'buntu DE won't work with monitor after install on old laptop
 

Greetings,

I am having trouble seeing any desktop after clean install. I'm not an expert at all(more of a noob than anything), but I've tried doing my reading and work on this as best I could. I'm hoping someone out there can help. Thanks in advance.

Big Picture:
Monitor will show "splash screen" of whatever distro I choose (Xbuntu, Lubuntu or Ubuntu), but after the nice little spalsh it trys to display the login screen, but the monitor craps out.

Why am I using a monitor instead of the laptop screen?
I have to use the monitor as the screen on the laptop is busted.

Specs:
Machine = Dell C600 laptop. 512Ram 20GigHD.
I am using the docking station for the laptop, but the system is configured to use system video card.
Monitor is old Relisys CRT.

Distros tried and successfully installed:
Xubuntu 12.04 Alt i386
Lubuntu 12.04 Alt i386
Ubuntu 10.04 Alt i386 - Was trying to see if the legacy LTS would work.

With all of these I can ^F1 to CLI and login, and even complete updates.

I have tried modifying grub (sudo nano grub) with the following after quiet splash;
xforcevesa, nomodeset, radeon.modeset=0 & radeon.modeset=1.
None of the them improve my situation.
Yes, I do sudo update-grub after each try.

Is there something else I could try? Maybe force it to work with another parameter I'm not familiar with beyond xforcevesa?

I suspect someone will ask for my lspci output, but I'm not familiar with how to get that in here since I can't get to a GUI. If you really want it, I'll take a picture. or copy it manually I guess.

Thank you for reading.

Unity Desktop requirements

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Demystifying...reRequirements

So If I was you. I'd try Xubuntu instead maybe.

http://xubuntu.org/getxubuntu/

Edit: or do

http://it-diary.com/tutorials/instal...cise-pangolin/

and login to xfce instead at session in login window.

2nd edit: or try out

http://forum.pinguyos.com/Thread-LPi...nal-Discussion

or

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=solusos

Hello,

Thanks for the reply. I have and am trying Xubuntu. I know I listed it above, but perhaps I didn't phrase it properly.
It won't work.

You bring up an interesting point. Perhaps the video memory of 8mb isn't enough to push it to the monitor, but I don't know why. It can push the CLI just fine. Is the xfce desktop really that much more hefty? I know the laptop can present the xfce desktop on the laptop screen as I can see it there. I just can't read or do anything with it since the laptop screen is all broken. Hence my attempt to use a vga monitor.

I was hoping there was some parameters in a CLI desktop configuration I could try.

Maybe trying to get this old hardware to work with a desktop of this magnitude just isn't in the cards. I'll read more about solusos.

Thanks again for responding. Take care.

You should be Ok with that setup with Xubuntu or Lubuntu. Maybe use 16 bit color or 24 bit color boot options with vga=xxx.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VESA_BI...o_mode_numbers

I kinda ran into the same problem once with AntiX on a eeepc with a undefined video mode boot error once where I had to edit the kernel line in grub to get me to a desktop (Fluxbox) with a vga=785 for a 1024x600 lcd. If your monitor in 1024x768. The line should read vga=791.

If you have a extra blank cd disk. Might I suggest trying a live cd boot of

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=semplice

or

http://distrowatch.com/table.php?distribution=antix

so you can rule out maybe a hardware glitch maybe instead of a software problem. I am not sure though if when you ran Lubuntu or Xubuntu. That you got into a desktop during a live session. Also. Maybe the problem, (just guessing) has to do with the setting buttons on the front of crt itself. I run a IBM A22M with about the same specs as your Dell D600. I run AntiX though instead of Ubuntu. I also have been able to run a external 19" crt monitor on it also when the screen was needing to be fixed (snafued ribbon cable on back of lcd).

Very helpful. I think the vga parameters are what I'm looking for. I'll give these a try this evening.

I'll also give the other distros a look as well. One of these is bound to be happy with my C600.

Thank you. I'll reply with my results. Have a great day.

Antix didn't work unfortunately. Nor did the multiple vga=xxx parameters I tried. very disappointing. AntiX does look interesting. I can see the installer, and it started, but once it tried to present a desktop (or whatever it is trying to do) it craps out like all the others. I will definitely try it on another machine soon.

I also swapped out the crt with an acer flat pannel, and no change in behavior. I just thought my monitor was too old and it might be the problem.

Next step; I'm going to try and remove the the machine from the dock. Last time I tried this, I could not keep the laptop screen from displaying.

Appreciate the following. Have a great day.

Durn, maybe more damage than a broken screen maybe on that Dell D600. Crt is not too old and LCD should have gave you a screen/desktop. I have hooked up a 21" crt to my eeepc 701 during one of my AntiX runs to watch a movie and had no issues what so ever.

One cd I can usually get to boot to a desktop on any of my hardware I have owned is Puppy Linux 4.31. Even on low ram and 1 foot in the grave machines. Using the xvesa option on boot up. There are also boot cheat codes in AntiX also in case you did not know.


http://distrowatch.com/?newsid=05720

The 4.31 is only a 105MB download. I guess I should also mention I always md5sum check any Linux downoaded iso for file integrity before burning a cd on good quality cd media and burn the iso at the slowest speed I can (which I try to get at 4x).

Too bad McKinney is on the other side of Texas and Gas is so durn expensive.

I guess the bios has no way of turning off internal lcd monitor. Also wondering if the docking station vga connector is actually what is screwing with you (because the more stuff in the way, the more things have a possibility of hardware going wrong). Usually. I can just plug in monitor vga plug right into the laptop and I am off to th races with no problem. Even on this Amrel RT 786EX Police Laptop I picked up for cheapo.

I am going to be busy with beta testing 2 Linux distros that I am a team member of this weekend. and I also have to go to Austin Tx to attend my youngest boys wedding.

Good luck with it bro, and Happy Trails Rok

Monitor direct to my C not D600 didn't work. Oh well. Seems such a shame to waste a P-3 with 512ram and 20G HD.

I don't have a problem installing any distro, as the alt installs of "any"buntu work great.

It is using a desktop AFTER I get it installed that is the problem.

I read the spec sheet of the C600, and it says when you plug in a monitor it should just work. I suspect that it may be windows geared or something, because even when I try Fn+F8 to toggle screen/CRT it won't work. Video card must be damaged like you said. so sad.

Oh well. Puppy will be my last attempt this weekend.

If I was a guru at CLI, then I wouldn't have a thread I guess, but I'm still taking baby steps.

Have a great time. All the best to the wedding party.

Thanks again.

Check this one out... It is called INX (is not X). Might be a fun thing to try. http://inx.maincontent.net/

Hello,
I had such an issue few days ago in a school here in Stuttgart.
With LinuxMint12 lxde, I had to add the code video.allow_duplicates=1 in the boot parameters of the live CD.
Reason: the laptop screen was nearly defect and we had to connect another screen.
LinuxMint13 MATE was immediatly on the second screen, but too slow.
PartedMagic booted ok but was only a try.
Perhaps it helps.

@jkirchner

Thanks - I will begin to study INX this weekend. Should be fun.

@floppystuttgart

I will give that a try. I have never read about that code. Always open to suggestions. Danke

Also, thanks to all who have read & helped so far. Over in Ubuntu Forums I've had 80+ views, but alas no help. Glad I posted in both places. Have a good weekend all.

Different guy same problem
 

Wierd! i am having a similar issue, the difference being that my monitor works fine, well it used to.

my laptop is a Dell Inspiron 1100. 512gb RAM and 2.2ghz Celeron CPU after alot of research I was unable to find out how much dedicated video memory it had...

the laptop will boot perfectly from the CD or USBflashdrive (monitor and all) but when i try to boot from the HDD the monitor shuts down, i have tried all the previous steps. none of which worked

After reading again, my impression is the screen is a victim of the radeon card.
So, a correct setup should be found for the radeon (use the boot code vga=ask? or use xorg?).
For the second, personally, I would try knoppix or archbang in order to see if they have the correct automatic xorg conf (correct driver version, correct parameters including double screen setup).
Or search again and again in the net to see who had success with your dell piece (slitaz? knoppix..?) and copy their successfully implemented xorg.conf file for the distro you have choosen.

After writing the above and googling a bit, I found several advice with google "Dell C600 laptop linux xorg.conf" and ".. double screen"

http://kimbriggs.com/computers/compu...top-linux.file
http://kimbriggs.com/computers/compu..._xorg.conf.txt

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...isplay-381126/

http://radagast.bglug.ca/laptop/ubun...tude_c600.html


If a boot fail to load correctly the X, post here the /var/log/Xorg.0.log we will probably see what is happening and why the screen is not having it functionality.

Good luck.

Start another thread for your new topic?
Your laptop seems to accept well linux...
http://www.velofahren.de/e_dell-inspiron-1100.html
http://nbpfaus.net/~pfau/inspiron.html
http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/Chri...iron_1100.html