I have been installing Linux on my box since RH8 and I have installed several distros on it; Mandrake/Mandriva Ubuntu,Fedora1-3 without any major problem.
It happens now when I have tried to install FC4...and I have tried the DVD version and the 4CDs too....which I have downloaded from different sources, tested/passed the media and everything looks to be good...BUT...when I start the installation process ...the Anaconda installer starts...probes the monitor,video card and mouse...AND THAT'S IT...all of the sudden the screen flicks black and then gives me a white screen.....
Any idea why this is happening?

Can I add my voice to this one - I get the same. Installer says its starting and then just a white screen with a black mouse cursor. Using the 64bit distro which has passed the DVD checks etc

My setup:

Nvidia NForce3 Mobo
AMD64 Winchester 3000
2 x SATA drives
Geforce 6800 gfx

Hope someone can help - I keep coming back to Linux every six months or so in the hope that I can get a distro to work - still waiting Would love to get Fedora Core 4 off the ground...

Thx for any help

I can't really think nobody has a clue on what is wrong or any solution to this situation....
It looks like I'm gonna stay stuck on FC3 for the time being...

All I can think is that X has a problem with my gfx card - but this is a new distro and the Geforce 6800 has been around for ages now...

bump

I told a friend of mine about my "white screen" situation and he referred to me to the fact that sometimes the media could be read as a "pass" and be physically damaged.
He told me to do an MD5SUM...
How does the MD thing work ? and how do I use it to test the downloaded material?

You are actually installed and working... your video system just doesn't know it...

For years we have laughed at the MS "Blue Screen of Death" - Now we have our own White Screen of Death....

Ours is easier to fix tho...
It appears that someone screwed up the libvgahw.a file in /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/
This file apparently has something to do with the horizontal control of the monitor thru the video card...

Fedora FC 4's libvgahw.a is hosed...
But, the nice people at RedHat found that substituting the FC 3 file makes everything right again.. and if you don't have a copy of FC 3 libvgahw.a then they have made one available...

ftp://people.redhat.com/mharris/libvgahw.a

Now getting that little bugger replaced can be a bit of an adventure since ya got no video...
and logging in is impossible... well almost impossible...
what I did is, since iptables hasn't been set yet, I sftp from file manager on another machine thru my local network (The new machine is behind the firewall of My old RedHat 8 machine) into the new machine... ( I had assigned it a local IP during install... )

I changed the name of the existing libvgahw.a to libvgahw.a.FC4 then copied the FC3 libvgahw.a to the modules directory... I rebooted and all is good...

Later I found that that bad boy had to be changed after I updated FC 4 using YUM ...
SOOOO... I did 2 things...
1. I replaced the file again using the same method AND
2. I put another copy of it in the modules directory with the file name libvgahw.a.FC3

Now when I do another update, and until they fix this nasty little bug, I have a copy of the good file handy for future replacement...

I found this fix by doing a google on "white screen Fedora 4"
here is the bug report that gives the fix:

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzill...g.cgi?id=161242

Hope this helps,
Harry

I noticed the same problem, but it occurs at what I think would be the login screen (I installed in text mode) when I'm starting the OS.

I tried customizing the install so that the X-window system, Gnome, and KDE were all left out, but I still get the same thing. I would think that just installing the OS without any kind of GUI would have solved this, since I'd automatically just be working at the command line. Is this hypothesis incorrect, or am I forgetting something when customizing the install?


I still have the old RH9 CDs. Could the file be switched out by creating two logical partitions for RH9/Fedora and then swapping out the file by accessing the second partition from within RH9, or would batshit insanity ensue?

I think your first assumption is incorrect...

The problem as I see it has to do with the basic video, not just gui...
I THINK this file is used for all video not just when in mode 5...
I could be wrong but that is my view on it...

On your other point I believe that moving the file from one partition to the other would be possible...
but the RH9 file would not do, at least I don't think it would....
You would need to download the FC3 file then transfer that across the partition...

Is that about as clear as mud?

Harry

That's what I was thinking. I actually was referring to downloading the Fedora file & using RH9 (since I have video with it) to access the other partition and then swap the files.

The downside to that would be getting stuck with a dual-partition system whether I want it or not. That wouldn't be much of a concern if I had something more than a 16GB hard drive. (Did I mention that I'm installing on an antiquated piece of crap? 'Cause I am. It's crap.)

Update: I did manage to install Fedora without getting the white screen. The problem was one graphics option that I overlooked when customizing the install. (I thought that if you didn't install the X-Windows system or KDE/Gnome, that the white screen of death wouldn't occur. Apparently, you can't choose to install any graphics-based components. I now have a command line system with vi and possibly lynx. The next experiment will involve trying to install X-Windows & KDE from the command line & then swap out the two bad files before rebooting.