I've met some great people on the forums here before, so I've come back for advice.

I discovered my love for Linux sometime last year, and revived my laptop with Slackware 10.2, but due to some issues I went back to Windows XP.

Recently somebody recommended Linspire, and in researching it I found some people recommending Mandriva over Linspire for various reasons that fit into what I needed, and so I got a hold of it.

The install went smoothly, but when I booted for the first time afterwards I came up to nothing but a blank screen... and it remained that way until I restarted the computer. I thought it might have been an error I made in my selection for the video options, so I changed the card and resolution, then used the "test" feature and it worked great... on with the install and then the reboot, I went right back to the blank screen.

I'm running an IBM Thinkpad A30. The video card is an ATI Mobility Radeon. ANY suggestions would be well appreciated! If you need more information on any of the specs to be able to help, I'll be glad to supply...

Alright, here's an update on what I've tried thus far...

I've found people saying to change the graphic driver to ati, raedon, or vesa. None of this has worked.

Again, any help is appreciated. Thanks so much!

So, ? After loging in, or before?

I do this,

Login (types in user name)

Password (types in password)

type in "startx" and hit enter.

If you get an error list, take note of it.

And get back to us

I never get a chance to log in.

I get to the loader, and as soon as it loads it goes blank.

One person had suggested hitting Ctrl + F1 but nothing came of that, either.

When you boot up boot in safe mode. Edit the /etc/inittab to change the line reading

id:5:initdefault:

to

id:3:initdefault:

This will put you into multi-user text mode and allow you to log in. Once you're logged on type startx and not any error messages that come up.

Hope this helps.

M. Lacy
Western Tool Supply

I boot up in failsafe mode, and get to a screen with a lot of code, but then it freezes. I don't see any error messages here, but I can't get to where I can change anything. It just stops.

Have you installed grub as bootloader? or lilo?

If it is grub you could append single to the boot line
and then type su
you could then edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
or run xorgconfig
and fix whatever is wrong
BTW in this mode you cannot run drakx11 (is it called that?)

AFAIK You can also try appendind a framebuffer keyword (in grub) to make the video
use the "oldest/safest" mode. Check the keyword though

Also FYI, you will find a lot of the error to help you/us in
/var/log/X.0.log (that is if you can boot)
In single mode you may be able to do
less /var/log/X.0.log
less /var/log/syslog
q to quit

I'd say it was a bad burn to cd.

or master boot record,(I don't know any tools for that in linux, yet. but,)

fdisk /mbr works from a win98 floppy disk.

And there's winxp,

Or, possibly lilo in not being set properly.

If you can, repartition the HD and start again, that will rewrite the mbr too.

MBR rescue: usually one boots from the distro cd in the special mode called rescue
also when distro is working there is a tool called drakboot

tool to toy with mbr, see LQ learn the dd command

drakdisk also allow you to save the mbr (I think advanced option?)#

Here the MBR is probably not the issue because the failsafe mode starts OK

Maybe it's a bad sector on the disk, or not being able to set up a ramdrive?

Aah?

Or the cpu or graphics is overheating.

>>Or the cpu or graphics is overheating
unusual during bootup AFAIK
Maybe not in Australia

or a bad ram...

We will know when esaias122 posts more

Thanks for the replies, everyone.

I know the disk is good... my last HD had some bad sectors and I lost most everything, so I've been adament about checking all of my disks frequently.

As for the boot loader... I do use LILO Graphical... should I swap over to grub?

I've run Windows XP as well as Slackware 10.2 smoothly, and can run Knoppix Live, and everything hardware wise seems fine. I'll try swapping over to GRUB and try those command lines.

Emmanuel_uk: I installed GRUB text.

Hitting 'e' edits the commands before booting, and 'c' gives the command line. I've played around with it a little bit, but exactly how would I go about what you're saying? Just want to make sure I'm doing it right... what I've done so far isn't working. :-)

edit first line
edit the line again (that that is not for initrd)
just add to it
single acpi=off

This is the most drastic to have command line access.
then investigate
su
less /var/log/syslog
less /var/log/X.0.log (if this has info about the failed boot)
less /var/log/X.9.log
and/or
cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.old
vim /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Do you know how to use vim?

Now then, less drastic just add / edit so you have
video=radeonfb:vesa:800x600
try as well
video=vesa
if this work you will go graphic and you could even
use drakx11 to change and test video driver

Please google about framebuffer kernel parameters, I am not an expert on this

I added 'single acpi=off' to the first boot line, and when booting it falls into that same black hole.

I also reinstalled everything clean last night, but you see where it got me.