keep losing monitor on install
 

I'm pretty new at this. I previously had a problem on a dual boot install of 8.04. At about 73% of the install, the monitor goes black. At that time, with some help from this forum, I hit control/alt/F1 and got into that page where I checked to fix X. That worked to a certain extent, but it seemed to come and go. This time I installed 8.10 on the same partition, and the monitor went black at the same time (about 73%). I tried the fix x routine, but when I booted, I was at a screen that said I was in limited or low graphics mode, and I could not figure out a way to get past that screen. On the first install I was using an old CRT monitor, this time it was a new widescreen LCD. I am really eager to get into Ubuntu and have learned a lot already, but this is discouraging. Any thoughts or input would be appreciated.

Install Ubuntu in console mode if possible.

I'm not familiar with that method. Do you have a link?

Were you able to use the low graphics mode? You said, "I could not figure out a way to get past that screen," which, IIRC, is just to press the <tab> key until the "Yes" button is highlighted, and then press <Enter>. (Or, just click on the "yes" button if your mouse works.)

From your problem description, it sounds as though your video driver is not supported "out of the box" by the standard FOSS drivers supplied by Xorg. The "low graphics mode" just means that the system is using the vesa driver which will run most driver hardware.

Once you get Ubuntu running, configure your repositories to include the "restricted" ones, and search for a driver for your specific device. (Note: If you're running an X86_64 system and OS, the restricted nVidia driver - if that's you video controler - will not work for the newer drives built in to the mother board.)

I did a reinstall just to see if that would make a difference. I booted in restricted mode and did the xfix. This got me the login and password screens, but from there it just booted into another black screen. Since then I have not seen the low graphics mode screen. Is there any way to get into low graphics on purpose?

Or how about this - does anyone know of any other distributions of Linux where this issue is not a problem? After googling quite a bit, it seems that this is a pretty big issue for Ubuntu, at least for the computer I'm trying to get it working on with an Nvidia display adapter. I can't see a way around it without trial and erroring for the next two months. If I could get some kind of display, or find some instruction on dealing with it from a console (if I can get to one), I might have a chance, but right now it doesn't seem to be in the cards. I just don't have the expertise or experience to work around it and although I have found lots of documentation in this and other forums, I'm having quite a bit of trouble trying to even find square one to troubleshoot from. Any reply would be appreciated.

Slackware's installer do not use X at all so you could try it.

Thanks, Didier Spaier.

would help to know what graphics card you have.. would be easier to suggest a valid solution.

I have always had problems with Ubuntu and graphics cards... Fedora I believe like CentOS and RHEL gives you the option of text installer but as it won't change or use the graphics driver mid-installer... strange infact that Ubuntu does this as you'd think it would wait until post install to use the drivers it has set-up...

Debian is the opposite.. it default is a text based install, you have to tell it to use the graphical installer Most people aren't even aware that Debian even HAS a graphical installer, which it has had for several years now.. :)

I far more use to text installers personally. Tho Debian's can hardly be said to be the easiest, I might just have to try the graphical installer next time I have to do a Debian install... I am sure one will come up within the next month or so.

The display adapter is listed as Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV (onboard). This is all that I can find at this time.

If I remember well, for this card the "intel" X driver will do. But even the "vesa" X driver should work, though with reduced features such as not being able to get the full resolution of your display.

But I do not know if the Ubuntu installer allows you to choose the driver for X.

But I did notice that a text based alternate installer is available for Ubuntu, so you could use it if you are not yet ready to dive into Slackware ;)

I took a look, but am confused as to which ones are text based installers and which are not. Would that be the "alternate install CD"? And thanks again, Didier Spaier.