Problem Installing Mandriva on Dell Inspiron 3800

[Guest Timothy]

One of the final stages of the Mandriva Linux installation is selecting the Graphic Card, Monitor, and Resolution. It also provides a feature to test the configurations to determine if they work properly. So far, the display has worked flawlessly up to this point; I have been able to see everything on screen clearly.

 

Up to this point where I verify the Graphic Card, Monitor, and Resolution, ATI Rage Mobility was automatically selected/detected; I verified this to be the correct X to choose as the Dell Inspiron 3800 has an ATI Rage Mobility M1/P 8MB AGP 2X. After clicking on Test to see if the configuration works, the screen flashes, then starts to animate this odd screen with color stripes and a big black blob in the center that gradually decreases in size revealing more stripes. I have taken a picture of the screen and can be viewed here:

 

This is not the first time this has happened. The previous night, I was toying around with multiple copies of Mandriva Linux, Mandriva One, and their beta versions and whichever I put in, I encounter the same screen, even with Mandriva One. I tested the CD's on my Desktop and found they all work perfectly. It seems that the drivers provided with Mandriva are not compatable with the graphics card of my Inspiron 3800. I currently have Ubuntu installed on it and it works perfectly, but would like to get Mandriva on there too.

 

I tried multiple configurations ranging from the Rage Mobility X servers, to the Mach64 X servers (according to some sources, the graphics in this laptop are based off of the Mach64 chipset), but I still get the same striped/black screen.

 

Can anyone provide any assistance in successfully getting Mandriva to work on the laptop?

[coverup]

If you skip the test, does the card work? Can you login into KDE/Gnome? does 3d graphics work, etc?

 

You might be able to debug things by comparing /etc/xorg.conf files from mandriva and ubuntu. If that does not help, you will need to install an ATI proprietary driver, it can be downloaded from the ATI website.

[Gowator]

The simplest way is to fire up Ubuntu and see what drivers its loading ...

 

If its still installed on a different partition then open that and post the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for a start....

 

(or you can copy the Mandriva /etc/X11/xorg.conf to another name like xorg.conf.backup and copy the ubuntu xorg.conf over it.... this might work all by itself :D

 

If you needa GUI to help then select VESA in the meantime...

 

You might need firmware..... but try the above first.

[ianw1974]

Xorg in Mandriva 2006 was screwed up for some configurations from the base install. Suggest using VESA during the install process. When you've booted your system normally after this, apply all updates to the system, and then configure your ATI drivers after this.

 

A nice quick way to get the best ATI drivers easily is:

 

urpmi dkms-ati

 

however, make sure you've visited the easyurpmi link at the top of this page and configured all sources - main, contrib, updates, plf-free and plf-nonfree.

[Guest Timothy]

Thank you for the help, I ended up selecting VESA. I am currently installing ATI drivers so hopefully the issue is resolved when I get out of VESA.

 

I'll update the thread when things finish up.

[oldman]

I have a Dell although not with the video board you have. With mine I had problems with the video also. Dell uses some of the main memory for video, at least on some models, and you can set the BIOS to select the amount of memory for video. Mine came set for too small amount for the video to work good in linux. I reset the memory from 1 MB to 8 MB and my video problems went away.

 

My suggestion check the BIOS setting fot the alloted memory and if possible set to a higher amount.

 

Jim