A Laptop Without A View

cj100570 · #1 21st March 2010, 10:05 PM

I recently purchased an Acer Aspire 5740-5513 with Intel GMA4500 graphics. Much to my chagrin I can't get Fedora 12 to activate the LCD. Can anyone help me out with this. I've searched high and low and can't seem to find anything useful. The live CD boots to a black screen and that's as far as I get.

CSchwangler · #2 22nd March 2010, 08:45 AM

Did you already try to provide nomodeset as parameter to the kernel line?

cj100570 · #3 22nd March 2010, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CSchwangler

Did you already try to provide nomodeset as parameter to the kernel line?

Yeah, it took me a while to find that trick. It results in showing the progress bar at the bottom of the screen before going black.

smr54 · #4 22nd March 2010, 10:03 AM

Have you tried other distributions' live CDs? Did they work?

cj100570 · #5 22nd March 2010, 10:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by smr54

Have you tried other distributions' live CDs? Did they work?

I've tried Ubuntu, Mint, Arch, eLive, Debian, openSUSE and Mandriva. The only versions that will actually boot in X are Mint {800x600}, Mandriva 1024x768, and the current betas of Ubuntu & openSUSE which aren't quite ready for prime time. The strange thing is that I can install all of them with my laptop connected to an external monitor but not 1 of them will run the monitor on the laptop. I'm on the verge of reinstalling Windows 7 since the only reliable way of using the laptop right now is running beta software.

smr54 · #6 22nd March 2010, 10:44 AM

Try booting with the option nohz=off

There's been some problems with some Intel cards, though I don't know if that's one of them.

It's a long shot, but....

The Ubuntu beta isn't bad. Of course, there was the update that killed Gnome panel, but that was fixed within 24 hours.

A quick google indicates that this card can be problematic (as you're finding out). The fact that Ubuntu's beta seems to work with it is a good sign though, meaning that it will probably be fixed soon.

cj100570 · #7 22nd March 2010, 07:21 PM

It looks like I'm gonna have to use the Ubuntu betas for now. I'm shocked that Linux seems to have problems with these graphics. They've been out for minute. Pharonix even had an article touting Intelligence graphics with Fedora 12. Oh well, at least I know I'm covered with the next releases.