Re: further issues with MGA G200 graphics chipset

[Jacob Keller]

On 4/24/2026 12:47 AM, Thomas Zimmermann wrote:
> Hi Jocelyn
> 
> Am 24.04.26 um 09:36 schrieb Jocelyn Falempe:
>> On 24/04/2026 08:20, Thomas Zimmermann wrote:
>>> Hi
>>>
>>> Am 23.04.26 um 21:42 schrieb Jacob Keller:
>>> [...]
>>>> Unfortunately, I also have no better idea than a DMI quirk table to
>>>> record known platforms that include the controller but don't have a
>>>> physical VGA connection exposed.
>>>
>>> I'm in favor of this. If you send a meaningful DMI identifier for
>>> your system, I'd make you a patch for testing.
>>
>> I didn't find something related to VGA connector in dmidecode.
>> My suggestion would be to use the chassis-type [1], and disable
>> polling on Blade (0x1C and 0x1D) and Rack Mount (0x17) as they are
>> less likely to have a real VGA monitor connected.
>> My Dell T310, which is kind of a Tower, has a chassis-type of 0x11
>> "Main server chassis" so it might not be very reliable.
> 
> This is the first time, I hear about this problem. I don't think it's
> very common. And it appears only to be related due to cheap hardware
> manufacturing.
> 
> So I suggest to pick Manufacturer, Product, Version as key. I'd be
> surprised if we find more than a hand full of systems with the issue. If
> we see a trend or common pattern, we can generalize later on.
> 

I think this is the best solution. Keep it focused for now. I believe
Intel has two major platforms that we care about with respect to this
issue. I'll see if I can dig up the data. The systems install the MGA
G200 for BMC use but don't seem to expose the VGA connection.

For the specific system I have that was faulty, we have the following:

$ for t in system-manufacturer system-product-name system-version ; \
    do dmidecode -s ${t}; \
done
Dell Inc.
PowerEdge XR8720t
Not Specified



I believe there was also some concern about HP systems which similarly
use this chipset, but I don't have the DMI data for that one off hand.
I've asked some colleagues to confirm the situation and obtain that
data. I'll get back early next week if we think there are any other
systems possibly affected.

In the mean time, I'm happy to have our team test any patch to confirm
that it behaves as expected and resolves the service interruptions.

Appreciate all the feedback on this thread.

Thanks,
Jake