mandrake 9.1 blank login screen
 

hi! i have just finished installing mandrake 9.1 on my inspiron 600m. I'm dual booting with windows xp pro. the problem is, when i boot into mandrake, i end up with a blank screen. I cannot see the login screen. Although, i can see the boot messages like

finding module dependencies..........[ ok ]

My inspiron comes with ati mobility radeon 9000. When i installed mandrake, the only driver that matches it closest is 'ati radeon'. Not 'ati mobility radeon 9000'. so i chose that one, as it was also highlighted by default. I also chose the generic lcd(flat panel something.. ) with 1000x700( can't remember the exact values ).

How do i solve this? is my lcd in danger? could you guide me through this step by step?

I have read other posts. But their problem was that their lcd goes blank when they close the lid, or when the screen saver comes up, etc. If I have to edit the kernel, could you be detailed about it. i'm very new to linux and the open source community. thanks!

When you set up your video card during install did you test the configuration, and did it work then?

One place to start would be to boot to "failsafe," (in the lilo menu when you boot) then when you get a text mode command prompt type init 3 wait for a bit while it does its thing, then log in as root and run XFdrake to reconfigure your video. Be sure to use the "Test" option to make sure it works. XFdrake in console mode uses the arrow keys, Tab, and the enter key to navigate. arrow keys will move you through the menus, tab key switches buttons, and the enter key is like a mouseclick (also expands menus marked with "<+>.

another thing you can do is at the blank screen hit Ctrl + Alt + F1, this should take you to a terminal mode login on tty1. log in as root and run XFdrake or xf86config.

>When you set up your video card during install did you test the configuration, and did it work then?

actually, it didn't. I got a blank screen. I tried to view it under 800x600 and 1000x700 but still got a blank screen.

I ran xf86config. I configured the video card( i used ati radeon generic ) and ran xstart. I still got a blank screen. I tried cycling through the different resolutions but still nothing. I viewed it under 16bits of color and 24bits. After stopping xstart, I saw these messages:

/lib/modules/2.4.21-0.13mdk/kernel/drivers/char/agp/agpgart.o.gz: init_module: no such device

modprobe: insmod/lib/modules/2.4.21-0.13mdk/kernel/drivers/char/agp/agpgart.o.gz failed

modprobe: insmod agpgart failed

[drm] failed to load kernel module "agpgart"

how do I fix this?
Thanks for replying! =)

why didn't you install generic VESA drivers and wait to get into mandrake to test out the video settings? You would have saved yourself a lot of trouble.

hey, I reinstalled mandrake. This time i used 1400x1050 generic flat panel and vesa as my video driver. I don't get the blank screen anymore. I can login to linux. The problem is, before I see things, my screen gets a little weird. It gets a little fuzzy before showing linux. I tried playing tux racer, the screen goes crazy. I can't make anything up. Do i install the ati driver now? Thanks a lot!

hahah well what I said worked, but why did you play a game first? You should have head to the KDE control center (or the mdk control center) and got that shit working correctly.

hi! I went to mandrake control center. Under harddrake, my video card was already listed correctly( Radeon RV250 Lf [Radeon Mobility 9000] ). But why can't I run tuxracer? Somethings still wrong with my video card driver. I've read about some people installing the latest linux driver for this video card. It screwed up their linux installation.... what now?

Google it, or search this forum for the answer. Im positive saying that someone else has/had the same problem and knows what to do.