Click to See Complete Forum and Search --> : Graphics problem during mandrake 9.1 install
I'm not really certain which forum this should go in, but here goes...
I'm not a linux guy. I'm really not. In fact, I know next to nothing about linux, except that I've wanted to change that for a long time.
I found a distro of linux a few days ago called Topologi Linux which let me install linux in a dedicated folder inside windows, and run it with a boot disk. I played with that for a while, and really liked what I saw. Unfortunatly, Topologi Linux dis-satisfied me for a few reasons, the most signifigant of which was my inability to get my cable modem to work on it.
So I went looking on the internet, and read several good things about the setup routines of Mandrake (Keep in mind, I'm an ignorant windows user by trade, so this was a Good Thing(TM) to me. I grabbed the .isos of 9.1, burned them, pulled the 60 gig drive out of my MAME-box, formatted, and installed.
The install went fine. No problems there. Got my cable modem up and working, even, just fine. However, at first when I installed it, it would boot, then the screen would go blank after it finished booting. Puzzled on its continuance to do this, I re-installed. Same thing. Re-installed again. Noticed that it was automaticly booting KDE when it started. De-selected that, re-installed. Success, booted to the command promp (please forgive Ignorant Linux Newbie's use of windows and dos lingo here). Tried ping just to see if my cable modem was working... yup, no problem.
Tried loading GNOME.
Same blank screen.
Re-installed, poked around what it was doing for graphics. It detected my card just fine (An Elsa Gladiac GeForce 3 64 MB AGP card), and the setup program was suggesting 1280x960, at 24 bit color. Thinking this might be the problem, I set it to a minimal setting of 640x480 and 256 colors. No good, still gives me just a blank screen when either Gnome or KDE loads.
Topologi worked fine, except for my cable modem, so I know my system can run this stuff...
Any suggestions? Keep in mind my newbieness...
1. It could be incorrect horizontal and vertical refresh rates specified for your monitor. The X server's configuration file is /etc/X11/XF86Config or /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, and the values for the refresh rates are set/stored there. The fiel can be edited by hand, but try to correct the settings using one of the video configuration utilities instead. I'm not sure which utilities Mandrake 9.1 includes, but the following command (case-sensitive!) should work:
XFree86 -configure
2. You may find some clues in your X log file as well. Type the following command to view the log file and post any error messages that you find:
less /var/log/XFree86.0.log
XFree86 -configure just gives me another blank screen, just like trying to load KDE or gnome.
The only entry in the log listed with the WW for a warning was this line:
open APM failed (/dev/apm_bios) (no such file or directory)
JusKickNit
08-24-2003, 07:21 PM
try xf86config from a command line. I will walk you thru a x setup. With that card you going to select "18" from the card database. Also if you still have Topologi get you monitor horizontal and vertical refresh rates from there.
Can you post the make/model # of your monitor?
Also, it would help if you could post the contents of your /etc/X11/XF86Config (or /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, depending on the version of X) file. Since you're obviously posting from a different computer or operating system, try copying the config file to a DOS/Windows formatted floppy so that you can view and post the contents of the file:
- insert a DOS-formatted floppy
- mount the floppy. Assuming you have a /mnt/floppy directory:
mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
-copy the file to the floppy:
cp /etc/X11/XF86Config /mnt/floppy
- unmount the floppy disk:
umount /mnt/floppy
- Fire up whatever OS you're using to get online, insert the floppy, open the config file in any text viewer/editor (it's just a plain-text file), and post the contents of the file.
It's pretty long, so rather than cut-pasting it I'll attach it. I renamed it to a .txt to post it, but I havn't altered it one iota otherwise from when I got it.
As for the monitor, it's a Dell M991. Just a crappy "Order your computer and get a free monitor!" monitor, but it's served me well enough thus far, and like I say, worked just fine with the Topologi distro.
Just tried Knoppix. It works, though I can't read anything because it's in german, and my mouse doesn't work, and a few other problems... But KDE *does* work just fine.
Strangely, Knoppix thinks I have a Permedia 2 graphics card. That makes no sense. I did have one at one time, but not on this machine. I know with 100% certainty what my graphics card is, and it's not a Permedia 2.
:confused: :confused:
Also, a followup on the monitor.
I realized Mandrake was detecting it as something else (Still a dell, but a different model)... I manualy selected the right one on install this time...
Still nothing. Same blank screen.
I get it:
Anytime I try to load KDE or Gnome
Any time I type XFree86 -configure
Every time when I click "Test" during install.* And it really locks up during install. The install is interupted.
*One time when I was installing, for some reason, the install program didn't detect my monitor as a Dell anything. Or, actualy, anything at all... Just as "generic". Don't know why. But the interesting thing is, when it did that, and I clicked "test" when setting up my graphics, it didn't lock up. It DID say that there was an error with my config I needed to resolve before I finished installing, but it DID NOT give me the blank screen/lock up.
:confused:
JamminJoeyB
08-25-2003, 08:11 AM
Mandrake is one of the best distros for some one new to start on. Mandy will identify and config just about all mainstream componets. From what I can see you don't have anything that is really cosmic here.
Check your bios and see if it is set to pnp os. Linux needs to have the bios set to non pnp os to properly identify hardware. Changing this setting doesn't bother windows if you are dual booting.
You will more then likely have sound issues if your bios is set to pnp os.
Beyond that I would try a generic monitor setting and check the horizontal and vertical refersh rates as stated in the other posts.
I'm not quite sure how to manualy set my refresh rates... I can't bring up that option in the setup (I've tried), and trying XFree86 -configure just gets me a blank screen lock up.
JamminJoeyB
08-25-2003, 08:31 AM
You will have to edit the XF86Config-4 file. This file is located in /etc/X11.
You will have to be root to edit and save this file. So try the following.
su
<your root password>
$pico /etc/X11/XF86Config-4
pico is a very basic editor that is easy to understand and use.
The XF86Config file should be very well documented on what sections do what.
Most of the section of this file are well identified on what portion of the X server they pertain to. ie mouse, keyboard etc.
Any line with a "#" at the beginning is not read as a setting. This is a comment. If you search JLC you will find a couple of complete XF86Config files for viewing. This will give you an idea of what you should be seeing before you go and start editing.
Tried to edit those files.
Got permission denied...
JamminJoeyB
08-25-2003, 09:09 AM
As stated in my previous post you have to have root permissions.
Did you su before you tried to edit them?
su
<your root password>
Yes, I made sure I had root permissions... Still said that. I do not know why.
I am becomming less and less convinced it is a problem with my video settings as such, more just a problem somehow with XF86 in general... I was poking around, trying different things... -probeonly also, for example, gives me the black screen lockup.
Whenever it does that, a bit of text flashes by on the screen too fast for me to catch. It is not much... just a few lines... But it is something.
psi42
08-25-2003, 09:50 AM
Identifier "monitor1"
VendorName "Plug'n Play"
ModelName "Dell M791"
HorizSync 30-96
VertRefresh 50-160
Hmm.........are these settings correct for your monitor? They seem a little high.....................:(
EDIT: Nevermind, they are correct according to this page: http://docs.us.dell.com/docs/monitors/49vyr/en/spec/spec.htm
What about your Knoppix XF86Config-4 file? Can you post that?
EDIT: About your knoppix being in german, try passing the lang=us parameter to the kernel. To do that, type
knoppix lang=us
at the boot: prompt.
That will give you a us keyboard map. You can change the KDE language settings in kcontrol, the KDE Control Center, but I forget where...
Anyway, you can get a prompt in knoppix by pressing ctrl+alt+F2.....
~psi42
JamminJoeyB
08-25-2003, 10:14 AM
Something is odd here. There is no graphics device section in your XF86Config.
I don't think I have ever not see an XF86Config file that didn't have one.
Your XF86Config file section "Screen" is pointing to "device1" which has no entry.
Since you say you have not altered it at all, I will point to this as a problem.
Here is the portion from my XF86Config file I am refering to. I have the nvidia driver installed on my computer, this is something you will want to do at some point, but we need to get your first problem fixed.
As you can see by what I have posted my screen section points my device section. Your file does not have a device section. So you are pointing at something that doesn't exist and your system is confused on what to do.
# Device configured by xf86config:
Section "Device"
Identifier "NVIDIA GeForce"
Driver "nvidia"
#VideoRam 4096
# Insert Clocks lines here if appropriate
EndSection
# ************************************************** ********************
# Screen sections
# ************************************************** ********************
# Any number of screen sections may be present. Each describes
# the configuration of a single screen. A single specific screen section
# may be specified from the X server command line with the "-screen"
# option.
Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen 1"
Device "NVIDIA GeForce"
Monitor "My Monitor"
DefaultDepth 24
Subsection "Display"
Depth 8
Modes "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 16
Modes "640x480" "800x600" "1024x768" "1280x1024"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
Subsection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
ViewPort 0 0
EndSubsection
EndSection
Originally posted by JamminJoeyB
Something is odd here. There is no graphics device section in your XF86Config.Not only that, it's the wrong file altogether. That's the old XFConfig file used in 3.x versions of XFree86; newer versions use the XF86Config-4.
mdwatts
08-25-2003, 05:16 PM
Originally posted by DMR
Not only that, it's the wrong file altogether. That's the old XFConfig file used in 3.x versions of XFree86; newer versions use the XF86Config-4.
Actually X4 will use either. There is a specific search order X uses for it's config file.
First it looks for XF86Config-4 and then XF86Config in /etc/X11. If not found, it does the same in /etc and then the users home directory.
Something like that as the XF86Config manpage explains.
Originally posted by mdwatts
Actually X4 will use either. There is a specific search order X uses for it's config file.
First it looks for XF86Config-4 and then XF86Config in /etc/X11. If not found, it does the same in /etc and then the users home directory.
Something like that as the XF86Config manpage explains. Right, I think it looks for XF86Config-4 first, so we want to make sure that file is correct.
Sooo... Do the same thing, except pull that file? Check. Do it as soon as this download finishes (Downloading a different version of mandrake just to see if it's a version thing, but the one server I found with old copies is SLOW!).
Yes, post the -4 config file as well. The format of the -4 file differs slightly from that of the older config file, so it would good to have a look-see.
Sorry for the delay responding, RL decided to intrude.
Anyhow, I did manage to download Mandrake 9.0. Installed it. It runs just fine.
Soooo...
I dunno... Maybe something with the 9.1 installer?
swiftnet
08-27-2003, 07:47 PM
MDK 9.0 is good, the automount for the cdrom sucks on the default version. Update the kernel or set the cd drive as user and manually mount/unmount.
Copy the XF86Config-4 file to a floppy.
When you feel ready, try 9.1 and use your saved config file.
NVidia has proprietary drivers that install easily. They'll give your GeForce based card the best performance.