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You are here: MacNN Forums > Software - Troubleshooting and Discussion > macOS > Installing Mandrake on a PC... can't start X... help?

Installing Mandrake on a PC... can't start X... help?
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Amorya
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Dec 27, 2004, 09:31 PM
 
Sorry for posting this here, but didn't know who else to ask.

I'm building a Linux box to run MythTV.
I have a WinTV PVR 350 card which will eventually handle both TV input and output. But it's seen as a "multimedia device" not as a graphics card, so until I have the system set up I'm using an old Cyrrus graphics card I found lying around. I've no idea of the model or specs.

I'm trying to install Mandrake 10.1. When I boot from the CD, I get this screen:



So obviously the card can cope with graphics.

BUT then it switches into a text-based installer. I can go all the way through the installer until I get to the step where it sets up the graphical environment.

No matter what combination of graphics card and monitor settings I choose, it always does one of two things: either tells me "this is not supported", or goes to a black screen. If it goes to the black screen, I can do nothing but reboot the computer.

If I reboot there, I find Linux is installed, and I can use the command line. But I can't startx at all.

Am I fighting a losing battle trying to get the old graphics card to cope with X?



Amorya
What the nerd community most often fail to realize is that all features aren't equal. A well implemented and well integrated feature in a convenient interface is worth way more than the same feature implemented crappy, or accessed through a annoying interface.
     
ixus_123
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Dec 28, 2004, 10:07 AM
 
have you tried 'xorgconfig' (or 'XF86Config' - I'm not sure what Mandrake uses) from the command line? you'll ned to be in text mode, not graphical to set that up though. MythTV looks smart - will you be running it through a TV or a pc monitor?
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Amorya  (op)
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Dec 28, 2004, 10:09 AM
 
Tried XF86config - no joy - still can't start X, alas

I'll be running MythTV on a TV, using the output from the PVR 350 card. The graphics card that X is frustrating me with, is only needed for installation.


Amorya
What the nerd community most often fail to realize is that all features aren't equal. A well implemented and well integrated feature in a convenient interface is worth way more than the same feature implemented crappy, or accessed through a annoying interface.
     
ixus_123
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Dec 28, 2004, 10:10 AM
 
Maybe you card isn't supported but it's worth tring to find out the refresh rates etc for your monitor as you'll need to input these. Might also be worth trying your system with a Live CD - - Knoppix has great hardware support & I find it easier to test with something like that than hunt around the net. If your graphics work off the live CD then at least you'll know your card is supported.

Good luck
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utidjian
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Dec 28, 2004, 12:34 PM
 
Sounds like a very old Cirrus Logic card. This should be supported in Xorg.

Do your best guess at configuring it with whatever tools MDK provides. Then take a look in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file. That file is the one that X uses for configuration. That should be the file. It is also possible that it is named /etc/X11/XF86Config. In any case... take a look at that file. There should be a section like this:
Code:
Section "Device" Identifier "devname" Driver "cirrus" ... EndSection
The keyword being 'cirrus'. Your 'Indentifier "devname"' may look like 'Indentifier "Videocard0"' (or something). If the 'Driver' isn't "cirrus", what is it? If there is something different there try changing it to "cirrus", save and quit the editor. Then run the command 'startx'.

If that doesn't work take a look at the output of the command 'lspci | less'. Somewhere in there you should see something like:
Code:
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Cirrus Corporation blah blah...
Also take a look at /var/log/Xorg.0.log which should tell you what failed and why. Your log file may be named something different.

As others have suggested, try some sort of run from CD distro like Knoppix. Knoppix is very very good at getting most hardware recognized and running in some sort of way.

Another alternative is to just get a different video card. PCI and AGP video cards can be had for very very little. I keep an old Voodoo3 3K AGP card around and a Matrox Millenium PCI for these kinds of situations.
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Gavin
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Dec 30, 2004, 04:02 AM
 
Are both cards in the box at the same time?

Try pulling one out or swapping pci slots.

You could also try fiddling with the bios. Who knows, maybe there is a 'default resolution' setting that was set by the new card but is too high for your old card and mandrake is using that.

I had similar BS with mandrake and a USB mouse. The installer worked fine with my mouse it until got to where you 'choose your mouse' then the mouse stopped working. The trick was to use the PS2 port with the adapter.

Lesson is fiddle with the hardware.

Crap, you know what - I think the card may be a red herring. Maybe you have a bad install disk. Assuming you downloaded it, run MD5 over it and burn it again with a low burn speed. I've had an installer go off into la la land - bad disk. You may have only half a system because it crashed. It boots but no X.
     
Amorya  (op)
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Dec 30, 2004, 09:11 AM
 
Originally posted by Gavin:
Crap, you know what - I think the card may be a red herring. Maybe you have a bad install disk. Assuming you downloaded it, run MD5 over it and burn it again with a low burn speed. I've had an installer go off into la la land - bad disk. You may have only half a system because it crashed. It boots but no X.
Good idea, but I don't think it's that. I've tried another distribution and it does the same thing. Unless my Superdrive is FUBARed

It's probably the old graphics card because everything else is brand new (albeit cheap).

Annoyingly, I tried buying a new graphics card today... why did no-one tell me AGP 2x was not compatible with an AGP 8x slot?

Amorya
What the nerd community most often fail to realize is that all features aren't equal. A well implemented and well integrated feature in a convenient interface is worth way more than the same feature implemented crappy, or accessed through a annoying interface.
     
   
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