I really need to and want to switch to LINUX PLEASE HELP

masonm · 10-09-2007, 10:02 PM

Try using the safe video settings option.

fireblade_spark · 10-10-2007, 12:01 AM

Well after going thru all ur advices i'll go for Suse 10.3.
Although the same problem(xserver failed to start) existed with suse 10.1 when i tried to install it, but hopefully it wont bother me in suse 10.3.

Any suggestions??

IndyGunFreak · 10-10-2007, 01:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Civil_West

Hello,
I have had the same problems when installing Ubuntu. I am using 7.04. Feisty Fawn currently. Here is what I do. (Don't know if this is the best solution, I am still a Newby);
Unplug the hard drive with WinXP on it and install another hard drive in it's place. [One from an old computer or a new one.....They are getting cheaper all the time. I bought a new one at Wally World for $80 bucks (80 gig).] This will insure XP's survival!
Go in to the CMOS setup of your motherboard and make sure you set the Operating system type to "Other" for linux/unix.
I sometimes forget to do this and it seems to always "do the trick"!
Install from the cd and when it asks how you want the disk partition setup...choose "format disk and use all space available".

If you have a "Built in Graphics card on the motherboard and PCI or AGP or whatever card installed you may want to make sure it is disabled or disable it in CMOS also. I have had some IRQ conflicts with graphic cards when I didn't do this. I am using a 7 - 8 year old computer so this may all be unnecessary with the newest computers...I don't know. Any way...This is what I would do if it were me. You linux pros out there forgive me if all this is useless info!

Civil West

Those are good suggestions. Linux on one drive, XP on the other, is a good way to ease into Linux. You don't have to worry about accidentally hosing your safety net(XP), while still being free to put other distros on a completely different hard drive.

80gigs are super cheap right now, and work great for this. You can get them quite a bit cheaper than $80 if you look around. They take about 10min to install, and if you have the mental capacity to turn a screwdriver, you can do it yourself.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...Sort=0&Recs=10

Good suggestion, but it probably doesn't fix his video issue. Starting in safe graphics mode would probably help to. My experience with Suse is from a long time ago, so I'm sure its had changes since then. I did try openSuse a couple years ago, and I found it to be extermely slow...

YMMV of course, Good luck!

IGF

fireblade_spark · 10-10-2007, 10:41 AM

Well after such nice suggestions from all you guys I've decided to not to give up and try something which supports my hard ware!!
so today only i found out that Mandriva 2008 has been released and ive already started downloading the live CD from the official site!!
SO hope it works!!

Any suggestions for Mandriva 2008. what do you guys think?? will it work on my PC?

jay73 · 10-10-2007, 11:03 AM

It should. Mandriva is one of the few distros that will select the framebuffer if it can't find any other driver for your videocard.

baikonur · 10-10-2007, 11:06 AM

this sure brings back memories...
when i started out with linux i went through a whole zoo of distros to get linux running on my box. it started in the year 2000 with turbo linux, then slackware, then redhat. couldn't get any of these to work smoothly, but i kept trying. then mandrake 6.1, which was the first one where i at least made it to get some functionality. i used it to play back some mp3's and go online with it with my 56 k modem. after that came suse 8 or 9, which was the first one i used to write code on. then slax again, back to suse and now debian, since 2 years, and i'm completely happy with it. no windows on my laptop since december 2005. my servers at work all run debian as well (without X, of course) and i'm completely happy with that, too. i know this won't help you the tiniest bit with your graphics card detection, but what i want to say is:

don't give up!! it's well worth the effort!!

baik

fireblade_spark · 10-11-2007, 08:27 AM

i have ran mandriva 2008 on my PC it was runnin smooth!! from a live CD although!

i wonder if i install it, would it run smoothley or will it gimme any trouble?

Please tell as soon as possible!!

fireblade_spark · 10-11-2007, 08:30 AM

please also tell where should i find the drivers for my nvidia geforce 7100 graphics card to which should function on Mandriva 2008.

jay73 · 10-11-2007, 08:55 AM

I don't expect it to give you any trouble. If the liveCD can run X, it should still work after installing too.

As for the video driver, I assume that Mandriva is using either the open source nv driver or the framebuffer. Both work fine but do not offer the same performance and functionality as the proprietary driver which is available from the Nvidia site
http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
But maybe the driver is in the repositories too? Search the menus for an entry that looks like "Install/Remove software" and check whether there are any nvidia drivers available. Installation tends to differ from one distro to another so you'll have to search google to find out what you're expected to do.

radar.dude · 10-11-2007, 12:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by oskar

nonono

Don't go for gutsy yet! Feisty was ready enough at herd4, but gutsy is really not for the novice user at this stage. I would even suggest you wait to upgrade for at least one month after the final release.
Yesterday I installed fedora besides gutsy, because it got to the point of being unusable. It's a good exercise in troubleshooting, but not for a new user.

...a little off topic, but I thought ubuntu distros update automatically with newer versions. True?
If so, then how do you stop it from updating to G.G. until all bugs are ironed out?
I've been running Feisty Fawn on a legacy machine (celeron III @800 Mhz with 512 Mb ram and GeForce2 MX 100 at 64 Mbytes ram, on a Quantum Fireball 10 Gigs!)) for a couple of months now with hardly any problems (hplip won't install) and I'm really looking forward to Gutsy Gibbon!

IndyGunFreak · 10-11-2007, 12:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by radar.dude

...a little off topic, but I thought ubuntu distros update automatically with newer versions. True?
If so, then how do you stop it from updating to G.G. until all bugs are ironed out?
I've been running Feisty Fawn on a legacy machine (celeron III @800 Mhz with 512 Mb ram and GeForce2 MX 100 at 64 Mbytes ram, on a Quantum Fireball 10 Gigs!)) for a couple of months now with hardly any problems (hplip won't install) and I'm really looking forward to Gutsy Gibbon!

No, you have to specifically telling it to upgrade to Gutsy. I believe its an option when you run update manager, butyou can also run sudo apt-get dist-upgrade I do believe. Like I said earlier, I don't generally upgrade, so I'm not 100% sure.

fireblade_spark · 10-11-2007, 02:41 PM

Mandriva 2008 runnin with full graphical eye candy it can producce!! on my PC!!
Thank you guys for your support!!
Thanks a ton.

brianL · 10-11-2007, 03:27 PM

Good. Glad to hear everything's worked out OK.