Hi,

I have just installed mdk 9.2 with W2K dual booting succesfully...or so I think. I have a dual monitor configuration and a PC with AMD athlon 1.4 Mhz processor, 512 MB memory, and an AGP crad and a PCI card (I have disabled the on-board card at the BIos).

It turns out, that after I boot my computer, I select linux and all goes well on my TFT monitor. Then, after the booting process ends, all video simply goes out. I have re-installed mdk several times and I am always able to successfully accomplish the installation.

I have even tried taking the AGP card out and leave only the PCI video card (thinking that it could be a dual card issue), but the same thing happens.

What could the problem be? Any hints would be appreciated.

RV

Why don't you post your /etc/X11/XF86Config file here for all to see.. ?

I'd love to post such config file, but how do I get to it?

in a console/terminal type That should copy this file into the directory you are currently in, which if you just opened up a terminal will be your home directory /home/your_username

Also you can try running XFdrake as root at the console too. this may fix your problem.

I appreciate your suggestions, but I cannot get to a console since I cannot boot into linux. AS a result, I cannot run XFdrake for the same reason.

I am not sure if this is right, so please correct me if I can still run a terminal even though I am unable to boot into linux...

how can you not boot into linux? maybe you mean you can't boot into X which is the graphical system for linux. do you see a login screen asking for username and password? if you do then your in linux. You would log in as root there and then type in XFdrake

No, I cannot boot into Linux, that's what I have been saying. You see, before booting into W2K or Linux (or floppy or whatever), I get the booting interface. I choose linux, then there is a booting "time" graphic. When the "time" graphic is complete (the bar fills up), there's where the problem begins.

I assume that the next step would be to login, but my screens go black. That is the problem.

I apologize if I was not clear.

Using the first cd, at the boot splash, hit F1 and type rescue. I think there is an option to mount your partitions under /mnt. If you can, you can then navigate to the requested file. Only I don't know which program is loaded this way for copying! Anyone else? bvc?

ok, do this. when you get to the time graphic hit [Esc] button and then watch the screen and tell us if any Errors pop up

Also, when the screen finally goes black, do: ctrl-alt-F1 and tell us if that shows you the console login screen.

framebuffer (fb) is the problem. To get things working (visual) we need to turn it off. This is done with the bootloader passing parameters to the kernel/initrd among other things. When you see the time graphic hit Esc and type

linux splash=quiet vga=normal

and hit Enter. Now can you see?

not exactly sure what you're asking?

I think you mean

at the boot splash, hit F1 and type rescue>choose mount your partitions under /mnt>go back to the menu and choose Go To Console>then type

chroot /mnt

and hit Enter. Then???? lx???? what do you want to do? Edit /etc/lilo.conf? That's what I would do to include the above code.....assuming it fixes the problem.

splash=quiet
vga=normal

Ok, everyone, here's what I was able to find out:

- I tried with FI>rescue, to no avail.
- I tried using ctrl-alt-F1 when the screens (remember, I have dual cards), but nothing happens
- I managed to load the XFdrake utility, and the interface appears to detect my graphics card (nVidea ATI Radeon), my plug-and-play TFT monitor (custom), and my resolution (1024x728, 24 app).
- I re-installed mdk 9.2 without one of the video cards, in hopes that it only identifies my TNT card. The same thing happens again and again.

To recap, the problem is as follows: after successful installation, the lilo bootloader comes on, I select Linux, and the time bar begins to fill up, and about half-way there (in fact, right after it says "starting laslouth..." - can't read the rest but it follows a few lines after "setting mixer settings"), the screens go blank. I am thus forced to reboot, and yes, the it remounts stuff that I do not understand. After it "fixes" my "unclean shut down", it reboots, only to repeat the entire affair again.

One more thing: while booting (on verbose mode), my speakers also do a awful noise when the line "setting mixer settings" appears. This is the typical echo noise heard when my mic is open and the speakers reflect the sound. I have no idea if this has anything to do with the above, but I just though to try.

So, I am still stuck with what appears to be a good installation, but no image. Any other solutions?

Thanks in advance,
Rodrigo

uu...yeah, what happens when you follow my suggestion?

BVC,

I was unable to follow your suggestion because whenever the time bar appears and I heat esc, I cannot type anything. All I can see is lines of text going at 100 miles and our, mountig files, and loading i don't know what else.

Even if I hit esc several times, the loading process ignores me and keeps on going.

I am not sure what I am doing incorrectly, but it sure is strange. I think I followed your instructions, but I simply cannot type linux spalsh = quiet or anything esle for that matter.

Any ideas?
RV

b4 the time bar......as soon as you see lilo (bootloader) where you are given a choice to boot linux or other OS's hit Esc and type the above. It is case and space sensitive.

OK, I finally got it going. Here's what I had to do, just in case this problem arises to someone else:

As I said, Mdk 9.2 was installed correctly, but because I have dual monitors on two graphics card, I had set up my bios to use graphics card 2 (let's call it GC2, this one is the PCI card) to be my primary booting card.

As a result, when booting from Lilo graphical interface, the bios sends the graphic information to GC2. However, when Lilo finishes mounting all the applications, etc., when it mounts the graphic card it send the images to GC1 (this is the AGP card).

I assume that Linux chooses a AGP card by default before an PCI card. And, while I am far from being an expert in Linux and tweaking its configurations, I also assume that by default, Linux does not support dual graphics cards. Hence, the monitors go blank because Linux is trying to load a monitor from a card that it had not properly recognized.

What I did is to manually load the FDrake utility when re-installing Mdk, and making sure that the card it needed to recognize was the one that was NOT currently displaying (The AGP card, while the displaying card was the PCI card, we're still on the installation disk, remember).

That was that, simple, yet complicated. Thanks to all for your kind help and I hope my experience helps someone else....

RV

i'm sure it will. thanks for posting back with your solution.

I belive it does choose agp first, of course this could depend on bios.

Yes, linux does support dual. If you do an expert install, the last screen (Summary screen) should allow you to config both.

Glad you got it!