Installing Mandrake
 

Hello, I tried to install Mandrake 10.1 Official Edition. Everything went smoothly except the graphics card setup. I have a piece of junk S3 Virge/GX (which I believe to be 2mb). So I selected S3 Virge/GX from the list and then told it it was 2MB. I choose plug-in-play for my monitor (Gateway EV500). Then I set the resolution to 800X600 and ran a test. The colors were all scrabled but I could make out the dialog box that said "is this the correct setting" so I clicked no. I tried again with 1024X768. Same thing. Then I figured maybe I messed something up by mistake in the settings, so I went back and re-selected S3 Virge/GX, 2MB, plug-in-play monitor. And tried a test again in 1024X768 and the screen went black. The light on my monitor was green so it was recieving a signal but nothing was showing up. I waited 1-2 min. but nothing happened. So I just shutdown...and now sadly enough, I am still running windows. Anyone know whats wrong?

Thanks.

Would it be hard to get a better card? 2MB is not very good. I have 128MB and that works really well, It's a cheap Geforce (something or other).
Sorry, if that does not help much.

I have a 64MB card but it dosnt work 100% in windows so I don't use it...sometimes text that should showup in one place on the screen shows up elseware...I could get a new card, if thats what I have to do, but as of right now I don't plan on doing anything graphics intensive...I'm just going to be using it to control a cnc machine. I would like to first try to get it working with the card I have.

Thanks.

Okay, Do yo have a LiveCD on you? knoppix or Kanotix or something, to see if that works all right with the card. If a livecd works, it's FC3's problem. But if not... new card.

No, I don't have a liveCD. Can I download an iso from somewhere?

Can you install without the graphical card? I think this would lead you to a 256 color system ... Do you get true color or high color on Windows?

Also, reed at the back of your monitor it´s refresh rate and try to set it on the configuration. Refresh rates can cause problems...

Ok, well, I actually got it working. I am posting this right now using it. I installed my 64MB video card. But it will only work with 800X600. If I try 1024X768 it goes off the screen and loops around if I drag a dialog box to one of the edges of the screen. Also, it is only allowing me 16-bit colors, no more no less. In windows I have gotten 1024X768 and higher with this card and I have gotten at least 24-bit, I think I got 32. Mandrake just automatically gave it the Xorg vesa driver. It says it is made by Silicon Integrated System and its description is SiS325 2D/3D Accelerator. I looked under the SiS vendor in the graphics card configuration to see if it had a driver specifically for this card (I thought maybe the vesa Xorg is a generic driver and the specific one would work better.) but I didn't see it listed. When I install it in windows it describes the card as ag315p-64.

The same here, Mandrake will only alow a maximum of 800x640 but with true color. It´s not a bad resolution, just be careful that some configuration dialogs on KDE are larger then the screen. You can hold ALT and drag the dialogs with the mouse by clicking on them. This solves the big dialogs problem.