Geforce 8400 graphics card issue | can't access tty ??
 

Hail, folks! I tried to search for a thread on the subject but haven't found one, so I'll post a new one.

I bought a new laptop a month ago:
* Intel Core 2 Duo T7100
* 1GB RAM
* Geforce 8400
* SATA 160GB

and I need to have Linux on my machine. I got today the Ubuntu 7.04, i think it is quite reasonable :D The thing is I just can't make it install. The only distro i could actually run was Knoppix, but that one just ain't the one I want...

What came to the screen was something like this: "Can't access tty (yarayara)"

What is this all about? :confused: At first glance, I see that my graphics card is incompatible with Linux. After all, I bought this baby when it was the first graphs card to suport DX10 :)

Appreciate the help in advance.

DX10 support could be a problem since this card presumably also supports HDCP (i.e. it is broken by design.) But it seems that they go in linux... so far.

The exact tty error is important. There are many possibilities... however, recently Ubuntu has had trouble with some modems and bluetooth adapters. Your best bet is to install using the alternate CD.

(You could try turning these things off in BIOS, just for the install?)

OK, the exact output:

"
BusyBox v1.1.3 (Debian 1:1.1.3 - 3ubuntu3) built-in shell (ash)

/bin/sh: can't access tty: job control turned off
(initramfs) _
"

Yep... that's the one.
It's trying to configure the modem. Try disabling the modem in BIOS and/or using the alternate install CD.

Ok, so the modem thing seems to be over.

The big point now is what i thought: my graphics card is not recognized. Output come:

"NV(0): no display devices found."

I've checked the extended report and a lot of graphics card names have showed up, but not mine... What should I do then? :confused:

nvidia driver
 

Have you tried the driver from nvidia yet?

and which 8400 do you have?

How should I install it if I can't even run linux by itself because of this? :confused: i really don't know...
My graphics card is a Geforce Go 8400 384MB. I'm using an Asus F3SC.

Let's recap... have you installed yet? Or are you trying to run the desktop CD?

You should be able to install with the alternate CD, it is text only. The desktop CD in safe-graphics made is probably fine too. Your card is not supported in the nv driver... feisty comes with the nvidia driver for your kernel, but it may not be new enough.

You can install a newer driver from repos from CLI if required.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=488491
... report is that the card won't go at all without the proprietary driver. But I'd still try the vesa driver anyways.

I have installed Ubuntu, alternate CD. When X tries to load, the error message comes up. Afterwards, that sort of console shows, asking for a login(I don't even have one, neither have I set the root pwd... :confused:).

As for feisty, I can't run it as well :\

This known, how could I actually install the nv drivers from scratch?

Thks :D

I'm doing this backwards...

The nv driver is included in the kernel. It won't do you any good. You need the proprietary driver called "nvidia". This comes on the feisty CD, but can also be installed using aptitude. You can also hunt through the CD for the restricted drivers... it will be a deb file which will install with dpkg.

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Feisty#Graphics_Card
... look at the beta version.

However, this is all better if you use the GUI. For this, when you can, look through /etc/X11/xorg.conf (edit this file with nano). Replace Driver "nv" with Driver "vesa" save, exit, and enter "startx".

However, as part of the install process you should have created a user, with a user password. That is your login. Alternatively, try rescue mode from the grub menu.

There is no root user in ubuntu.

Well, VESA works :P

(1) I can't(or don't know how to) look into the CD. I tried /dev, /cdrom, /mnt, everything... nothing would come...

(2) In the GUI (yea, i managed to go in there :D ), i don't have access to admin stuff, the system tells me... so I can't have new users ... :confused: and yea, i've tried "useradd myUsername", but it won't login, system tells: "wrong user/pass"...

(3) Thought about getting onto the net (got my LAN cable plugged so he would be DHCP linked to my house network), is this possible in recovery mode? :D

[QUOTE=misstajah]Well, VESA works :P

(1) I can't(or don't know how to) look into the CD. I tried /dev, /cdrom, /mnt, everything... nothing would come...[quote]Media is mounted in /media ... look for /media/cdrom0

How did you got a gui? So you are in recovery - single user mode?

How is it telling you you don't have admin access? Have you tried sudo su - ?

But if you have gui, how about using the regular (non rescue) boot option from the grub menu?

It would be interesting to try... net access is one of the things you configure at install... try system > config > network dialog.

(2) i used "startx" and gnome came, that's the GUI I was talking about :p The normal boot mode requires user/password, which i can't manage to configure correctly :S I think it's about the password encryption... but i think it should be easy enough, right? :eek: By the way, even though i started X, the system says i don't have enough privileges to access admin panel stuff ... :confused:

(1) /media/cdrom0 contains nothing here. ls result: "" :scratch:
ls result from /media:
cdrom cdrom0 sda1 sda2

The CD isn't mounted.

/media/sdax entries are odd... these usually only appear in the live mode. You did install right? Anyway, and just for my curiosity, show show the exact output of "pwd" in a terminal.

You said that the vesa driver works... how did you get X to use the vesa driver?

(1) VESA: like u said, i editted /etc/X11/xorg.conf and changed "nv" to "vesa". so, vesa works xD but i want the graphics board to work, though. I could use the glx and widescreen xD

(2) sdax entries are my SATA partitions for windows vista :)

(3) If i run linux with the CD already in, it should be mounted, right?

(4) Yea, i did install, with the alter CD, though :)

Which directory u want me to check with "pwd" ?

(1) you edited it in a terminal using nano? This suggests that your terminal - or, at least, the non gui one, has root. You may just have to make a user via the commandline... reboot to safe mode.

(2) OK... gotcha.

(3) That depends

(4) Thing is, part of the installation involves creating a user.

"pmd" = print working directory ... I wanted to know what user you were logged in as and with what privileges. Try:

cd ~
pwd

include the prompt

ls /home
... should be interesting

The cli to make a user is

useradd

(see the man page for its use)

Once you can login properly you can use the restricted driver manager to configure your graphics, connect to the web, etc.

The first directory I'm in when in safe mode is /root.
Yes, a console is on when booted on recovery mode.

I've tried to add a user like this:

# useradd -p myPassword myUsername // suppose my user and pass are like this xD

When I go to normal mode, I try to login and nothing :confused:

You wont get the graphics board working unless nvidia has a linux driver for it. thus 3d will not work unless a driver for it is written by the hardware vendor. There is no magic that will make it work.

The problems will be many for you I am afraid as with all my experiences with Linux and laptops that are built around windows. Don't worry tho things will catch up for you. I installed a distro of mepis a few month's ago and almost nothing worked for me on my laptop but there current one works out of the box with everything on my laptop working save the card reader.

yea i know that :) but i need to configure the network so as to download the drivers from nvidia.com and install them, and only then i can edit the xorg.conf file again...

but first of it i need to get a way to add a user with every privilege (root aparently doesn't have 'em here) to configure wireless and LAN. like i said before, the command i entered won't help much... unless i've forgotten something, which is more likely xD

The nvidia driver comes in the feisty CD... once you have a normal account there is a tool to configure the driver.

Show me the result of

ls /home

(presumably done in rescue mode)

You can also

cat /etc/passwd

... and look for your new user account.

I have checked the /etc/passwd and my account is there. But it won't login... the system says I have a wrong user/password. I even tried adding a user with no password and it still won't do... :confused:

And by the way, i don't see the drivers on the CD, i'm searching for "nvidia" on windows. Is this the right CD? Because honestly I don't know if 7.04 is the "feisty" u always recall... oops :P

passwords are case sensitive... create a user with password 1234.
You could also open /etc/shadow and remove everything between the first two colons after a username. Then try logging in as that user.

However... I am thinking you will have to reinstall. Keep a log of everything (yes... by hand) as you go. The installer is supposed to get you to create a user, as well as assign a name for the host etc.

Ubuntu releases are numbered after the release date (7.04 = April 2007). Since the actual release date may not be as planned, there is also a codename. Ubuntu 7.04 is also called "Feisty Fawn".

The package is probably called:
linux-restricted-modules-<something>.deb
... but it cannot help you outside a regular login.

The CD ain't mounting ... :S something's not right here, i tried to access the content of the CD, output: "/mnt/hda doesn't exist" ain't hda for the hard drive? :confused:

i'm installing ubuntu again and i set the user :D

edit: eth0 is recognized :D

not to mention that i want my wireless too xD

Cool... now you have a regular user account things get easier:

System > Administration > Restricted Drivers Manager

You'll be asked for a password. See what it configures.

Ubuntu is a "rootless" system. The first user configured is the admin... that user gets to use sudo. It is, in practice, more secure this way... though it takes some getting used to.

"sudo su -" will got you a root terminal.
Get used to aptitude and synaptic, these are incredibly powerful tools.
Look through: http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Feisty

System -> Admin -> Restricted Drivers Manager says , after the password, that there's nothing to be done...

I went manually, got the .run file from nvidia. tried to install it, output: "you need libc libraries to create kernel interface." so i tried to install the libs from the feisty CD. I wrote the output in latest post about /dev/hda ...

argh! Don't do that!

Possibly the driver manager is looking for a nv module instead of querying lspci. (I've gone 100% open source a while ago so I am losing touch with the tools.)

I don't trust the nvidia installer... anyway, you'll lose it next update.
I take it you are online with Ubuntu now?

System > Admin > Synaptic

search for "nvidia" and tag the packages appropriate to your system.
install. Then retry the driver manager.

Read the wiki link. You may want the Beta option.

The only thing missing was nvidia-glx... odd... else it would work normally with nothing of this...

Anyway, i thought about reinstalling some of the nvidia drivers on the feisty CD. I still need to mount the cdrom drive :confused: he just won't recognize it ... :S
Can't i just download from an ubuntu dropsource and get them or something, like for the add/remove programs?

I have covered this twice: post #24 and #26.
Read the wiki in the link.

Still nothing :confused: I read all about mounting CD's and stuff, but still nothing :(

Feisty should automatically mount CDs ... you get an icon on your desktop. Show me your /etc/fstab and the content of /media

The error is because /dev/hda don't exist (well...) and it shouldn't.
The primary master ide will usually be sda, primary slave is sdb, etc. (In my case it is sde and sdf...)... so my cdrom is /dev/scd0 (As you see, things are different now.)

But the links I gave you are about installing that nvidia driver.

/etc/fstab:

/media:
Well, i can see i'm gonna have to change some things around here... :P

It's done!

I got "envy" and ran it. Nothing easier to setup the latest nVidia or ATI graphics cards.
For everyone that whatches this, search for "envy linux" (i searched for ubuntu instead of linux but it should be the same i guess :) ) the first URL u get, follow it. And it's done!

Thanks for all the help!