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Old 02-08-2008, 11:10 AM   #1
groucho157
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Fedora won't reach log in screen


I am new to using Fedora. I ran a couple updates last night so I could use WinAmp. This morning, a white bar or a mixed color bar about 1 1/2 wide appears at the bottom of the screen.

Could this be a video driver issue or are these colors comparable to a BSOD in windows?

Being a very notice Linux user, I am not sure how to force VGA mode if this is even the problem. thanks
 
Old 02-08-2008, 12:50 PM   #2
lazlow
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When you post you need to give us some information to start with. What version of Fedora (F7 or F8), what architecture(32bit, 64bit), and in this case video card and driver?

It may be a video driver issue(common) or a hardware issue. Until you post the above it is pretty tough to help you.
 
Old 02-08-2008, 01:17 PM   #3
rg.viza
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Quote:
Originally Posted by groucho157 View Post
I am new to using Fedora. I ran a couple updates last night so I could use WinAmp. This morning, a white bar or a mixed color bar about 1 1/2 wide appears at the bottom of the screen.

Could this be a video driver issue or are these colors comparable to a BSOD in windows?

Being a very notice Linux user, I am not sure how to force VGA mode if this is even the problem. thanks
If you yum updated recently it installed a new kernel. This will break your NVidia driver. I know because I just recompiled mine last night after updating.

The first thing you should do with a fresh fedora install, if you are using vendor provided video drivers, is train it to boot in console mode. This way when yum updates your kernel it doesn't wreck your ability to log in:
# vi /etc/inittab

change the line that looks like:
id:5:initdefault:
to
id:3:initdefault:

After that you boot to a shell prompt.
# startx

is all you need to do to start xwindows. You can even put it in .bash_rc in your home directory.

Once setup this way, you update kernel, it foobars the kernel module, and after logging in to the shell, .bash_rc will run startx and it will just puke and drop you back down to a prompt, where you can just re-run the vendor provided install script and be right back in business.

To get out of your current situation:
1. pop in the fedora install disk
2. at the install prompt type :linux rescue
3. chroot /mnt/sysimage
4. edit /etc/inittab like above
reboot.

After rebooting, log in, rerun NVIDIA[whatever] or the ATI or other vendor provided equivalent from shell. It will reinstall the driver and you'll be back in business. Type:
# startx

and you should be good to go.

There may be a better way than this, but this is how I've been doing it since NVidia released their first linux driver. It works well so I haven't bothered finding a better way.

There is a whole system running under XWindows and you don't need XWindows to use it. XWindows is just another program and it's dependant on that video driver working.

I don't like being locked out of my system just because my kernel module binary just got outdated 8)

The fedora setup program assumes you will use the generic video drivers supplied with the distro, so the "out of the box" initdefault is not suitable if you do something different.

-Viz

Last edited by rg.viza; 02-08-2008 at 01:20 PM.
 
Old 02-08-2008, 01:33 PM   #4
groucho157
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fixed

Thanks for the assistance, i was able to run a reinstall from a CD and get everything back to normal.
 
  


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