Linpus Linux/Fedora8 & GeForce4 MX440 AGP = non-starting X

rautamiekka · 01-28-2009, 05:17 AM

Becaming interested in Linpus Linux and finding out it's F8-based brought me to install it to NAS system I made myself out of old parts (AthlonXP 1700+; K7NF2-RAID, GF4MX440-AGP; 256MB DDR266) which is a failure:

Upon loading X Server it fails and complains X can't be started. After Googling around quite a bit I found out that F8 doesn't support such an old card. However, that's the newest spare card I've got (well, got Radeon9550 also but it shows nothing on screen) so I must make F8 work with MX440 no matter what, that's why I'm here now.

Anyone able to tell what to do ?

John VV · 01-29-2009, 11:36 PM

fedora 8 and 9 and 10 do with the lagecy 96xx kmod driver
i am running fedora 9 with the NEW xorg on a gforce 2 mx 400 card

yours is still using the old xorg so the nvidia.run driver installer should work fine
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
the driver for gf 4 mx 440
http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux_d..._96.43.07.html
and read the readme
http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree8...DME/README.txt
you need to be in text mode to install it ( no gui running)

rautamiekka · 01-30-2009, 05:52 AM

John, thanks for the piece of help

Next I have to figure out howto make TTY Consoles work.

John VV · 01-30-2009, 11:38 AM

you should be able to do one of these

Code:

su -    ( or sudo if you set it up ) 
telinit 3 
this will kill the running X and put you into  text only 
or

su -
init 3

or edit the file /etc/inittab
and change this line
id:5:initdefault:
-- to --
id:3:initdefault:
and reboot

or hit <alt > + <ctrl> + <f1 to f7 >

rautamiekka · 01-30-2009, 01:24 PM

I'm sure those commands -would- do what you say if they only carried out their purpose :/, everytime I hit enter after typing anything, nothing happens, not even the usual complaint "unknown command" grrr. Not to mention that F1 and F2 work first time I press them, after that they do nothing.

Maybe a command to boot arguments would do something, no ?

rautamiekka · 01-30-2009, 02:05 PM

Just a note: started Linpus on a machine with a 6600GT, worked really fine and in Terminal every command I did carried out their purpose.

John VV · 01-30-2009, 03:33 PM

that would be
alt+ctrl+f1
alt+ctrl+f2
alt+ctrl+f3
alt+ctrl+f4
-- to --
alt+ctrl+f7

rautamiekka · 01-30-2009, 04:25 PM

Ah, my bad. Meant that yes, I did press that combination, each of them with all returning same: inability to write anything.