Take a look at this:
http://en.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/LILO-2.html#ss2.3

Something else occurred to me, I had to mess around with the BIOS to enable me to use a USB mouse, which I plugged in the front of the case. When it was up and running I moved it to the back, and it started freezing on bootup.

Then I tried it through a PS2 adaptor and it still wouldn't work properly until I went into the BIOS and pressed F5 to revert everything to default.

In other words, have you considered that you may have a hardware fault?

DAVE

Thanks for the link david_ross, I'll have a look.

In what way Dave?

A fault with the onboard graphics?

Possibly but in my case it was just that the BIOS was set up wrongly for the mouse I had plugged in, and that cause the whole system to freeze up.

I had previously had problems due either to a faulty power supply or bad RAM chips, all I know is that I have Linux installed on the same motherboard as you and things seem to work fine but it was a struggle at first.

As you seem to have an internet connection, I take it you must have installed the nForce chipset drivers, also from nVidia, or be posting from another computer, or not be connected via ethernet.

The nForce driver controls ethernet, sound and other mobo functions. Have you got the latest version? Also available from nVidia.

I'm using version 1-0256 and it works for me!

DAVE

Im posting from my main PC, running Windows XP. The other machine is running only Linux.

I tried what was suggested in the link posted by david_ross, but none of it seems to work.

I could be pressing the keys at the wrong time.

Have you downloaded the nForce and GeForce drivers from www.nvidia.com ? I needed them to run the same mobo in Linux. If not, download them on your Win computer and transfer them over. I think there is a precompiled rpm for Red Hat 8 for nForce (sound and LAN).

Unless you install nForce, the chipset may not work correctly.

DAVE

I think I found the one you are on about:

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?IO=linux_nforce_1.0-0256

But dont I still need to get to a prompt where I can actually run the command to install the driver?

What is the correct command to run to install them, if I manage to get to a prompt?

Im thinking of perhaps doing a fresh install of Red Hat, but this time choosing a text login, so that I can sort out all of the display probems, and then when thery are fixed, switch to a graphical one.

Download the Red Hat 8.0 rpm, and the tar.gz . Also download the nVidia video driver (no 4393). If you have to do this on your Windows computer, and you don't have a local network you will probably have to save them onto a CD or somthing.

Try to install the rpm in the usual way. If that does not work, you will have to install the tar.gz but the instructions forget to tell you that you must have the kernel-source installed, should be on your Red Hat discs.

To install the video drivers, you have to close X, running in a terminal is not good enough, X has to be halted. Then in a terminal as root type:

sh full-name-of-video-driver.run

It should install itself. There are instructions at nVidia about modifying /etc/modules.conf and /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. (If you don't have XF86Config-4 use XF86Config). NB the video drivers need X version 4+ all the limitations are on the site.

Check all the instructions it could be that your version of Red Hat is too old (ie kernel version and X version not up to it) full details are on nVidia site.

I have installed Mandrake 9.1 download edition with that mobo and since I sorted out the nVidia drivers it's been great! Others have used Red Hat 9 and that is good as well.

Sorry if this advice is a bit rambling I'm sure you can pick out something you can use.

DAVE

I once had a problem installing Mandrake (8.0 or 8.2, I think) because the installer had a problem calculating the amount of memory left over after the on-board graphics was allocated its share in the BIOS. Basically, the installer read the correct amount of total RAM, but assumed it was all available as system RAM. I needed to interrupt the installation process and tell it explicitly how much memory it had to play with. For example, system RAM was 384MB, graphics was allocated 64MB in the BIOS, so I had to enter the command:

linux mem=320M

The installer then ran correctly and the graphics system worked correctly. I don't know if Red Hat detects on-board graphics RAM correctly, but if Red Hat has a similar method of specifying the amount of available RAM, I'd give it a try, using values applicable to your machine.

HTH,

Geoff.

Okay, I will try the suggestions to see if it fixes the problem.

I downloaded the Nvidia drivers, and have put them on a CD.

I re-installed Red Hat as well, and this time have it going to a text login, so at least I can get to a prompt.

This is where Im not really sure how to install the drivers.

What command do I type in to start the install of the drivers?

How do I tell the installer where the files are?

Im too used to DOS I think. I tried typing the drive letter 'd:', like you would in DOS, but I assume that isn't how the CD-ROM drive would appear in Linux? As it didn't work.

You don't have C: or D: or X: in linux. All drives/partitions on your system have what is called a "mount point". For removable media like CDs and floppies this is normally something like /mnt/cdrom or /mnt/floppy and should all appear to be subdirectories. You don't have to "tell the installer where the files are" just change the directory to that of your cdrom (by typing cd /mnt/cdrom if that is where your CD Rom is mounted) and run the instructions from that directory.

Before trying to install the drivers, (1) go back to nVidia and download/print off the instructions. The only thing wrong with the instructions is that they don't tell you that you need "kernel-source" installed to use the tar.gz files or the src.rpm file. So install kernel-source from your Red Hat disks first.

Once you have done that, the instructions supplied by nVidia work without too much fuss and I could not explain them better. You have to exit 'X' to install the video drivers (do that next). You will have to "unzip" the tar.gz file to a temporary folder (eg /var/tmp) to install it. The instructions you have printed out should be sufficient. The only thing you might have to do is to expand the tar.gz file to your hard drive as you will not be able to install it from your CD if it is that compressed format.

Best of luck!

DAVE

I tried to install the following two files:

NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-4180.tar.gz

NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-4180.tar.gz

I logged in a root.

Then typed 'cd /mnt/cdrom'.

Then typed (as it says on the Nvidia instructions) 'tar xvzf NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-4180.tar.gz'

I get an error message saying it cant find the file. I know it is on the CD, and that I am typing in the correct file name. But it isnt working.

I noticed that in the Nvidia instructions it says about 'xf86config', so I have tried this, and tried configuring the monitor and graphics card to fix the problem, but haven't had any luck yet.

After the cd command type "ls -l" to see what files are on the CD - they may be in a subdirectory. Remember that linux filenames are case sensitive.

Okay, I will have to try it tommorow now.

Annoyingly I only have one mouse and keyboard, and one monitor, so I have to keep fiddling around changing them over from my XP machine to the Linux one.