Linux - DistributionsThis forum is for Distribution specific questions.
Red Hat, Slackware, Debian, Novell, LFS, Mandriva, Ubuntu, Fedora - the list goes on and on...
Note: An (*) indicates there is no official participation from that distribution here at LQ.
Notices
Welcome to LinuxQuestions.org, a friendly and active Linux Community.
You are currently viewing LQ as a guest. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Registration is quick, simple and absolutely free. Join our community today!
Note that registered members see fewer ads, and ContentLink is completely disabled once you log in.
If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us. If you need to reset your password, click here.
Having a problem logging in? Please visit this page to clear all LQ-related cookies.
Get a virtual cloud desktop with the Linux distro that you want in less than five minutes with Shells! With over 10 pre-installed distros to choose from, the worry-free installation life is here! Whether you are a digital nomad or just looking for flexibility, Shells can put your Linux machine on the device that you want to use.
Exclusive for LQ members, get up to 45% off per month. Click here for more info.
Before I get flamed for even attempting to run Lindows, let me say that I run Slackware 9.1 at home and I am completely happy with it. I took advantage of the free download offer that Lindows had yesterday just to see what Lindows is like, so, here we go.
They say first impressions are often what makes your mind up about something.
If that were the case, I'd throw the newly burnt Lindows 4.5 Developer edition in the bin right now, but I'm willing to try again later.
I booted the Lindows install from CD and was presented with a fancy (for old DOS 8-bit games that is) fading effect into a Lindows boot screen with a logo and two options :-
1. Install
2. Diagonostics
Being the geek that I am, I immediately went to diagnostics, which looks like familiar Linux booting up, with a few differences.
I noticed that it had trouble installing my firewire services, but I never use that anyway.
Then I noticed something unique for a Linux install - it installs the official Nvidia drivers for Linux - I noticed that because I saw the customary warning when you install the Nvidia module
Anyway, I finally ended up with a terminal that said something like:-
Hit exit to quit or startx to start the lindows installer
Ok, I type startx
I'm presented with a black screen with gibberish characters on it - looks like X windows which the installer no dought runs on has crashed.
Ok, lets try again with a default install.
I reboot and this time I start the installer the normal way.
So far so good. I've got the lindows logo with a status bar indicating that the installer is starting up.
It starts up, but once again I'm presented with a screen of gibberish.
Lets reboot and try again oops, same problem. Num Lock still works, so it means the system hasn't totally crashed, but a screen full of gibbersh doesn't make an install easy.
I leave it for 10 minutes.
Nada.
Lindows has a loooong way to go it seems, as my work machine is a stock standard Pentium4, Asus motherboard and Leadtek Ti4200, there's nothing exotic about it.
I suspect what Lindows has done is to try to load the official Nvidia drivers or the XFree86 Nvidia drivers for the install instead of choosing the safe option of standard Vesa drivers which all modern video cards support.
If this is the case (and it appears that it is), it's a huge error of judgement by Lindows as the Nvidia Linux drivers are very fickle and often throw up errors like this.
Just to add some boring geekness into the mix, my work system will run on the official Nvidia drivers, but only if I add an AGP option to XF86config. It runs the standard XFree86 nv drivers without any issues.
I'll try again at home tonight on a spare machine...
Distribution: Fedora Core 1 & WinXP Pro & Gentoo 1.4 & Arch Linux
Posts: 558
Rep:
You need to edit the XF86Config-4 file by hand to include the line
Code:
Option "NvAgp" "1"
This will take care of the "gibberish" you are seeing on the screen (looks like ASCII garbage) and it is not associated with the distro but with the Nvidia driver.
I've gotten this mess with Mandrake, Arch and Fedora so far when installing the Nvidia drivers.
LinuxQuestions.org is looking for people interested in writing
Editorials, Articles, Reviews, and more. If you'd like to contribute
content, let us know.