Newbie needs: 5200 Nvidia on RH9, know nothing about Linux
 

I've been looking through the threads and have determined that the answers I have seen regarding the proper installation of an Nvidia 5200 on RedHat 9 are making assumptions that the organic life from behind the keyboard has some knowledge of Linux and the particular distribution they have their paws on.

Truth is, if I (we) can not install Linux because a particular driver is needed and a particular process must be done, I (we) can not learn about Linux (RH9) if I (we) can not get it installed because of the process/procedure. This is a catch 22.

I can not install RH9. I can not become familiar with RH9/Linux if it can not be installed.

It looks as though many of us newbies need a very detailed, step by step process, that makes no assumptions what so ever that we have ever, in our little lives, seen any distribution of Linux. I, for one, have not.

Does such a thing exist? Nvidia does not provide one. RedHat does not provide one. Most of you may think that they do, that may be because you are familiar with it and understand enough to get through it. I've never seen it! I want to learn it and kick Gates to the curb (as much as possible) but if it won't run, I'm stuck with more windows and walls.

So, here is my list of goodies:

Gigabyte GA-7N400-Pro mobo
NVIDIA 5200 Light 128mg AGP
AMD 2800+ Barton
1G DDR
(2) WD 40G
cd/cdr, blah, blah, blah....

I have WinXP on half of the first WD 40G, I want RedHat 9 on the other. Then, I want to create RAID 0+1.

WinXP is running fine. RH will not finish the install because of the reasons you've read here before. The screen goes black when it trys to start the graphical mode. It stays that way.
I made a boot disk when it asked me to. If I type root at the prompt it tells me that the kernel is not found. Thus, I am not logging in as root any time soon, from my perspective. I've tried to reinstall, but the same 'ole same 'ole. I even have a command reference for RedHat. Means absolutely nothing to me unless I get it going.

So far, RedHat and Nvidia are no help. They are assuming I've done this before. I have not. Can anyone remember the day they first wanted to learn some form of Linux but didn't know how to spell it?

I am desperate, folks. I would even pay for a step by step that worked, and one that I can understand.

Please help. I know I am not the only one out there that feels this way, I've read the posts. I've been banging my head against the wall for weeks. I'm going to need stiches any day now......

Hi

I tried looking at the Hardware compatability list from RH and it seems that I was unable to see your graphics card there. Try these steps then lets see how we can kick bill in the crub;).

When installing RH and it gets to the part of the installation to choose you graphics adpater choose a generic vga card/unsupported VGA. It will also ask u if u want a graphical login or not choose the text mode login, buy doing this it will allow u to install RH and when it boots up it will not boot a graphical login. When u get the login prompt after booting up login as root and type the following cmd startx see if this allows u to have graphical workspace if the answer is yes then at least itś working. to close X type Ctrl-Alt-BKspace, in the terminal type cmd redhat-config-xfree86 to configure resolution,monitor,colour depth,etc. once this is set try startx again if it woks then gr8 if not then Ctrl-Alt-F2 login then do the above again redhat-config-xfree86 until find the right setting remember because your grapgics card is not supported there might be some limitations on the settings so find a compromise.

Once you found the right setting that works try going to /etc/inittab edit that file replace 3 for a 5 in the following lineand it should look like this:id:5:initdefault:

Hope this works for u
Cheers

Thanks for the ideas. I feel clueless it is rediculous. I'll give it a go and see what happens.

Thanks much.

Hi!

I believe your graphic card is nVidia GeForce FX 5200
Did you check nVidia web site? They support Linux driver. I suppose your graphic card should be supported by their linux display driver.

Before you install nVidia driver, please have kernel-source*.rpm package installed.

Follow the instruction on nVidia.
And here is a very useful command: nvidia-installer -f
You need this command if you update your kernel later.

Good luck.

i feel luck to see your post. i faced the same problem. if you find right way to cope with it , please post it out. thank you very much.

ANd what about a boot disk/driver disk?
RH9 can load in the first phrase of the setup process driver modules.
Can anyone make something like this?
I have the same problem, so it's very bad.
Please help.

Here's how I fixed my problem between fx5200 and rh9.
Install in text mode and then you will need to edit the X86config file found in etc/x11. Look through the X86Config until you find the video driver specs. You MUST be logg in as root! at the bottom of the video line insert:

option "no ddc"
option "no vbe"

:wq

then startx and you should not have any problems getting into graphical mode.

Have a nice day.