Hello guys,

Need help out here.

I installed Mandrake Linux on my machine. Had Windows XP (working perfectly fine). The whole partition and installation went well as I hoped. Installation was done. System starts, services start all fine, but when the time comes for the Mandrake Linux to appear to login, the screen just goes blank (not black).

Note, the system doesnt hang. Because I check my caps lock/num lock key and they are all working fine. I think I even heard the sound (sort of a welcoming linux screen) when you start mandrake linux for the first time.

I think the problem is with my vga card. NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500, I've got. A sony Multiscan e220 monitor.

I tried putting the installation cd-rom and sort of reconfigured my system, and put the vga card to 800x600 16 bit mode. I saw a thread which recommended this, so I tried, but to no avail. Tried checking Lilo for my vga configuration and its vga=788, so thats's fine. In lilo, linux, linux-nonfb, 263-7(I think), neither of them work.

Help me out please. I am a newbie. If there is some patch to install, a step by step tutorial would be great.

Mandrake Linux 10.0 Official
SATA 80GB HDD
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500
P4 2.4 GHz 512 MB DDR RAM
ASUS P4SE-800

Thanks.
Mothsmoke

After you see the blank black screen, wait about 2 minutes.

Then press

[CTRL][ALT][F1]

which should take you to a text console where you can log in.

If this doesn't work, your system is hanging for reasons which may not be directly related to the video card.

If this does work then log in as root.

At the prompt type

service dm stop

Then type

XFdrake

which will bring up a text dialog which permits you to configure your video card and monitor.

Try different configs (hint: start by LOWERING the type of monitor you have to something inferior to yours..) and test each one.

If the screen goes blank during the test, wait 12 seconds for the text mode to appear again.

Once you see the rainbow colored test screen, click ok.

Then save and exit.

Now restart the gui with

service dm start

Done.

I tried doing what you said.

I go to XFdrake and then choose the configuration. However, I dont get it right when I test. Well actually when I test, I wait for around 12 seconds and then a very short glimpse of some color screen appears and then it goes back to the prompt.

I tried setting the configuration to the exact specs of my vga card, monitor. I even downgraded my resolutions and bits hoping that might be a shortcut solution. Didnt work. Tested 4-5 different settings. Will continue test a few more.

However when I tried configuring using the installation cd, I tried configuring and the color screen (although not rainbow) didnt disappear after a glimpse. It appeared on the screen for a few seconds and then went back to the configuration menu. But with XFdrake, a few milliseconds and it goes back to the XFdrake prompt. Is it suppose to act this way?

I tried it, and it didn't work.
It looks like 'glx' is not loading. When I check the /var/log/Xorg.0.log, I see error messages that the file can't be opened. I know the file is there, and have read access, so I am not sure what the deal is.
Here is what I see in the log:
EE) Unable to open /usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.a
(II) UnloadModule: "glx"
(EE) Failed to load module "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglx.a" (open failed, 2)