Getting around Linux Installation Catch-22 w/r/t NVidia Driver
 

So I've been trying out a few different linux distros on a desktop I initially built for hackintosh purposes, and though I've managed to get them up and running eventually, I've had the same frustrating problem during installation for all of them.

Basically, the GPU craps out within a few minutes of startup, until the proprietary nvidia drivers are installed. So what this means is that when I'm booting off of a live image USB or installation dvd, I have to race through the installation set-up as fast as I can so that the installation process will start before the crash happens.

I've tried all of the various boot prompt arguments and modifiers I've seen suggested on the community boards at each of the distros I've tried, and every time, anywhere from a few seconds to two minutes in, the monitor stops receiving any signal. It even happens when I boot into a text-only console.

What I'm wondering is if there are ways around this. Is it possible to run an installation disk from a virtual drive on a working linux installation and use that to install to a separate hard drive or partition? Is there a way to bootstrap the nvidia drivers onto a live cd disk image? Or some other method I don't know enough to think of?

Hi -

Sure! Glad you asked :)

When you boot from the Live CD ... the initial splash screen will usually have a line toward the bottom for you to type in special "boot options".

You want to choose "vesa".

Here's a good "howto" for Ubuntu:

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

The specifics will be slightly different from distro to distro, and distro version to version. But it should point you in the right direction.

'Hope that helps .. PSM

Thanks for taking an interest in my dilemma. I've tried both "vesa" and "nomodeset" and a couple of other boot options that I've had suggested that escape me at the moment. Neither of them kept the graphics card working any longer.