I've tried installing Mandrake 10 about a dozen times now but I get the same problem every time. Although the screen appears fine during the install process, on boot up I get Failed next to eth0 and then the screen goes blank.

My Matrox G550 dual head is listed but I have to set generic flat panel as the monitor. When installing as dual head I get a blank screen; when installing as 1 monitor the monitor itself told me the refresh rate was about 24hz and couldn't display the picture.

I booted into failsafe but it gave me the linux equivalent of dos and I have no idea what to type in that.

What is eth0?

I've both inserted a resolution and left that field blank on different installs, likewise I've set the card to include/exclude 3D support variously, although I always specify 1280x1024 in the monitor options. Any ideas?

All I want is 1280x1024 x16bit @ 60hz. Dual head playing can come later.

eth0 is the network card

maybe unplug the cable from it and then try to boot

at the command prompt after x fails
su to root and type drakconf
this will run through the various hardware configs
including x

Thanks, I'd removed USB connections so I'll try removing the network cable too.

I don't get a text prompt if I boot normally, just a blank screen as though no cable is attached. If I boot into failsafe mode that's all I get; do I just type drakconfig? I won't have entered any passwords at that point.

you need to run drakconf as root
type
su
press enter
then enter root password
press enter again
then type
drakconf

Hi!

Have u tried adding this to the "Device" section in /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 :

Option "ConnectedMonitor" "DFP"

That might just do the trick....

if you wanna get eth0 up just su to root and issue: ifup eht0