Puzzling Linux Install Quandry...

[SMOKE20]

I mentioned this in the "Will U buy Vista?" thread thinking it was probably not a big problem but, since then I've spent considerable time D/L'ing Fedora Core 4 and beta Core 5, retrying Debian and Ubuntu and even borrowed a friends copy of Mandriva..........NOTHING, no Linux O/S will install properly on this system! It usually comes up with a Video Device error, but changing settings/cards does nothing. Other installs (Mandriva, older builds) just flat fail.

Come on Linux Guru's, I know you're here and know some of you MUST have a clue or seen this before......what is the hang up?

A64 3200+
1024mb Corsair XMS XLL 2-2-2-5 PC 3200 ram
ATI X800XL
2X 250GB Seagate SATA
Asus A8N-E
Creative Audigy 2 NX USB Sound
NEC Burner
Sony CD-ROM

Not overclocked at all.

 

[DidlySquat]

Really you couldn't get Ubuntu to install ?!?!?! what error do you get exactly?

 

[SMOKE20]

Originally posted by: DidlySquat
Really you couldn't get Ubuntu to install ?!?!?! what error do you get exactly?

I'm not going to go do it again just to find out the exacr wording but, it was "display device not configured correctly" or something very close to that...........

 

[P0ldy]

Linux gurus need exact error messages to help you out.

Sounds like Xorg isn't finding any screens.

 

[DidlySquat]

does that happen during the install or afterwards ?

P.S you rsystem is a piece of cake for any competent linux install, which most of the ones you tried are. Are you referring to a problem resulting from some post-install actions you are taking ? If so, then you are probably doing somethnig wrong. If you want help you need to give more details (not necessarily the exact words but something more concrete)

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Your problem is ATI.

Get any Nvidia card and swap that ATI card out. Seriously.

 

[DidlySquat]

^^^ true, but he at least should be able to get basic SVGA resolution to work, I would be really surprised if none of them succeed in at getting the ATI card to work using generic drivers.

 

[SMOKE20]

Sorry...out browsing the forums...LOL!

Almost exclusively the problems come "post install". I get through everything smoothly and upon initial boot the screen goes away from the GUI and into command line ui with the text and error message, or, I get a weird looking screen with a white oval in the center with my error message and a question asking me if I want to try to repair this problem.

Oh, and also.......I'd hate to get rid of the card in this system......the X800XL does everything we need on this system and I already have another with a 7800GT and one with an X1800. (both of which have no problem with Linux, Ubuntu or otherwise......just thought about that........)

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Conflict between the ATI card and the Nforce mobo under Linux?

Phoronix ran into a similar issue with a Tyan mobo.

No matter our attempts the X800XL 256MB would not output any display with the Tyan Tomcat motherboard where multiple other graphics cards would work without fault.

 

[magomago]

What is the driver being used?

try typing

sudo -nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

go down to the "video device" section (gosh lol not sure if i'm right...something like that) and it should list the driver being used. If you can't find that do a serach for "driver". I remember something about the wrong driver being used for some ATI cards~ I read it here a few days ago and figured this might be the same problem. IIRC, the default was "ati" and that should be changed to "radeon" or vice versa.

 

[SMOKE20]

Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser
Conflict between the ATI card and the Nforce mobo under Linux?

Phoronix ran into a similar issue with a Tyan mobo.

No matter our attempts the X800XL 256MB would not output any display with the Tyan Tomcat motherboard where multiple other graphics cards would work without fault.

Oh great, so it's an X800XL issue then?

Also, I'm not at that system now and reformated it after each problematic install attempt so I'm not sure which driver was being utilized.

 

[DidlySquat]

My suggestion - during the install in the part where it asks you which video resolution you like to use, only check the lowest one (e.g. 800x600 or even 640x480). Do not try to use any high resolutions. After you successfully boot Ubuntu with x-windows you can install the ATI drivers which will allow you to use high resolutions correctly. Alternatively (if you don't want to reinstall or if above doesn't work), you can boot Ubuntu in recovery mode (no X windows) and install ATI drivers from the command line, by following the instruction found on ubuntuforums.org (print them first and follow them after booting in recovery mode).

 

[SMOKE20]

Originally posted by: DidlySquat
My suggestion - during the install in the part where it asks you which video resolution you like to use, only check the lowest one (e.g. 800x600 or even 640x480). Do not try to use any high resolutions. After you successfully boot Ubuntu with x-windows you can install the ATI drivers which will allow you to use high resolutions correctly. Alternatively (if you don't want to reinstall or if above doesn't work), you can boot Ubuntu in recovery mode (no X windows) and install ATI drivers from the command line, by following the instruction found on ubuntuforums.org (print them first and follow them after booting in recovery mode).

I had actually thought about going into recovery and installing the drivers because I've already tried every resolution available to no avail. My hope was to find some distro which would install without a problem or a workaround because there are also a lot of problems documented on Ubuntu with ATI drivers..........

 

[SleepWalkerX]

After you get that message, log in using your account name and password that you made during the install. At the command prompt you can type "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg" (might have to add 'sudo' right before the command) and it'll start the xorg setup. Just go on through picking the default values until you get to the driver section and choose the vesa driver (not ati) and for resolution choose 800x600 or 640x400 and for color depth choose 8bit or less. Then just type "startx" (sudo if you need it) and it should run.

Afterwards, look here for a guide to install the latest ati drivers. I'd recommend method #2 as it will install the latest driver that ati provides.

edit: changed command, different for debian based distros.

 

[halw]

Download and burn Xandros OCE. See if this distro works with your GPU.

 

[SMOKE20]

Originally posted by: halw
Download and burn Xandros OCE. See if this distro works with your GPU.

Any reason to think this would when most others don't?

 

[DidlySquat]

I got ATI drivers to work on mt 9700 pro, as well as my friend's dell laptop wich has a radeon mobilty card, so it's not really too difficult, even if you have to do it from text mode:

http://doc.gwos.org/index.php/Install_ATI_driver


This is in Ubuntu btw, which I think is the easiest to use, and has the most support and information. It seems like the free drivers don't support your card for some reason. BTW, to avoid any possible complications don't use 64-bit linux.

 

[Nothinman]

And this is why closed source drivers suck, if nVidia and ATI would release their drivers fully under the GPL they would be included on the CD and would 'just work' like all of the (S)ATA, NIC, SCSI, USB(2), Firewire, etc devices do.

 

[sourceninja]

Originally posted by: SMOKE20

Originally posted by: DidlySquat
My suggestion - during the install in the part where it asks you which video resolution you like to use, only check the lowest one (e.g. 800x600 or even 640x480). Do not try to use any high resolutions. After you successfully boot Ubuntu with x-windows you can install the ATI drivers which will allow you to use high resolutions correctly. Alternatively (if you don't want to reinstall or if above doesn't work), you can boot Ubuntu in recovery mode (no X windows) and install ATI drivers from the command line, by following the instruction found on ubuntuforums.org (print them first and follow them after booting in recovery mode).

I had actually thought about going into recovery and installing the drivers because I've already tried every resolution available to no avail. My hope was to find some distro which would install without a problem or a workaround because there are also a lot of problems documented on Ubuntu with ATI drivers..........

No matter what linux you choose you are still going to have to install ati linux drivers to get 3d support. So in the mean time, using the vga driver should work to get you into X no matter what. If thats not working you got problems. But you will need to make sure its using the vga driver in xorg.conf. After you get it running then you will have to find your distro's instructions for installing the ati driver. I've always found ati cards a bad choice in linux. The support for them is getting better, but it is still poor. Nvidia cards, even if they are still closed source drivers seem better written and better supported.

 

[SMOKE20]

Well, decided WTF and D/L'ed Xandros.............same problem.

So basicly, with this system, with the X900XL, no dist. will work without manually installing a driver.

This seems very odd to me. How can they have correct support drivers for an X1800 in my system I'm on now and for a 9800Pro in another system with Ubuntu but not for an X800XL? It's not even a thing that I "need" Linux on this system, as you can probably tell, I have several other systems with Linux on them. No, at this point it is/was just a mission to find a distro that would work with that system! LOL!

I guess I'm going to have to break down and do some more learning......I can manuever and understand the basics of using several distros of Linux and installing from within the O/S once loaded......but I'll be honest, it's been years since I messed with command line installations and even then, it was in DOS............guess at my age it's more of just wanting things to work with minimal need for learning new things until/unless I'm ready to..........LOL!

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: AnonymouseUser
Your problem is ATI.

Get any Nvidia card and swap that ATI card out. Seriously.

My IBM T42 has an ATI 9600 and my home 'server' has an ATI 9800 Pro. Both installed Ubuntu and Fedora Core 4 without issue. I'm not using 3D acceleration though so maybe that's part of it? Or as someone mentioned maybe it's a combo problem (the ATI card and MB)?

 

[The Linuxator]

I don't think you have an X800XL there buddy, my A 64 939 gaming rig had an X800XL no issues at all, the only card that form my own experience had a problem with was the Nvidia 6800 (not GT or Ultra) just a plain 6800 PCI-e tried the impossible to get it to work in FC 4 but no go, other than that you shouldn't be running into issues, so I repeat it can't be a driver issue, I had no problem with my X800XL on Fedora Core 4, but there is always room for conflicts with some hardware combinations you might have on your system.

My advice, swap parts around after the install, maybe you will hit the culprit soon, try and remove anything that you do not necissarly need in your system, remove any extra PCI cards, disable all un-necessary onboard stuff one by one (including harddisk controllers if they are not being in use) from BIOS, untill you see what the issue is.

 

[SMOKE20]

Originally posted by: The Linuxator
I don't think you have an X800XL there buddy, my A 64 939 gaming rig had an X800XL no issues at all, the only card that form my own experience had a problem with was the Nvidia 6800 (not GT or Ultra) just a plain 6800 PCI-e tried the impossible to get it to work in FC 4 but no go, other than that you shouldn't be running into issues, so I repeat it can't be a driver issue, I had no problem with my X800XL on Fedora Core 4, but there is always room for conflicts with some hardware combinations you might have on your system.

My advice, swap parts around after the install, maybe you will hit the culprit soon, try and remove anything that you do not necissarly need in your system, remove any extra PCI cards, disable all un-necessary onboard stuff one by one (including harddisk controllers if they are not being in use) from BIOS, untill you see what the issue is.

Um, I'm pretty sure I do have the X800XL since I've built all my systems since about '96......

It may be something else, but my interests only lie in figuring out a way to install a Linux Distro on that system along with XP and XP 64 bit which it's already running.

As stated and shown, the only card in the System is the X800XL so that's never been a concern. There are no "unneccessary" onboard options enabled whatsoever to the extent Parrellel and serial ports are disabled, onboard sound is disabled and I don't run "cool & quiet". The only "enabled" options are the SATA and LAN.

 

[silverpig]

I had the same problem with ubuntu and my desktop (x800xl, dfi ultra-d). It took a little bit of playing around, but I got it to work without too much trouble. It is an x800xl thing, as I guess xorg hasn't had time to update for the x800xl yet. Anyways, I had no problems with gentoo as it worked flawlessly. Either way, I managed to get it to work fine both ways, and the driver installed in both distros fine, and I had hardware 3d in both distros.

 

[SMOKE20]

Originally posted by: silverpig
I had the same problem with ubuntu and my desktop (x800xl, dfi ultra-d). It took a little bit of playing around, but I got it to work without too much trouble. It is an x800xl thing, as I guess xorg hasn't had time to update for the x800xl yet. Anyways, I had no problems with gentoo as it worked flawlessly. Either way, I managed to get it to work fine both ways, and the driver installed in both distros fine, and I had hardware 3d in both distros.

Nice, so there is hope! LOL!

Yeah, I believe the thing that puzzled me most is Ubuntu installed fine with an X2 system and an X1800 but not with the X800 series.....

I'll keep trying.........