HELP! Linux wont work (aka viewing problems)

simeandrews · 01-02-2005, 03:48 PM

Hi everyone! I just attempted to install Mandrake 10.1 Official. Here's the catch : when I restarted and booted into mandrake console startup worked fine, but when it went into the graphical part, it royally screwed up. The screen was duplicated a bunch of times, and it was screwed up with lines through everything, and nothing could be seen besides the mouse ocasionally showing up when I move it. Maybe I need to change the resolution, but I can't because Mandrake is set to automatically boot into X. BTW Windows works fine. So, could someone help me? And if they can, I have no knowledge of Linux except some very basic Slackware stuff.

Heres the info
HP Pavillion a300n
Viewsonic a90f 19 inch
Dont know video card

itsjustme · 01-02-2005, 04:00 PM

When you get to the graphical point where everything is screwed up, can you open a new console with Alt-F2, or maybe Ctrl-Alt-F2, and then login to a new text session as root and work from there?

simeandrews · 01-02-2005, 04:08 PM

Wait, so I press ctrl+alt+f2, (it worked), and then what do I do? It says localhost login

simeandrews · 01-02-2005, 06:26 PM

Ok, so I was on Mandrakeexpert, and I got help, and this was what I got. I have two questions at the bottom, maybe someone could answer them for me?

Quote:

simeandrews : 02/01/05 10:22 PM : Incident created
Ok, so Mandrake 10.1 is installed, Lilo works, Windows works, Linux startup works, X doesnt.

Heres what happened. I turned on the computer after setup, selected Linux from Lilo, it started up properly, but when it turned on X, the desktop multiplied a few times, there were lines through everything, and nothing could be read. So, one word, HELP!

Flink : 02/01/05 10:36 PM : Reply received
Try to configure X:

At the boot menu press ESC and type
linux init 3

login as root and then try
XFdrake --expert

and choose 'Generic VGA Monitor' from the monitor list. The reason behind this
is to get a syntactically correct XFree86-4 file which you can edit later.

* Type

vi /etc/X11/X86Config-4

* Press the <i> key. Scroll the file down to the "Monitor section".
* Replace the values for 'HorizSync' and 'VertRefresh' with the values of
your monitor model.
* Press <ESC>. Type

:wq

and then hit <ENTER> to save the changed file.

* Reboot.

By boot menu, did they mean Lilo?
And what are the values of my monitor model?

twilli227 · 01-02-2005, 06:30 PM

You said windows works fine, use that to find out what type of video card you are using. Whether it is an onboard type or a pci card and the manufacturer.
You will then have to make some changes in either of these 2 files, because I do not know which one mandrake uses.
/etc/X11/XF86Config
xorg.conf

simeandrews · 01-02-2005, 06:37 PM

I know that it is onboard, I just dont know the brand name. I think its brookdale, but most people have never heard of that. I found that out when I was using Slack last year, someone installed Slackware for me, and there was trouble with that, but not with the window manager.

simeandrews · 01-02-2005, 06:46 PM

Ok, heres the info on my comuter, I think the video card is Intel, because it said Intel Extreme Graphics, but if someone wants to check, go rightahead. Heres the website, and forget about the brookdale thing.

HP Pavillion a300n

simeandrews · 01-02-2005, 07:15 PM

Yea, it is definitely intel.

The actual model is Intel(r) 82845g/ge/pe/gv/ Graphics Controller. So, now, what do I do? I can't really boot into Linux, although ctrl+alt+f2 does open a new console.