A video problem and comments
Forum: User Feedback
Topic: A video problem and comments
started by: paullynch
Posted by paullynch on June 28 2005,19:48
Congratulations on a pretty useful liveCD.I just ran through a build and hit one problem, which I suspect is down to my video card, an nvidia GeForce of some type. Boot from CD with no parameters works fine up to the point where it starts X; I can just see the two xauth lines flash up, then the screen goes black.
Booting using failsafe works, and I seem to be able to choose any setting combinations I like; using vga=normal or vga=795 (for example) brings up the X config dialog, and eventually a black screen. I'll have to work my way through the hardware cheat codes next.
I notice that there isn't a forum section for basic booting problems like that - I had to puzzle through the USB and HD install sections and the HOWTO section before I decided to post here.
Another thing is that I was confused by the discussions of USB install, HD install, frugal and so on; perhaps that is something that could be mentioned in the installation section of the docs? There is also no mention that I found that the iso builds a liveCD as opposed to an installation CD; I assumed that was the case, and luckily I was right.
Next up for me is a USB install; my (only 2yo) hardware doesn't boot from USB, so I'll need to create a floppy - however, they are obsolete in this household, so I may well be perverse and create a boot CD to boot to USB! Once I figure out how, that is.
Once again, thanks for a great distro.
Posted by paullynch on June 30 2005,08:11
| Quote (paullynch @ June 28 2005,20:48) |
| I just ran through a build and hit one problem, which I suspect is down to my video card, an nvidia GeForce of some type. Boot from CD with no parameters works fine up to the point where it starts X; I can just see the two xauth lines flash up, then the screen goes black. Booting using failsafe works, and I seem to be able to choose any setting combinations I like; using vga=normal or vga=795 (for example) brings up the X config dialog, and eventually a black screen. I'll have to work my way through the hardware cheat codes next. |
Cheatcodes didn't help, but booting using fb1024x768 did - it was the nVidia card (probably a 5200, but I can't remember).
Posted by SaidinUnleashed on June 30 2005,16:59
Nforce mobo?If so, Xvesa works if you have nothing plugged into the onboard NIC.
No clue why.
Posted by paullynch on July 01 2005,07:33
| Quote (SaidinUnleashed @ June 30 2005,17:59) |
| Nforce mobo? |
I wish
.No, it's an ASUS A7N8X-VM, with an older bios (so it doesn't boot USB). I really need to upgrade the bios, but they only support upgrade from DOS. Which wouldn't be a problem, except I don't have a floppy on this machine. The devil is in the details.
Posted by Caspar_s on July 02 2005,14:42
Paul - booting from the usb with a cd is simple - you just use the dsl cd.. with this boot prompt:dsl fromhd=/dev/sda1
Posted by paullynch on July 02 2005,22:16
Thanks!I got there in the end... I have the bios updated to 1010, and it's all booting happily off the USB. Next stage is to work out what extra apps I want to perma-install (apart from nethack, of course).