Last Try Before Going Back To Windows

cj100570 · #1 11th November 2006, 04:30 AM

After moving to SUSE from Windows just over 2 years ago I'm on the verge of heading back to Windows. SUSE has been my preferred distro but 10.1 is an absolute mess. I've toyed with Ubuntu, Kubuntu and Mandriva but they just don't do it for me. So, here I am giving Fedora a try but having no luck at all. After getting it installed I'm greeted with a black screen and a frozen pc that doesn't respond to any input. I have a previous post asking for help but nothing has solved my problem. For 2 weeks now I've been using a live cd but I've grown tired of that and need an OS installed. The information I need is simple; how do I get FC6 to boot into vesa so that I can at least have a graphical desktop? My graphics card is an nVidia GeForce 6600. Before anyone asks, I can't post my xconfig file because when I've tried to gedit it claims it doesn't exist. Thanks in advance for any help.

***Dan*** · #2 11th November 2006, 04:48 AM

Hi
Dunno if this will work, but try appending vga=791 to the grub boot command.

Dan

Coolerthanyou · #3 11th November 2006, 04:52 AM

You probably should go back to windows. Out of those distros you mention, I can't imagine what problems you might be having. If it's the same with things like ubuntu then you might have some hardware damage on your hands. Testing it would sound like a good idea if I were you. Unless things like ubuntu 'not doing it for you' mean something stupid that is not 'failing to work'.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cj100570

how do I get FC6 to boot into vesa so that I can at least have a graphical desktop?

I whined myself about nvidia in FC6 a little while ago. All I had to do was visit the nvidia site for the newest driver. This installed on FC6 as it should. I have to say, for all the whining people do about the nvidia driver, they seem to be really on the ball with supporting "bleeding edge" stuff like Fedora releases. The driver now even supports selinux. Installing the driver is a simple short process if you follow the directions.

If your X config file doesn't exist, then create it. I think the nvidia driver install will create one though I always choose to change it manually.

**Finalzone** · #4 11th November 2006, 04:52 AM

Could you post message log if you can?
vi /var/log/message

***Dan*** · #5 11th November 2006, 05:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coolerthanyou

You probably should go back to windows. Out of those distros you mention, I can't imagine what problems you might be having. If it's the same with things like ubuntu then you might have some hardware damage on your hands. Testing it would sound like a good idea if I were you. Unless things like ubuntu 'not doing it for you' mean something stupid that is not 'failing to work'...

Cooney and several others are having this headache with the 6600 series too. We're still chewing on it. Cooney can't get the *buntus to load either. Haven't tried it on my 5200 yet.

Hi Finalzone, Any ideas?

Dan

JN4OldSchool · #6 11th November 2006, 05:10 AM

lol, yeah, pop in the live CD and change the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to "vesa" then save. reboot into FC6 then enable Livna and get the kmod-nvidia driver. It will be the one that says "nvidia" in xorg.conf instead of "nv." "nv" is trash, that is your problem. It is an easy fix, just have patience my friend.

cj100570 · #7 11th November 2006, 05:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coolerthanyou

You probably should go back to windows. Out of those distros you mention, I can't imagine what problems you might be having. If it's the same with things like ubuntu then you might have some hardware damage on your hands. Testing it would sound like a good idea if I were you. Unless things like ubuntu 'not doing it for you' mean something stupid that is not 'failing to work'.

I whined myself about nvidia in FC6 a little while ago. All I had to do was visit the nvidia site for the newest driver. This installed on FC6 as it should. I have to say, for all the whining people do about the nvidia driver, they seem to be really on the ball with supporting "bleeding edge" stuff like Fedora releases. The driver now even supports selinux. Installing the driver is a simple short process if you follow the directions.

If your X config file doesn't exist, then create it. I think the nvidia driver install will create one though I always choose to change it manually.

You could've kept this response to yourself!

***Dan*** · #8 11th November 2006, 05:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JN4OldSchool

lol, yeah, pop in the live CD and change the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file to "vesa" then save. reboot into FC6 then enable Livna and get the kmod-nvidia driver. It will be the one that says "nvidia" in xorg.conf instead of "nv." "nv" is trash, that is your problem. It is an easy fix, just have patience my friend.

...Provided the liveCD isn't one of the 6.10 *buntus or the FC6 live CD. That's the wall we've hit.

Coolerthanyou · #9 11th November 2006, 05:48 AM

that's very strange, my friends runs geforce 6600 gt on kubuntu without special problems (or at least it functions, direct rendering and all) and i imagine it would be the same on fedora (or as he calls it, FUDora). maybe it's not the video card causing the problem but the motherboard, or something.

And yes, "nv" is trash. And it offsets your screen to the right. (And no, don't tell me my modelines are not set up, or something to that effect, because they shouldn't have to be.

)

cj100570 · #10 11th November 2006, 02:38 PM

I've had great results with every distro I've tried except Fedora. On the occassions that I have had problems booting into a graphical desktop the fix has been painless. In SUSE I used sax2 -m 0=vesa, in Mandriva I used XFdrake and in Ubuntu/Kubuntu I used dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg. Fedora on the other hand seems to have no such configurator from the replies I've gotten to my issue and from what I can find in various forums. Surely there must be a way to log in in text mode and then configure the X server to use vesa!? I know that the issue revolves around my nVidia card but I can't believe that after 2 weeks of asking, I'm no closer to getting a "straight" answer.

cj100570 · #11 11th November 2006, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coolerthanyou

You probably should go back to windows. Out of those distros you mention, I can't imagine what problems you might be having. If it's the same with things like ubuntu then you might have some hardware damage on your hands. Testing it would sound like a good idea if I were you. Unless things like ubuntu 'not doing it for you' mean something stupid that is not 'failing to work'.

I whined myself about nvidia in FC6 a little while ago. All I had to do was visit the nvidia site for the newest driver. This installed on FC6 as it should. I have to say, for all the whining people do about the nvidia driver, they seem to be really on the ball with supporting "bleeding edge" stuff like Fedora releases. The driver now even supports selinux. Installing the driver is a simple short process if you follow the directions.

If your X config file doesn't exist, then create it. I think the nvidia driver install will create one though I always choose to change it manually.

3

Non of my hardware is damaged in any way since it works with every distro I've tried except Fedora. And since that is the case, I can safely say that Fedora is the issue.

As for your statement that I probably should go back to Windows, that's not a very good answer in response to a queation posed by someone trying to support open source software. The forums are here to help people make Linux work for them, not have them decide that it's too difficult and run back to windows.

jim · #12 11th November 2006, 02:51 PM

have you looked here ?

http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_cor...es.html#nVidia

nick.stumpos · #13 11th November 2006, 03:11 PM

if you can boot init 3 just login and change your xorg.conf to use vesa as a driver

cj100570 · #14 11th November 2006, 03:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nickisgod1

if you can boot init 3 just login and change your xorg.conf to use vesa as a driver

Can you post a walk thru on how to do this? I'm new to FC and I've never really had to edit any files in the other distros I've used.

cj100570 · #15 11th November 2006, 03:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jim

have you looked here ?

http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_cor...es.html#nVidia

I actually tried this before and it didn't work. Perhaps I'll revisit it tonight when I get home.