emacs window a solid black block after a distribution upgrade

[Liam Proven]

On Mon, 23 Jan 2023 at 12:12, Ian Bruntlett <ian.bruntlett at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Apologies for the late reply. I am nursing a dreadful cold.

No probs, and get well soon.
>
> It was using wayland. If I change to use x11, the system works.

Cool. Well, if it were me, I'd just use X11 then, and ignore Wayland.
There should be no downside.

> I'm not knowledgeable about these things. If you need me to try further things, can you point me to a web page that gives info on how to do that?

Easy way to try:

* Download Ventoy, extract it
* Run it, format a USB key with it
* Download the Xubuntu ISO
* Drop the Xubuntu ISO file on the key
* Reboot and try it.

Harmless, non-invasive, and the key can be used as a rescue disk for
multiple OSes.

> It looks familiar so, yes. it is quite possibly one of them. *However*, hardinfo states that Intel Integrated Graphics  Are in use:
> Intel 82G33/G31 Express Integrated Graphics Controller

That's a bit odd. The Core 2 Duo doesn't have onboard graphics, but
some chipsets did.

It may have both. If so, you may get better performance with the AMD
GPU and with only 4GB of RAM you probably want as much as you can get.

Look at the back: does the monitor plug into the motherboard, or into
a card in an expansion slot?

You may be able to go into the BIOS settings page and change the preferred GPU.

It should be F2 or F12:
https://www.dell.com/community/Desktops-General-Read-Only/How-to-enter-BIOS-setup-on-Inspiron-530/td-p/3331629

It would be a good idea to also check it's the latest BIOS and update it if not.

It looks like 1.0.18 is the latest:

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-eu/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=n73yw&lwp=rt


>> What does the Ubuntu drivers tool say? If it offers anything, install
>> it, reboot and try again.
>
> ubiuntu-drivers list  # displays no output
> ubiuntu-drivers list-orm  # displays no output

Just the GUI app will tell you.

Some instructions and screenshots here:
https://linuxhint.com/install-nvidia-drivers-on-ubuntu/

Merely for illustrative purposes. DO NOT *follow* the instructions
there and install nVidia drivers unless you have an nVidia card.

> Chromium gives 27 lines of output on standard error (stderr). Would you like me to email them here?

It's not so much, but if X11 gets Firefox working, then just use X11.


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