I have Mandriva 10, but am planning to install Debian and am willing to try other distros. My question is what are the video settings for the boot-up and splash screens? I want to use the video input of a portable DVD player but, although the boot listing and splash graphics work fine, as soon as X loads, I can't seem to find a size and frequency that synchs with the DVD player.

Any advice?

(Also, does anyone know of a distro that has gnomad available as part of the package? I have a creative zen micro mp3 player and haven't been successful in getting the libraries and program loaded and recognize the zen.)

William

what program are you using in 'x'?

there are many out there... like mplayer, xine, vlc..that are proven champs for what you are trying to do.

good luck.

I am not talking about a video player, but the main screen. As I wrote, I am trying to use the composite video input on a portable DVD player. My Shuttle 62 has a composite video output (in addition to the normal VGA) that can feed a TV directly. As the machine is booting (both POST and splash screen with or without details) the video output is readable by my DVD player. As soon as it goes to the X server, even as KDE is finishing loading, the synch disappears. Depending on the synch frequency and size of screen, the video is garbled in different ways - but always garbled.

I tried various combinations of screen size and synch frequency. I went through every synch frequency for standard vga (640x480) and tried 60hz for some of the smaller screen sizes but nothing worked. Rather than try all combinations of size and synch, I thought someone on this forum might know what Linux puts out before it goes to X. It's possible it is CGA or something even more primitive - with a small color depth.

I could, I suppose try a distro that is command line only but I don't have the time to do the research on what I could do from there that would be useful.

William

ok sorry about that..

does your pc automatically know that the output is going somewhwere other than the monitor?

i don't know if that would help... but with older cards you had to either set a jumper or whatever in order to turn this feature on (which would then turn the 'normal' output 'off')

but i don't know about these newer fangled cards (maybe in the bios, or maybe your are on the right track with x config files--- dunno.)

let us know..

Yes. It detects the presence of a composite video receiver on boot-up, presumably in BIOS. If the video receiver is plugged in, the vga output is turned off. If no video receiver is detected, the vga is turned on and the composite video output is turned off.

As I wrote, the composite signal is fine - until X kicks in. Then it might as well be encrypted.

William

ok, look into setting whatever video you want at boot up in your boot loader.

i'm not sure how, but i know in grub there are terms like: vga=normal, or whatever if you want to set the screen before the os loads.

I will try that. Thanks. I am assuming that is in the etc/ directory, under grub or lilo.

William

i'm not sure about lilo, but grub is in: /boot/grub/menu.lst

menu.lst is the config file you want-- it may be called something else like: config.lst or grub.conf..

here is what mine looks like:


default 0
timeout 15
color cyan/blue white/blue
foreground ffffff
background 0639a1
#gfxmenu /boot/grub/boot.xpm.gz

title MAIN Debian Sarge - ver. ALL on hda7
root (hd0,6)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-1-386 root=/dev/hda7 ro noapic nomce noapci apm=on
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-1-386

title Xtra Full Backup of Debian on hda2
root (hd0,1)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-1-386 root=/dev/hda2 ro noapic nomce noapci
initrd=/boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-1-386

title Backup of MAIN Debian Sarge- all Versions on hda6
root (hd0,5)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-1-386 root=/dev/hda6 ro noapic nomce noapci
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-1-386

title Windows at hda1
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1

It looks like you have windows despite your .sig
Straight Debian didn't work on my machine. Neither does Kanotix (which makes sense since it is based on Debian).

I wish Mandriva's package manager was as easy as Debian's seems to be.

I will look at the conf file although I can only decode about 60% of yours. Maybe, over time...
William

well since i'm a computer nut, i realize that i need to stay up on ALL technology, even if i'm a harsh critic of it. i think that helps me, help others who may want to transfer to another os eventually.

i agree mandys package manager is not as stable as debs, but no others are either

i'm suprised you can't install deb.. have you tried from scratch on your own (not necessarily the one named 'lfc' (ie linux from scratch) but just trying to install it on your own from the 'base install'?

kanotix is really supposed to be designed for laptops...i had problems geting it 'the way i wanted' on my desktop.

on lilo, add: vga=ask to your /etc/lilo.conf

this will make the os pause during boot, so you can experiment with different video configs-- until (hopefully) you find one that will fit on your player.

type: man lilo at a command prompt to see other stuff for lilo and of course the old: /usr/share/doc/lilo papers also.

again, good luck.

I tried installing Debian from the full set of 14 CDs that I downloaded and burned. It appeared to install OK until I tried booting in it. It complained that something was trying to delete an init and that caused the kernel to panic.

I then tried from the network install CD (that I downloaded and burned). It panicked with the same complaint.

I have tried a few other installations on various machines, not infrequently with the same kind of result. Suse seemed to foul up the digital video output. The monitor complained the frequency was out of range and counted down to a shutdown. The installation was so automatic I didn't have a choice to put in other values but not so automatic that it knew there was a problem and gave an alternate path (like asking for values).

I haven't been able to install any software, yet. I have to keep hacking. I have seen the instructions about how to do it but I haven't really tried them. I am most interested in putting software in that can talk to my creative zen micro. I have the file that is supposed to work in Gnome. (I run KDE and don't know how to reset Mandriva to Gnome without a new install.) KDE should run it too but I have to figure out where to put the files I have and where to find the dependencies I may or may not have.

I read about Linux autopackage and would LOVE to see it work on Mandriva!

William

debian requires a second file to boot (other than the kernel) it is called an: initrd.img.

this may be the cause of your 'panic'.

it will have the same id #'s as the extension, as your kernel.

notice that on my grub file:

kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.12-1-386...

and

initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.12-1-386

and make sure you are choosing the 'correct' kernel that will work on your sys...or it will panic over that tooo.

also when you go through the install process, try to complete all the 'suggested' 'next steps'.

this isn't necessarily a 'requirment' but it won't hurt.

don't put tooo much gobly gook in the begining either.. until your system is in x and stable.. remember, you are creating your own custom debian os.. from scratch.. and it will be worth it..

debian 'package manager' is considered the best.. bar none.

i'v never tried autopackager.

don't give up.. that's the only way you'll get it!

have your tried the:

vga=ask to your /etc/lilo.conf

that i suggested previously-- to see if you can get your video to show on your dvd player?