (for the kernel) from the same repository, but still the X-server does not start up.

I was also told about the xorg-x11-drv-psb that

Next I note an /etc/modprobe.d/poulsbo.conf file. This is tricky. As of openSUSE-11.2 files that do NOT start with a number in /etc/modprobe.d/ are ignored as far as I know. In openSUSE-11.1 and early, any such file was loaded but thats not the case in 11.2. What exactly is IN that poulsbo.conf file? Maybe if deemed useful it could be renamed so that 11.2 will recognize it. As it is now, that file is, I believe, useless.

This is not pretty, and it appears this 11.2 package has never been tested on 11.2 as that /etc/modprobe.d/poulsbo.conf file makes no sense to me.

The rpm:

rpm -qp xorg-x11-drv-psb-0.31.0-1.1.i586.rpm -l
warning: xorg-x11-drv-psb-0.31.0-1.1.i586.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 5711cba2
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/poulsbo.conf
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/libmm.so
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/psb_drv.so
/usr/share/man/man4/psb.4.gz

That xorg.conf file is in danger of being re-written by sax2 !!

Some extra information:
my /var/log/Xorg.0.log file only mentions (II) VESA (no FBDEV or any other system) - so there's no Intel at all
and

rpm -qa '*driver*'
xorg-x11-driver-video-radeonhd-1.3.0_20100216_79a0ab2-0.1.1.i586
cups-drivers-1.3.9-4.1.i586
xorg-x11-driver-video-7.4-87.91.1.i586
xorg-x11-driver-input-7.4-39.2.1.i586

and

rpm -q Mesa
Mesa-7.6-3.1.i586

and

# sax2 -p
Chip: 0 is -> VESA Vesa-BIOS Graphics 00:02:0 0x8086 0x8108 PCI vesa

My /etc/X11/xorg.conf reads as follows (screen etc.):

Section "Monitor"
DisplaySize 305 229
HorizSync 30-50
Identifier "Monitor[0]"
ModelName "BP099 B101AW1 LCD MONITOR"
Option "PreferredMode" "1024x576"
VendorName "AUO"
VertRefresh 50-60
UseModes "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Modes"
Identifier "Modes[0]"
EndSection


Section "Screen"
DefaultDepth 16
SubSection "Display"
Depth 15
Modes "1024x576"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "1024x576"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x576"
EndSubSection
SubSection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "1024x576"
EndSubSection
Device "Device[0]"
Identifier "Screen[0]"
Monitor "Monitor[0]"
EndSection

Section "Device"
BoardName "Vesa-BIOS Graphics"
Driver "vesa"
Identifier "Device[0]"
Screen 0
VendorName "VESA"
EndSection

and the xorg-x11-drv-psb reads as follows:

rpm -qp xorg-x11-drv-psb-0.31.0-1.1.i586.rpm -l
waarschuwing: xorg-x11-drv-psb-0.31.0-1.1.i586.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 5711cba2
/etc/X11/xorg.conf
/etc/modprobe.d/poulsbo.conf
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/libmm.so
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/psb_drv.so
/usr/share/man/man4/psb.4.gz

My /etc/modprobe.d/poulsbo.conf just reads as follows:

alias pci:v00008086d00008108sv*sd*bc*sc*i* psb
alias pci:v00008086d00008109sv*sd*bc*sc*i* psb

Now what can I do to solve the problem finally, the drivers for openSUSE are messy and causes the X-server not starting up properly.
Someone advised me to contact the Phoronix forum, as there might be a proper solution.

Do I have to compile something for openSUSE 11.2 esp. for /etc/modprobe.d/poulsbo.conf, re-install the psb rpms including the psb kmp (kernel) file maybe, I really don't know, but I definitely hope without a non-starting X-server.
But don't forget

/etc/modprobe.d/poulsbo.conf file. This is trickly. As of openSUSE-11.2 files that do NOT start with a number in /etc/modprobe.d/ are ignored as far as I know. In openSUSE-11.1 and early, any such file was loaded but thats not the case in 11.2. What exactly is IN that poulsbo.conf file? Maybe if deemed useful it could be renamed so that 11.2 will recognize it. As it is now, that file is, I believe, useless.

A long story, but I do hope it can be solved finally.
Many many thanks.