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Old 01-30-2008, 10:38 AM   #1
dale504
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Registered: Jan 2008
Location: IL
Distribution: f8
Posts: 29

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How can I change the video driver on a F8 during install !


ok im new so please be patient,I tryed to install F8 on a dell xps laptop with a ati 9700 mobility card but when the fedora screen comes up the screen rolls! I know the video
driver is wrong it thinks it is a ati 9600 card.
so is there a way to correct this?
thanks
dale504
 
Old 01-30-2008, 10:52 AM   #2
bbfuller
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Registered: Dec 2007
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Distribution: Mageia, MX, Manjaro, OpenSuSE, PCLinuxOS
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Hello dale504

Fedora comes with a built in video driver for most ATI graphic cards, but not all.

What you need to do is to install the proprietary ATI driver for your card.

For that you will need to get to a command prompt.

Holding down your ALT and CTRL keys and tapping the backspace should do that. ALT - CTRL - backspace is a command for killing the X server. If it should restart then try Alt - Ctrl - F1 which should give you one of the six available text logins. Log in as root.

What you need to do now is to activate one of the Fedora third party repositories that keep things not supplied with Fedora, usually for licence reasons.

Issue the command:

Code:
rpm -i http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm
and agree to whatever it suggests about authentication keys either now or later.

With that done, issue the command:

Code:
yum install kmod-fglrx xorg-x11-drv-fglrx-libs-32bit
That should install the ATI driver.

Restart your machine and you should be good to go.

If you haven't come across the command to reboot from the command prompt, it is:

Code:
shutdown -r now

Last edited by bbfuller; 01-30-2008 at 10:55 AM.
 
Old 01-30-2008, 10:58 AM   #3
dale504
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Registered: Jan 2008
Location: IL
Distribution: f8
Posts: 29

Original Poster
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Ok I will try that! I do this during the install? cuz the video card problem prevents me from completing the install????
regards
dale504
 
Old 01-30-2008, 11:45 AM   #4
bbfuller
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Hello dale504,

Ah, I assumed you were through the install and coming up to first login.

Are you trying to install from the DVD or from one of the live CD's?

Can you be a bit more specific about just how far into the install you are?

If you are installing from the DVD then there is an option to do a text based install and that would probably be your best bet if the install isn't going very far. Not sure if you can do that with the live cd's though. While you consider the above I'll check.
 
Old 02-01-2008, 12:38 PM   #5
dale504
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Registered: Jan 2008
Location: IL
Distribution: f8
Posts: 29

Original Poster
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ok I get to the point where the fedora desktop would come up or try!!! to come up an I get a rolling screen like when a tv has a vert sync problem that as far as i can get. you say use text based install ok but would that not install the wrong driver also? or can I add a driver at some point?

Regards
dale504
 
Old 02-01-2008, 02:11 PM   #6
bbfuller
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Registered: Dec 2007
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Distribution: Mageia, MX, Manjaro, OpenSuSE, PCLinuxOS
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Hello dale504

Fedora and Linux has in the main two sorts of video drivers. There are the open source, free of restriction, drivers provided with the xorg graphics manager and non-free ones provided by some of the major graphics cards players like ati and nvidia.

Different distributions have different attitudes to making the non-free drivers available either in the install medium or from a utility in the install, or adopting a hands off attitude and leaving you to get them from a third party source.

Fedora takes the latter approach.

If your install doesn't work with the free driver then you have to find some way of getting the non-free driver installed, and if the graphics aren't working then you will have to take the command prompt text based approach. Usually the non-free drivers do the job but no guarantees.

I'm sorry to be pedantic here, but what you need to do will depend on just what you mean by "where the fedora desktop would come up".

I also have to say again that it depends on if you are trying to install from a DVD or you are trying to run one of the live desktop Cd's, you didn't answer that question and the answers for both are different.

If you are using a DVD and mean it has got to the point where it has tried to start up the X server immediately prior to you seeing the graphical screen for login then you should be able to do the whole of my post #2.

If that doesn't work and you are getting an ordinary boot menu as the machine starts up then there are ways of editing the boot options to get you to a text login and perform post #2. There, where the first option to boot fedora shows, tap the down arrow key and you will see instructions to edit the boot commands. Press 'e' to edit your fedora installation, highlight the line starting 'kernel' and press 'e', move to the end of that line and after a space just add the numeral 3. The enter key and 'b' will boot your system to a command prompt and follow post #2.

If you are not getting to the state of a full install and it fails at the last hurdle then you will have to rely on a text install which will still fail at the graphics step but which will allow you to get access to a command prompt as described in post #2 and then install the non-free driver.

If you are trying to get to a desktop from the livecd then you will probably have more trouble, I don't see a way to dictate a different graphics driver there and I doubt it will let you insist on a command prompt, again by the methods in post #2, and in that case I'd probably suggest getting a DVD to install from.
 
  


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