HI
Glad i finally found this place. Im an old UNIX guy who has finally gotten tired of the MSFT software obsolence cycle. Live in Mexico and built this platform several weeks ago and have been thru some interesting experiences that have led me to Linux.

Downloaded the images for Mandrake 9.1 put a second drive in the machine and loaded the drake. GUI would not run. Problem seems to be the vid settings and vid cards. Am running a pair of SGI 1600SW monitors on Number 9 Revolution 4 cards on the PCI buss. Tried XF86Config, X configurator, XF86 Setup, and config X to no result. Rewinstalled Drake several times after wiping the Linux drive. Harddrake2 wont run. XFDrake gives no meaningful results. Mandrake runs fine in command prompt mode but when you launch X it crashes back to command prompt mode.

The platform details are Giga Byte 8KNXP Ultra MB with a P4 Hyperthreading 3.0GHz proc, 2 GB RAM, SCSI and IDE drives(Linux on the IDE) 2 1600SW Silicon Graphics monitors on #9 Rev 4 vid cards on the PCI buss (each card 32 MB RAM).

I dont remember enough UNIX to find the device drivers for the vid.

Incidentally, when I launch X the screen will flash several times and then I return to text with the message that screen init failed. I also removed one of the vid cards and tried installing Drake with only one card and monitor. Same results.

Any help would be deeply appreciated.
Carr McCormack
praco@mindspring.com

Mandrake uses XF86Config only if you installed the v3 driver, if you used the v4 driver it uses XF86Config-4.

Have you checked that the range of Vertical Refresh in Hz and Horizontal Sync (kHz) figures in XF86Config-4 allow for a combination that acutally works with the monitor? That's a common reason for X not running at all, or running in an inferior mode.

If it's not that I can't help! I'm new to this!

DAVE

Dave

Did not know that about the V 4 driver-- will try that, Sounds like I am newer at this than are you

Is XF86Config-4 actually a sub program that runs from the command shell or is it a config file that needs to be edited??

While I really like my SGI's their native resolution os 1600 x 1024, where I run them and only at a 60Hz refresh rate. I have not been able to find anywhere with both the H and V rates are (running Win XP on the other drive)
Thanks and any further suggestions would be deeply appreciated.
Carr McCormack III
praco@mindspring.com

XF86Config-4 is just a configuration file. It looks the same as XF86Config, but some Linux distributions, such as Mandrake, use "-4" if you load up the v4.x.x video drivers.

My problem was not as serious as yours, I just had bad monitor shake. I am dual-booting Windows and Linux, and I got my "ideal" figures by pressing the button on the monitor in Windows. It turned out that Windows produced a rock-solid display on my monitor using a Vertical Refresh of 75.3Hz and a Horizontal Sync of 80.3kHz. Linux was using 60Hz and 60kHz. My "HorizSync" line in XF86Config-4 only went up to 79, (two figures separated by a hyphen) so I changed it to 81, rebooted and all was well. If, given the ranges, there is nothing that your monitor can use at all, then X just does not run.

Do your monitors have a button on the front, with an on-screen menu? If so, run Windows, and press the button to see if there is an "i" (information) icon. This may tell you what frequencies the monitor is using.

As I said before, I could be totally wrong... but then again you may find another clue in XF86Config-4, (ie does the file include support for your resolution?).

DAVE

Hi
Thanks for the reply

I finally found the H and V sync rates for these monitors from the SGI website after digging around in their documentation. I also found a couple of sites that supported the card/monitor configuration (supposedly)with drivers. Downloaded the drivers (under the other boot XP Pro) and put them on floppy. Rebooted. when I tried to mount the floppy (I booted and installed from CD) nothing happened.... Im just about ready to put the image CD's in the garbage can. Its enough to piss one off. Im curious about what commands you use on your floppy or whether you have supermount running or whether it loads without additional work. Also are you using VI for the XF86 config work??

Thanks
Carr

When you try to mount your floppy do you specify the file system? If you built the floppy in Windows it will not work under a Linux file system. You may have to turn off supermount and specifically mount the floppy in vfat mode. I've never had to do this. Actually it's easier to leave the files on your Windows partition and set up Mandrake to mount it. You can then run the files from there. That's what I did.

As for editing XF86Config-4, yes I used "vi". I have to use the nVidia drivers, but it makes no difference to getting the VertRefresh and HorizSync lines right in XFConfig-4. Even without the nVidia drivers my video card worked, it just behaved like a cheap 2d card, which is why I suspect your config.

But as I said I could be totally wrong!

DAVE

Dave
Yes I did build the floppy under NTFS which is whats on the other drive here with Windows XP.

With NTFS on the other dirve wonder if it could be mounted???

Regards and thanks for the help
Carr

As far as I know Mandrake 9.1 can mount ntfs... I have Win98SE so I've never tried it myself!

DAVE

OK so Im curious... the other drive is a SCSI drive (the one that Linux is on is an IDE unit) . Would I do a mount NTFS??