Linux Installation Advice

MaxPower

MaxPower

MaxPower

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11 Jan 2005
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Bognor Regis
First of all please note that although I am pretty good with computers I am a bit of a Linux noob so no long words or technical jargon please.

Right the problem, well I would like to install Ubuntu on my main machine I have successfully installed it on my Macbook to test the environment out and it works a treat so I'm going to try and replace Windows entirely. However when I attempt to install the Ubuntu splash screen graphics go a bit mental and I cant see anything. I thought this was odd so I tried Fedora core and exactly the same problem occurs.

My machine runs perfectly with Windows and I only intend to install Linux on a small partition to start with.

Is this a problem with my graphics card (radeon x850) or could It be an incompatibility with my monitor (Dell 2007wfp). Any help greatly appreciated or even diagnostics I could run would be handy.
 
Have you installed the graphics card drivers?

EDIT: Whoops. You don't have an installed system yet. Use the "Alternate" install version. Its installer is text-only. It should work nicely for you.
 
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BillytheImpaler said:
You don't have an installed system yet. Use the "Alternate" install version. Its installer is text-only. It should work nicely for you.
Click to expand...

Where is this version available from? I have tried the low graphics setting from the menu and it still dies during the loading process. I thought the Ubuntu compatibility was one of the best?
 
Ive had a similar problem with Ubuntu 6.10 with my x800 vivo, i think it detected its setting wrong so Xorg wouldn't start and stuck on a cycle of logging in and rebooting the x sever (got round it by installing 6.06 then upgrading it to 6.10 through the update manager), had similar problems with fc6, installed via text mode and it worked fine.
nvidia is defiantly the way to go if you want linux with decent support, Ati has just been a big headache for me.
 
Methinks you need to change to 16bit graphic mode (default is 24bit).
Change Xorg.conf (/etc/X11/xorg.conf or something like taht)
Code: 
Section "Screen"
	Identifier	"Screen0"
	Device		"Videocard0"
	Monitor		"Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth	[b]16[/b]
	SubSection "Display"
                Viewport 0  0
		Depth	[b]16[/b]
		Modes	"1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Should look something like that. (The bold is the thing you change, always keep a backup, # cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf.bak )
 
Have just tried the text version of the installation as per advise and it installed without a hitch but when booting up for the first time I get this loading screen:



And it just hangs exactly as before, any ideas?
 
I'll bet it's something in the BIOS in regards to your VGA card.... (fastwrites or something similar)? Try switching to failsafe settings. I had to fool around in the BIOS too before Ubuntu 6.10 would install.... Was worth the effort tho and I have ditched Windows completley now :)
 
I am going to give 6.06 a go and upgrade, quickly using up my download allowance. If this fails I will try a BIOS failsafe cheers.
 
MaxPower said:
And it just hangs exactly as before, any ideas?
Click to expand...

Does it fully lockup, or can you get a console? (Using ctrl-alt-f1 etc..)

Even if xorg fails to run it shouldn't freeze up totally.

With some error logs should be able to tell you what the problem is if not hardlocking up.
 
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Una said:
Does it fully lockup, or can you get a console? (Using ctrl-alt-f1 etc..)

Even if xorg fails to run it shouldn't freeze up totally.

With some error logs should be able to tell you what the problem is if not hardlocking up.
Click to expand...

It was a complete lockup. But I have managed to install 6.06 but now I have more problems :mad:

It installed fine but when it rebooted the grub bootloader doesn't work it comes up with options for:
- Ubuntu
- Ubuntu safe graphics
- Memtest
- Windows XP

All the options seem to refer to invalid partitions. Is there any way to replace the bootloader which automatically detects the available options?

Is it me :rolleyes: :p
 
The question that occurs to me us why the installer that set up Grub failed in the first place. I've never seen it fail before, especially with a new, well-maintained distro.
 
BillytheImpaler said:
The question that occurs to me us why the installer that set up Grub failed in the first place. I've never seen it fail before, especially with a new, well-maintained distro.
Click to expand...

Was a real pain to get grub working on my intel mini mac :p
 
I am not going to let Ubuntu beat me. I have got it installed but while booting I still get the problem with the graphics as displayed in the picture above. Is there a way of displaying the loading progress behind that loading screen to try and track where it is going wrong?
 
Try starting in failsafe mode. It's on the GRUB list of kernels to load when you boot.

This'll boot you into the command-line as the root user. You could then run startx to start the X server and Gnome. See if that works.
 
It gave you that error when you went to start X?

If so try running
sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg
sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm

and see if that does anything.

EDIT: You might also try updating your system. From the command line run
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

You'd then try to startx again.
 
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