I just replaced Win98 with Fedora Core 4 on a friends' computer: AMD
550, 128MB RAM. Now, he can work for a limited amount of time (between
20-150 minutes), then the computer gets stuck. Not even the mouse
works. He can, however, switch to a console with CTR-ALT-F1.

When restarted, there is no graphical mode, only console. If he lets
the computer sit for a few hours, he can boot up a graphical screen,
but after some time the problem reoccurs. Nothing in the computer
(open case) seems unusually hot, which was my first thought.

Any ideas on where to look? Thank you.

Dotan Cohen
http://lyricslist.com/lyrics/biography/88/brandy.php
Brandy Song Lyrics and Biography

I am surely no expert on this (if somewhere at all ), but you could read in /var/log/, there should be log files from your X server (for example Xorg.0.log here).

Solution to 1) X server problem of fedora 4
2) Screen blank problem of FC4,
3) Graphics failure of FC4

Enter into text login

Edit grub.conf to get text login.
Enter as root.
Make a script file of 2 commands as below
system-config-display
gdm
save it as x ( or your choice)
enable it to run ( chmod a+x )

run the script file ( ./x )
set the resolution, graphics card ( required only first time )

I hope you will get the Graphics login screen.

you may edit grub.conf file to get text login

Everytime you have to login as root and run script file.

usually a software problem presents itself right of the bat.

but since this occurs after warming up, i'd suspect a hard ware failure.

possibly the video card.

but with the age of the system, it could be anything else from the mother board to the processor.

i'd swap out hardware until i found the problem.

ie. if your X (graphical interface) is working, it is not all of sudden-- after several hours-- not work.

good luck, let us know how you progress :)

May be the hardware requirement for fc4 is higher than your configuration..... as far as i know.

Memory Requirements

This list is for 32-bit x86 systems:
-Minimum for text-mode: 64MB
-Minimum for graphical: 192MB
-Recommended for graphical: 256MB

This list is for 64-bit x86_64 systems:
-Minimum for text-mode: 128MB
-Minimum for graphical: 256MB
-Recommended for graphical: 512MB

i would 'think' that if his x booted up, then swap would take care of any definciances after that.. but maybe not.

either way, it definitely seems 'hardware' related... i mean, a 500 mhz mach is predddy old :)

Yes i do agree with you "halvy".....
But i suggest "dotancohen" that rather looking for a replacement or upgradation for ur h/w you may try any older version of fedora core.
can get from this link
http://linuxiso.org/distro.php?distro=64
Best of luck

I ran a computer with 64 mb of ram with X without any problem BUT are there other areas other problems that seem unrelated, had processor go on one old computer - it only gave an area message when shut down wright before it told you to power of but it was more unstable then M$

Hell all I could'nt help but read this a mention that I "WAS" using a old old old compaq with a P II and a 128M of ram Oh and it had a 6G HD I ran FC3 on it (Y I have no idea) it was as slow as a old lady crossing the street but it worked fine I had my GUI (KDE) sound and video.

Anyways my point is that when I tried FC4 my PC didn't even work I could'nt even get it through the boot process. It mite be a good idea to try FC.3 Im using i now on a old Dell Dimension XPS T600 PIII 384M of ram and 2 HD (a 12G and a 75G) and it's fast, well faster than that old dinosaur. It runs faster than XP did on here
Good luck

dot, i concure with the others.. try fed 3 first.

if that works, then you know it was the requirments of 4 that were tooo hi.

then, to have an even better system, build a debian one from scratch.

all the effort you put into your system will be well rewarded with a very stable and complete system that will be contoured to your hardware better than fed. plus more software to choose from (ie from the sciences, multimedia, etc).

good luck, let us all know :)

I also thought that it was a hardware problem, however the machine ran win98 fine. I checked for error messages in the X log, but there were no EE entries. However, I did notice that there is no swap space. cat /proc/swap is blank. I DID specify a swap partition, but there is no swap! Could this be a cause?

Dotan Cohen
http://technology-sleuth.com/technic...dangerous.html

computers=woman

can't control either one, and anything is possible ;)

yes it is possible that no swap is/was your problem, but i doubt it.

as far as win98 running ok, that is a good sign tooo... but..

since the software in linux utilizes the hardware much diferently (ie X server), i personally would not stop looking for a solution.

fix the swap and test it though.. hopefully you found the problems :)

i had a problem with fc4 but got over it after tuuning off the video acceleration(my pc is PIII 1.1Ghz,128Mb)am not an expert
..cannt remember how i did it