16

New and Hopefully more clear question

this is NOT a question about some system information program

I NEED to know what framebuffer modes I can add in grub configuration without starting to calculate stuff and testing 1000 command lines (therefore 1000 reboots), as far as I know hwinfo can actually detect those modes

so, what I actually need is (cutting from hwinfo --framebuffer example command below), as you can see is a mode followed by a resolution, and that's all the resolutions this video card support

 Mode 0x033c: 1920x1440 (+1920), 8 bits
  Mode 0x034d: 1920x1440 (+3840), 16 bits
  Mode 0x033a: 1600x1200 (+1600), 8 bits
  Mode 0x034b: 1600x1200 (+3200), 16 bits
  Mode 0x035a: 1600x1200 (+6400), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0307: 1280x1024 (+1280), 8 bits
  Mode 0x031a: 1280x1024 (+2560), 16 bits
  Mode 0x031b: 1280x1024 (+5120), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0305: 1024x768 (+1024), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0317: 1024x768 (+2048), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0318: 1024x768 (+4096), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0312: 640x480 (+2560), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0314: 800x600 (+1600), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0315: 800x600 (+3200), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0301: 640x480 (+640), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0303: 800x600 (+800), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0311: 640x480 (+1280), 16 bits

then I can pick whatever resolution I please, add it to kernel and be sure it will work with no other testing

Later Edit:

PLEASE "dig" your own answer before posting

both this commands return no result

lshw | grep -i frame
lshw | grep -i buffer

lshw knows NOTHING about frame buffer

likewise:

unset DISPLAY
hardinfo 2>&1 | grep -i frame

likewise lspci

conclusion: seems like no one here actually understand what my command actually does ... nasty, remaking the question (check on top)

Start the orginal question:

hwinfo
No command 'hwinfo' found, did you mean:
 Command 'hinfo' from package 'ganeti-htools' (universe)
hwinfo: command not found

apt-get install hwinfo

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Package hwinfo is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'hwinfo' has no installation candidate

more exactly I need the result of the following command: (this is from an older system on which hwinfo is still working)

hwinfo --framebuffer
> hal.1: read hal dataprocess 25433: arguments to dbus_move_error() were incorrect, assertion "(dest) == NULL || !dbus_error_is_set ((dest))" failed in file ../../dbus/dbus-errors.c line 282.
This is normally a bug in some application using the D-Bus library.
libhal.c 3483 : Error unsubscribing to signals, error=The name org.freedesktop.Hal was not provided by any .service files
02: None 00.0: 11001 VESA Framebuffer                           
  [Created at bios.464]
  Unique ID: rdCR.CkkMzksiCyE
  Hardware Class: framebuffer
  Model: "Intel(r)865G Graphics Controller"
  Vendor: "Intel Corporation"
  Device: "Intel(r)865G Graphics Controller"
  SubVendor: "Intel(r)865G Graphics Chip Accelerated VGA BIOS"
  SubDevice: 
  Revision: "Hardware Version 0.0"
  Memory Size: 7 MB + 832 kB
  Memory Range: 0xf0000000-0xf07cffff (rw)
  Mode 0x033c: 1920x1440 (+1920), 8 bits
  Mode 0x034d: 1920x1440 (+3840), 16 bits
  Mode 0x033a: 1600x1200 (+1600), 8 bits
  Mode 0x034b: 1600x1200 (+3200), 16 bits
  Mode 0x035a: 1600x1200 (+6400), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0307: 1280x1024 (+1280), 8 bits
  Mode 0x031a: 1280x1024 (+2560), 16 bits
  Mode 0x031b: 1280x1024 (+5120), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0305: 1024x768 (+1024), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0317: 1024x768 (+2048), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0318: 1024x768 (+4096), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0312: 640x480 (+2560), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0314: 800x600 (+1600), 16 bits
  Mode 0x0315: 800x600 (+3200), 24 bits
  Mode 0x0301: 640x480 (+640), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0303: 800x600 (+800), 8 bits
  Mode 0x0311: 640x480 (+1280), 16 bits
  Config Status: cfg=new, avail=yes, need=no, active=unknown
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1
  • 5
    Which Ubuntu version do you currently use? 12.04? 14.04? 15.04?
    – Byte Commander ♦
    Aug 18, 2015 at 14:47

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
10

hwinfo in Ubuntu 12.04 has been discontinued in Ubuntu 14.04, but later it was recontinued in Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 16.04 and onwards. In Ubuntu 14.04 hwinfo can be installed as follows:

  1. Download libhd21 dependency package for hwinfo matching your OS's architecture from Debian Package: libhd21 (21.6-1).

  2. Download hwinfo_21.6-1 matching your OS's architecture package from http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/h/hwinfo/

  3. Double click on the libhd21 package that you downloaded to open it for installation in the Ubuntu Software Center.

  4. Now that the dependency package has been installed, double click on the hwinfo package that you downloaded to open it for installation in the Ubuntu Software Center.

  5. hwinfo can now be run from the terminal, including the framebuffer option which can be run using the command: hwinfo --framebuffer For information about other hwinfo options run: man hwinfo

These steps were tested on Ubuntu 14.04.

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2
  • Maybe you can add discover. The manpage of hwinfo references it.
    – Byte Commander ♦
    Aug 18, 2015 at 14:53
  • 1
    Doesn't look like discontinued completely. At least looks like reborn since Wily: Wily, Xenial, Yakkety have it back.
    – Ruslan
    Aug 24, 2016 at 9:54
6

  • fbset - show and modify frame buffer device settings

    sudo apt-get install fbset

    Example output sudo fbset -i

    mode "1920x1200-77"
    # D: 230.415 MHz, H: 94.743 kHz, V: 77.404 Hz
    geometry 1920 1200 1920 1200 32
    timings 4340 240 32 16 4 240 4
    rgba 8/16,8/8,8/0,8/24
endmode

Frame buffer device information:
    Name        : VESA VGA
    Address     : 0xf9000000
    Size        : 9240576
    Type        : PACKED PIXELS
    Visual      : TRUECOLOR
    XPanStep    : 0
    YPanStep    : 0
    YWrapStep   : 0
    LineLength  : 7680
    Accelerator : No

  • xrandr – primitive command line interface to RandR extension

    Example output xrandr

    Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 1920 x 1200, maximum 8192 x 8192
DVI-I-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
TV-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
DVI-I-2 connected primary 1920x1200+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 518mm x 324mm
   1920x1200      60.0*+
   1920x1080      60.0  
   1680x1050      60.0  
   1600x1200      60.0  
   1440x900       59.9  
   1280x1024      60.0  
   1280x960       60.0  
   1280x720       60.0  
   1024x768       60.0  
   800x600        60.3  
   640x480        59.9

  • lspci - list all PCI devices

    Example output lspci | awk '/VGA/ {system("lspci -v -s " $1)}'

    01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G92 [GeForce 9800 GTX / 9800 GTX+] (rev a2) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
    Subsystem: NVIDIA Corporation Device 0000
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 27
    Memory at fa000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16M]
    Memory at d0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
    Memory at f8000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=32M]
    I/O ports at df00 [size=128]
    [virtual] Expansion ROM at fb000000 [disabled] [size=128K]
    Capabilities: <access denied>
    Kernel driver in use: nvidia

  • lshw

    Example output sudo lshw -class display

    *-display               
     description: VGA compatible controller
     product: G92 [GeForce 9800 GTX / 9800 GTX+]
     vendor: NVIDIA Corporation
     physical id: 0
     bus info: pci@0000:01:00.0
     version: a2
     width: 64 bits
     clock: 33MHz
     capabilities: pm msi pciexpress vga_controller bus_master cap_list rom
     configuration: driver=nvidia latency=0
     resources: irq:27 memory:fa000000-faffffff memory:d0000000-dfffffff memory:f8000000-f9ffffff ioport:df00(size=128) memory:fb000000-fb01ffff

An other GUI is hardinfo

sudo apt-get install hardinfo

enter image description here

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1
  • Finally someone who realizes Ubuntu users use it because of GUI :)
    – jave.web
    Apr 16, 2019 at 10:07
5

hwinfo is an essential util. It is pitty ubuntu team carelessly removed it without fully understanding its implication.

Referring to the post from karel, I was managed to install it on 14.04:

# apt-get install libx86emu1
# wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/h/hwinfo/libhd21_21.21-2_amd64.deb
# wget http://ftp.debian.org/debian/pool/main/h/hwinfo/hwinfo_21.21-2_amd64.deb
# dpkg -i libhd21_21.21-2_amd64.deb
# dpkg -i hwinfo_21.21-2_amd64.deb

If you get errors on the dependencies, maybe u need to install the hal from this repo: https://launchpad.net/~mjblenner/+archive/ubuntu/ppa-hal

# add-apt-repository ppa:mjblenner/ppa-hal
# apt-get install hal hal-info
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2

You can use the vbeinfo or videoinfo command within grub itself to list available video modes.

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