Ok, so in a previous post I had a problem getting past a point in Linux's boot-up. It would hang at "Looking for module dependencies". After some searching on the internet, I found out that was probably caused by some incompatible hardware. It ended up being my SB Extigy. Once I unplugged it, the boot up would no longer freeze at that spot. But now I have run into another problem:

After the booting screen completes, the screen just goes blank. There is no HD activity...just nothing. The monitor doesn't say "No Sync" either, so I don't know what's going on.

I am using a GeForce4 Ti4200, and I have this set up as a dual boot with Windows XP Pro (which runs fine).

Thanks.

the GEFORCE video cards require a patched version of linux and special drivers that can be downloaded from vendor. There is a howto avialble on the net. Search google for "linux nvidia howto" and that should give some ideas.

I have not done this myself, but noticed some documenation that comes with Mandrake that talks about it.

I searched but all I could find was info on how to install drivers once you are in Linux, nothing on a patched install.

Any ideas?

At the summery screen did you configure the graphics?

You read my mind. I was just about to post regarding that.

So I reinstalled, and got to summary screen. I then went into the configuration menu for the video card. Every time I run the Test , I get the same problem I had when I tried to boot up Linux before, the blank screen. I've tried numerous different settings and nothing seems to work.

Is there any way to just use a low-res mode just so I can get into linux and install the nvidia drivers?

Thanks.

If your trying to install MDK9.1 you can't test the graphics it's a known bug. When setting up the graphics go to options and set it to not starting graphics. Just curious when fully booted up did you by any chance try hitting atl-ctl-f1 to try to get to a console?

Ok, so I chose not for the XFree to boot up during install. When I restarted, I chose Linux and it booted up fine to a command prompt. Now the question, what do I do now? Firstly, how do I fix the problem? Secondly, how do I boot the graphical desktop?

Thanks.

there are Nivia kernel for mandrake 9.1 in the textar webpage, once i download the niviakernel, because The Geforce cards are still a little not compatible whit linux distros, so you have to select the standard graphics mode I think is the VGA and low level color 16 bits it would look horrible in the X interface but, then you would have to go to textar and get nivia drivers for the kernel. but it mandrake doesn,t recognize any graphical interface for your box login in a console instead of graphical, became root, and then put this :

urpmi.addmedia textar ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/dist...rake/9.1/rpms/ with ./hdlist.cz

let it finish, when finished put this in the console

urpmi NVIDIA_kernel

let it download it would install imself

then you need second package maybe when you try installing the firts one it would show the second one, if it doesnt install it you manually the second package use this command:

urpmi NVIDIA_GLX

let it download and it would install alone. then your problem must be resolved, excuse me for my bad english. bye

I did as you said, and everything went fine up until, I had to type in NVIDIA_kernel.

First it says that it has a bad signature, do I want to install anyway. I said yes, and then it started to install but ran into an error, and couldn't install nvidia.o.

Then I ran NVIDIA_GLX and it gave me the bad signature warning but when I chose yes, it didn't give me any errors.

Either way, when I restarted the same thing happened. So I am assuming the drivers didn't install correctly.

Next, I downloaded and installed the drivers directly from nVidia and installed them. This time I got no errors. But when I restarted, once again I was brought to a blank screen.

Any ideas? Please help!

Thanks.

Ok go out to the NVIDIA web site and dl the driver file NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run. Then log into root navigate to the file and type in sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run and follow the on screen instruction. I once tried the instruction that little_ball suggested but I ended up reloading my system. Since then I've always did the sh NVIDIA-Linux-x86-1.0-4496-pkg2.run way. Just make shure that the kernel source is installed to match your running kernel. This even work's with MDK9.2 where as the loading the kernel way dosn't.

That's the problem. I did just that (downloaded the file from nvidia), and everything went fine, but when I reinstalled I got the same blank screen.

I did read something about editing XF86Config, but how do I get to that?

When I log in as root and "ls" there are only two folders, drakX and temp. Isn't XF386Config in /etc/x11/ ?

Thanks.

I had this problem with the NVIDIA drivers. it seam that they didn't support the agp chipset on the mb. I had to disable the NVIDIA agp drivers and let the OS handle it.