I am fairly new to linux and have been trying out a bunch of distros. I heard some good things about mandrake as far as learning curves go, etc. I've installed mandrake version 10 official and everything went smoothly. The problem I am having is that after install trying to boot to mandrake gives me problems. It goes through the text strings as it boots up - everything is ok, but when it goes into graphical mode I get nothing but flashing pink lines on my monitor. I've double checked all the settings using mcc; i've also tried xf86config -to no avail. I would be greatful if someone could help me out in solving this little problem of mine.

Thanks in advance!

System Spec (if it helps):
2.8 ghz P4 [HT enabled]
nvidia geforcefx 5200 256MB
2 x 120gb HD
DFI Lanpary PRO 875 motherboard
PL191M monitor
win xp pro on 1st hd

can you tell us what driver you're using for the nvidia geforce card? in most likelyhood, you're using an incompatible driver. my first suggestion is to double check the vid card driver & try using a generic nforce driver just to get you going. if that don't work, you'll need to dowload & install the nvidia drivers from the following location...... Nvidia display driver.

please post back with any progress (or failure). if you need help on how to install the nvidia drivers, i will gladly assist you (or i'm sure somebody else will if i'm not available).

otis

I am using the default driver detected by the mandrake 10 installation (geforce fx generic). I don't know the version numbers or anything like that. I've follwed the link to the nvidia site and downloaded the driver there (claims to support the new 2.6 kernal) and burnt it to a cd. Howver i am not sure i know how to install from the command line interace of linux...or how to mount the cd drive. I'll be tinkering with it, but help would be appreciated.

thanks for the quick and courteous reply.

ok........to install the nvidia drivers. i'll give you my method. it works for me & others that i've helped. just follow the instructions to a T, & you should be ok.

you say you have the drivers script burned to a CD? i'd suggest putting it on your hard drive in your Linux partition somehwere. it will be much easier this way because if you have it on CD, then you're gonna have to worry about mounting & unmounting the CD drive from cli. if you can at all, copy the nvidia installer script to your linux partition. if you can't do that, here's the instructions on how to run it from CD. if you can run it from your linux partition, then ignore all the mounting & unmounting instructions & pick it up in step 6 where i say cd /mnt/cdrom & change that to cd /pathtothe/nvidiascript .

PLEASE NOTE:you must have the kernel source installed in order for the nvidia drivers to function!

1. start the computer & choose the "failsafe" option to boot from. (this will boot you into text mode & dump you at a login prompt)

2. at the login prompt, type your user name (enter) password (enter)

3. type su (enter) password (enter) this will put you in root mode.

4. insert the CD with the driver script into your CDROM. (use the master CDROM if you have more than 1)

5. type mount /mnt/cdrom (OR) mount /dev/hdX (where X is the device letter. if it's the master CDROM it's probably gonna be c, so you'd do mount /dev/hdc) (enter) that will mount your CDROM.

6. type cd /mnt/cdrom (enter) . that will put you in the CDROM directory.

7. type ls (enter) that will list the contents of the CD (in case you have more than one file on there. you're going to need to know the install script file name, in full.)

8. type the following. this is CapSenSItIve....... sh NVIDIA-LINUX-x86-1.0-5336-pkg1.run

9. accept the agreement, then answer yes to the prompts. it will load the drivers & when it's done it will dump you back at the prompt.

10. type cd /home (enter) . this will get you out of your CDROM so you can unmount it.

11. type umount /mnt/cdrom (OR) umount /dev/hdX. eject the CD. now you must edit your xf86config file to make things work. (we're in the home stretch soon, i promise )

12. we're going to use VI to edit your xf86config file. follow the steps exactly as i type them. again, it's CapSensiTIve.

13. type vim /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 (enter)

13. type i (this is for insert mode so you can isert the proper driver line)

14. use your arrow keys & scroll to the section where it says Section "Module". under that, make sure there's a line that says Load "glx" # 3d layer . if there isn't, add it as the last line, then hit esc .

15. if it says either or both of the following under the "Module" section (Load "DRI" Load "Glcore"), remove them by typing i & using the arrow keys to navigate to them & the space or backspace bar(s) to remove them. hit esc .

16. type i & use your arrow keys to navigate to where it says Section "Device". navigate to where it says Driver "nv" or Driver "vesa" & make it read Driver "nvidia" .........that's Driver(space)(quotes)nvidia(quotes)

17. hit the esc key.

18. type :wq (enter) ..........that's (colon)wq then hit the enter key.

19. type reboot

you're computer will now reboot, choose linux from lilo as you normally would. if all went well (& it should have) you'll see a nvidia splash screen just before your GUI login.

also, one note. sometimes the nvidia drivers can cause random lockups. if you find that happening, use your favourite text editor, open that same XF86Config-4 file, & directly under where you changed Driver "nvidia", add the follwoing line.......... Option "NvAGP" "1" (that's Option(space)(quotes)NvAGP(quotes)(space)(quotes)1(quotes). save it, then restart X or reboot. smoke 'em if ya got 'em.

otis

wow...you write all that just to help me out? Sure do appreciate your help.
done with all of that...i think...

that kind of threw me off becaus: there was a "#" sign in front of the "Load 'glx' # 3d layer" - i deleted it -- was i supposed to?

this threw me too:
if there was either or both of what? I think i missed something

Other than that everything was good - one last thing - under where i replaced nv with nvidia - in the driver section below the driver there is an option "DPMS" should I leave that enabled?


OK reboot done...and NO something about...screen issues and x server problems.....

I ain't complainin at least thats more fun than it was before... Any ideas?

Thank you alot btw.

(almost) exact errors:

using vt7
(EE) NVIDIA (0): failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module!
(EE) NVIDIA (0): ***aborting***
(EE) Screen(s) found, but none have a usable configuration.

Fatal server error:
no screens found

When reporting a problem...to xfree86@xfree86.org

XIO: fatal IO error 104 (connection reset by peer) on X server ":0.0"
after 0 requests (0 known processed) with 0 events remaining.



**what i get from that is that my monitor is not configured properly right? in windows i use 1280x1024 at a screen refresh rate of 60. Monitor is a 19" flast screen model PL191M. I'll play around and try to learn something, but help would be great!

Thank you.

ok, mandrake look and feels great -sometimes mouse feels sluggish - good news is i got it up and running.
I never have been one to be good at taking small steps I changed a bunch of information all at once, but I'll list what i did below incase someone else ever has the problem:

1. reinstalled the nvidia drivers (don't think this is what fixed it, but hey, just in case)
2. edited the XF86Config-4 file again (after doing all that was mentioned above by otis) in the following ways:

under the "screen" section there were four subsections "Display" - one for every varying depth of (8, 15, 16, 24) I removed the subsection for depth 15.
below "depth" in every subsection there was "Virtual(space)1280(space)1024
I deleted that entire line under the remaining subsections
where that line was (in every subsection) I then put: Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
I then added a line below that (again, every subsection below [newly added] Modes): ViewPort 0 0 [ViewPort(space)0(space)0(space)] THOSE ARE ZEROS BTW

3. I also changed -- VertRefresh 50-75 to VertRefresh 50-60 **THAT is under the "Monitor" section.


That did the trick for me. Boy did I learn alot about linux today!! Jumping from forum to forum and manuals to manuals. I greatly appreciate the input offered to me by otis it gave me alot of what i needed to know.

Thanks again - hope this helps someone in the future.

First of all, make sure you have the kernel -source of the same kernel you use installed. Without it the Nvidia driver can not be installed. If you use kernel 2.6.3-9 you must also have kernel-source 2.6.3-9.

The way otish1000c described the installation is OK, but there is also a shorter way.
1. Save the Nvidia driver file somewhere you wont't forget
2. open console and type "su" +enter
3. type your root password +enter (Now you are using console as root)
4. type "init 3" +enter (This will stop X server and put you into text mode)
5. login as root
6. go to the directory where you saved the driver (cd /home/whereveritis )
7. run sh NVIDIA.............
8. when done, type cd /etc/X11 +enter
9. Type vim XF86Config-4 +enter
10. pres "i" (it means "insert" and allows you editing the file)
11. If there is a sign "#" at the beginning of the row Load "glx", remove it (this is called uncommenting the row) If the row isn't there, type it in.
12. change driver "nv" to "nvidia"
13. pres "Esc"
14. Type ":wq" +enter
15. Type "init 5"

You'll be back in graphic mode as regular user and the 3d acceleration will probably be working. Test it by running "glxgears" from the console.
Good luck!

my very bad! MATJA_KAE_92 is absolutely correct. you must have the kernel source installed for it to work. i am sorry for neglecting to point that out.

the reason i took such a round about way of explaining it was, i figured ada601 couldn't get any GUI up & running & said "gets nothing but flashing pink lines on the monitor" so i figured there wouldn't be a prompt there to start from, hence failsafe mode.

to answer your questions ada601..........

if you deleted the # sign, that's ok. if you deleted the whole line, that's not ok. you should have that line & it should read exactly like...........

Load "glx" # 3dlayer

ummm........typo. if it says either of these under the "Modules" section, delete them.........

Load "DRI"
Load "Glcore"

just fixed that..........sorry.

you can leave that line alone if you find you're experiencing no problems. DPMS stands for "display power management signaling". it controls the way your monitor goes into power saving mode if you have that enabled to do so. without that line, you can't set your monitor to go to sleep or shut down at a selected interval of inactivity.

oh, i'm not quite clear..............was it a success? are things working now, or not? sounds like you're ok from your last post, but not quite sure.

also, as was pointed out, you can test the installation by typing glxgears from terminal. let it run for 10 seconds or so to get stable results. here's what my glx output looks like using a GEForceti4600 card...........

otis

just wanted to thank everyone again for helping me out esp. otis. you were right btw, I have no gui at all, so your instructions were good.

Thanks alot everyone.