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bowbalitic 02-26-2008 12:54 PM

Fedora Core 8 Installation not picking up Dell monitor
 
Unfortunately, I have been trying to install Fedora to my computer in the Duel op format for about a week now. I first tried using the DVD Rom I got with Linux for Dummies, it was Fedora core 4 or 5. When I tried to install it, it could not read my monitor. I asked for help on Yahoo answers and was told that it was probably because it was an older Fedora version.

So after about 4 days trying to download and burn the DVD (first ISO DVD Rom I ever burned) I finally produced a working Installation DVD for Fedora 8 i386. I then Booted up my computer and chose to run of the DVD, every thing worked. I then checked the ISO before installation (It gives you the option when you first start up the DVD) and every thing was fine. Then when Fedora was trying to find my hardware again, it couldn't find my Dell monitor. (I have a Dell xps 400 about 3 years old, it is the standard monitor not a upgrade)My question is, can I find out the information needed for the monitor and give it to Fedora manually, (like the pixels, size, or what ever it is that Fedora needs)

I've never used Linux before, I've never installed an OS, I know little to nothing about programing, but I'm willing to do what it takes to make this work.

So any help would be nice, if you could at least point me in the right direction that would be helpful.

------------


An answer to the questions:

#1 Honestly I don't know what the monitor is, its a plug and play from Dell.

#2 When I boot up the Fedora, it starts to read my hardware, it reads my graphics card (nividea 5800) then it says finding monitor, and the screen goes black. My monitor says cannot read analog 1. I cant even access my monitors menu (from the buttons on the monitor). This is all right at the beginning of the boot, right after I run the CD.

#3 I have DSL from verison it averages around 80kbs download time.


Alright, I think I know the problem. The same thing is happening when I run the live DVD of Gparted. Except this time I found out what the problem is.
1. I was right, it cant read my monitor
2. It also can't read my video driver

So now I want to know, how do I find out what my video driver is.
It's not VESA (what Gparted says was the default)

My computer, Dell xps 400, intel pentium D 3.00 ghz, and thats about all I know

Hopefully this is enough information

tredegar 02-26-2008 01:48 PM

Welcome to LQ!
Quote:

I first tried using the DVD Rom I got with Linux for Dummies, it was Fedora core 4 or 5.
Almost anything you get with a book will be out of date :( but much of what the book says will still be useful information. And you get credit for having bought a book! Most if us just use the internet, and use search engines ;)
Quote:

I then Booted up my computer and chose to run of the DVD, every thing worked.
Good :)
Quote:

My question is, can I find out the information needed for the monitor and give it to Fedora manually, (like the pixels, size, or what ever it is that Fedora needs)
Yes, you can give fedora the information manually, but ...
1] What is your monitor?
2] When you try to boot to linux, what, exactly, happens? "it couldn't find my Dell monitor" is not helpful to us.
Quote:

I've never used Linux before, I've never installed an OS
Usually, it's pretty simple, so do not panic ;)
Quote:

I know little to nothing about programing, but I'm willing to do what it takes to make this work.
Good :) . One step at a time.
You really do not need to know about programming to get linux to work nowadays.
You do need to post exactly what your problem is (I did this, it said this .. [quote it all exactly])
Quote:

So any help would be nice, if you could at least point me in the right direction that would be helpful.
That's what we are here for :)

So, please answer Qs [1] & [2] (and [3] - see below)

If you wish to try the install again, when it asks about your monitor, and gives you a list to choose from, if your monitor is not listed, you should choose something like "Generic 1024x768" and / or VESA. This is likely to work. The performance may be poor (slow), but we can fix that later.
The first thing is to get it running (simply), then we can tweak it later to get everything up to speed.

One last Q: [3] Do you have a fast internet connection? Or are you on dial-up :(?

bowbalitic 02-28-2008 05:05 AM

It's still not working.
 
The questions from the second post of this thread are answered in my original post.


I've figured out that it is not just Fedora 8 that is having trouble installing. I've tried Ubuntu, Gparted, and multiple Fedora instalations, all of them are having the same problem (and all of them are linux).

When I first put in the DVD ROM every thing seems to work out fine, the menue shows up asking what I want to do and I select the graphic instalation (defult for all of them). The instalaton then starts to probe for my hard ware, and then my comoputer goes black and my monitor says

"1: Anolog imput
cannot display this video mode"
Like I said in my first post, I think that it is my monitor and/or my video card driver.

Also the only thing that I have actually gotten to work was the text only mode for fedora, but I have no clue how to use it. (I'm still a noob at this advanced :) , to me, computer stuff.

Any help would be very nice, I now can't use my computer because I repartitioned my hard drive and erased all of my data (and windows xp). So I now have no functional opperating system on my computer.

tredegar 02-28-2008 08:09 AM

OK, I see from your other thread that you have managed to get FC8 to install, and presumably your monitor has been correctly detected. Congratulations!
As a general consideration, please do not go back and edit your previous posts as you have done in this thread, as this makes them very difficult to follow!
Just add a follow-up posting the same thread to (for example) answer the Q's I asked of you.
Hope you enjoy linux :)

bowbalitic 02-28-2008 01:49 PM

Actually, it didn't work to well
 
What I got to work successfully was the fedora 8 text only. But I don't know how to use it. I still can't get any linux program to work graphicaly. (As mentioned before, same problem.) Sry about the editing of my post. Also, the other post no longer refers to my problem, (because it was the text only instal, I would like to have a graphic display and desktop like windows)


Thanks, even though my answer isn't answered yet it seems like you guys are really trying.

forrestt 02-28-2008 02:05 PM

The problem may be that you are running an NVidia graphics card and NVidia only ships compiled versions of their drivers as they are not licensed to be shipped with the OS. If you are still running Fedora then go to http://rpm.livna.org/rlowiki/ and get the rpm for your system. After that is installed, as root run "yum update kmod-nvidia". Then reboot your system and make sure it boots from the newest kernel.

That should be all you need to do.

HTH

Forrest

forrestt 02-28-2008 02:31 PM

Sorry, that should be "yum install kmod-nvidia".

HTH

Forrest

tredegar 02-28-2008 03:33 PM

Quote:

I still can't get any linux program to work graphicaly
This is very strange. All linux installations have worked for me for the past 5+y. Monitor(s) detected, and used (though not necessarily at the resolution I'd like, but it is a start, and is fixable).
AFAIK nobody else is complaining about this.

You say you do not know what your monitor is. Isn't there a label somewhere (at the back, or underneath it) ? Try googling any reference numbers you can find there.

How are you connecting your monitor to your PC? I hope the answer is "with a regular VGA cable". If not, please connect it with a regular VGA cable, and try again.

Is your monitor's cable bad?

Can you try an install with another monitor? (Borrow, beg, beg some more, plead, buy)

@Forrestt: Monitors should work fine with just about any video card, but those cards might not use the accelerated modes until the appropriate drivers/modules are installed. bowbalitic's monitor doesn't seem to be recognised at all, which, as I said, is most unusual. Everything seems to recognise (slow) VESA, it's like uhhhh, ohhhh, you mean 640x480 x 256 colours? OK then, it's really basic, but it, works.

I suspect something is badly wrong with bowbalitic's hardware connections.

bowbalitic 02-28-2008 06:31 PM

Still not working
 
:(

I tried what you said so I pluged my moms monitor (also a dell) into my computer. And it still says "Cannot display this video mode"

So I was wondering if it is the video driver [ because as I said before, when I tried to instal Gparted, it was unable to read video and monitor and it couldent read video ( I was able to manually impute that it was 1024x768 and the driver was veda or something like that)]

Now, I was wondering if there is a way to update a driver if there is no OS on a computer (I erased Windows while partitioning my hard drive) All I have is Fedora 8 text only and I dont know how to use it.

My graphics card is a nividea 6800, (is this the same as the video card?) and my processor is a pentium D (duel core. I really hope this helps, because its really hard to do school work with out a computer (I'm only 18 so I kind of dont think before I act, or erase my operating system :( )

Thanks for all your help though.

forrestt 02-28-2008 06:45 PM

I know others don't believe that perhaps the NVidia driver will fix your issues, but one, it won't hurt, and two, it may have better control over what the video port is doing. Veda doesn't make much sense, vesa does, but I can't imagine it working properly. Without the NVidia driver, you should be using the nv driver.

To have Fedora try to reconfigure your X windows settings, run the command, "system-config-display".

To install the NVidia binary driver, try the following from a text window one command at a time:

Code:

# wget http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
# rpm -Uvh livna-release-8.rpm
# yum install -y kmod-nvidia
# /sbin/init 6

(note: ignore the #'s in the instructions, they represent your root user prompt)

Your system will reboot after the above, and when you are done, you will have the NVidia driver installed.

If the "wget" command complains try "yum install -y wget"

HTH

Forrest

bowbalitic 02-28-2008 08:59 PM

Not quite
 
Alright, the "yum install -y wget" worked and I followed everything else that you said. My computer rebooted and I let it log to the Fedora 8 text only screen. I then restarted my computer and tried to boot the Fedora 8 DVD Rom. It went to the menu and I chose to start the graphical (first option, defult option), and the it did like it normally does. It shows a few screens, checks the DVD, then it starts Anaconda 11.3.0.50, probs for my devices. It found my video card, then it tried to run native x, and thats when my screen goes black. And my monitor can read the video.

Thanks alot for your guys help, I know that you have spent alot of time here helping me, but if you could bear with me for just a little bit longer that would be awsome.


By the way it was vesa and it worked well enough to download Gparted.


Oh and my monitor
imput rating 100 - 240v, 1.5 A, 50 - 60 Hz
Model # 1905Fp
It's a Dell Flat Pannel Monitor, made in China
That really all that it says except for a few logos.

billymayday 02-28-2008 09:31 PM

oops - you reinstalled over your driver intallation by the looks of things

What you need to do is go through the text install (what you had managed previously) then follwo the instructions above to install the NVidia driver. let it reboot to the text login and login. type startx, and you should go into graphical mode

To make it boot to the GUI, you will need to edit a file in /etc called inittab and find a line that says something like

default:3:

and change the 3 to a 5 and it will boot into the GUI for you.

See how you go.

bowbalitic 02-29-2008 05:15 AM

Thank you
 
Alright, it worked. (but when it loaded, it said I was on as a privlaged user?) Also, I don't know where to go to edit that file.

Also, If I wanted to go through and reinstall it, would that updated driver stay there, or will I always have to do this?

billymayday 02-29-2008 05:48 AM

If you reinstall, then yes, you will have to.

Some detailed instructions for you to edit inittab. [Esc] means hit the escape key, (move down, etc) means navigate with arrow keys and so on. # represent the prompt you will see on the LHS of the screen

If you have a problem during the vi stage below and want to start again, type [Esc]:q![Enter] (that is, the escape key, colon, q, exclamation mark)
login as root

#cd /etc
#vi inittab
(navigate down to the line that says id:3:initdefault:)
(navigate to the right of the 3)
i (as in type the letter i - this puts vi into insert mode)
[backspace]
5 (hopefully you have replaced the 3 with a 5)
[Esc]:wq[Enter] (hit the escape key, type a colon followed by w and q to write and quit then enter)
# shutdown -r now

that should reboot you into the GUI.

If you weren't asked to setup another user while installing, before the reboot, add a new user:

useradd -m user
passwd user

and you can use this as the account to log in as - don't sit in root - that's why it warns you

bowbalitic 02-29-2008 02:44 PM

Guess what.
 
I am now thanking you on my personal computer. :)

Thank you so much, you guys are a huge help. (I can honestly say that there would have been no way on earth I would have figured this out without your help.)

I refer to this site to anyone and every one that I meet. (Well only those that actually deserve the help of this excellent site)

Also, I have to say that I learned a TON of stuff this past week while trying to install Fedora 8. (which I already like more than windows)

Hopefully, I'll get good enough to actually be able to help out others like you guys helped me.

Thanks ALOT!!! :)


One more question though, I do plan on reinstalling windows on my computer using GRUB Boot (already set up) but I was wondering if it would pick up windows when I install it. (I like some of windows programs, and I do like to play video game, and alot of games are Windows only)

Unfortunatly, I am going to have to buy a Windows OS (since I erased my hard drive while partitioning for Fedora, and I have 150g of free space set aside for Windows) But I was wondering which version of windows is better. (I'm building a computer for the extreme gaming which will have Windows Vista installed for the newer game, so I don't need the Windows version to be the newest one out there). I was thinking XP.

Thanks again for your help you guys. :)


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