montymintypie Posted December 7, 2007 Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 Ok, before I start, I'm a total Linux n00b. I do however have minor experience with the Terminal in Mac OS X. I have just finished installing Mandriva onto a second hard drive, along with Windows on the first. Everything works fine (eg, the bootloader) but whenever I boot into Mandriva it doesn't work. It seems that it can't initialize the display manager (I'm using KDM). It used to not boot because of ntpd not working, but I disabled it. From what I've gleaned from using verbose startup mode, everything loads fine, then it tried to load kdm. When this happens, I either get two screens depending on what method I use (more info on that in a bit): I either get a black screen that doesn't do anything, or a screen that looks like an input, with an underscore that doesn't respond to anything. I don't want to give up on Linux yet!!! I can provide more info, and I've already tried other methods in safe startup mode (startx, startkdm, xfdrake etc) Will P.S. If this is posted elsewhere, sorry! Just send me a link to the appropriate post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted December 7, 2007 Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 Boot normally (with the default bootloader parameters) and when you get the unusable login manager screen press alt+ctrl+F1 (there are usable VT's up to F6). Login there, and then type startx You will get a long list with details of the load process, as well as several error reports. Try passing these errors here. These errors are also registered in a logfile- /var/log/Xorg.0.log You can upload this (supposedly long) file somewhere. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montymintypie Posted December 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 Just about to reboot and try. Hope it works! For the moment, here is syslog, which seems to be what has the most data (I was directed to there from kdm.log) http://pastebin.com/m3255119f Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoonma Posted December 7, 2007 Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 I suppose the black screen is an opened X Server screen, but black due to an uninstalled or misconfigured gfx driver. The "underscore which does nothing" is probably a shell/terminal cursor. This is the place to try out the "startx" command scarecrow mentioned. Just type the letters (without quotation marks) and confirm with <Enter>. Note: You cannot get double gfx desktops by entering "startx" in different VTs (virtual terminals) as tty1 and tty2. So if you encounter a black screen first, try this key combination before giving any commands: <Ctrl>-<Left-ALT>-<Backspace>. If there's no success, you can try Mandriva Control Center being root user (Admin account). Login normally, then "su" to root (root password needed here!). You'll see a slightly different shell prompt. Enter "mcc" and configure your video card (will be auto-detected in many cases). Good luck! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montymintypie Posted December 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 I've now determined the problem. When I configured what I though were the right settings in mcc, I clicked test monitor. It then showed the black, totally unresponsive screen. Any ideas? Generic drivers? My card is a NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 Will Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoonma Posted December 7, 2007 Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 The black screen will vanish either to show a correct test screen after maybe 30secs (depends on hardware) or show an error message if left alone long enough. You can get along initially by selecting the generic driver named "nv" (don't know how it's called in the driver list, but should be displayed after selecting in final check). I'd recommend an adequate Xorg driver, however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted December 7, 2007 Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 MX440 does work with either the "nv" driver, or the proprietary "nvidia" one (which I will safely assume as not installed-yet). One "simple" solution is logging to a virtual terminal (as above) as root, and then nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf (if nano is not installed then you can use vi, but since the vi keyboard shortcuts are a puzzle even for intermediate users, let alone newbies, you can get the nano texteditor by a simple "urpmi nano" first). Find there the reference to your card driver, and change "nv" to "vesa" (not the best driver for performance, but best for display problems). For the record, I also had problems with an MX440 when using the DVI screen connector. If applicable, use the good, ole analog VGA connector and see if it cures the problem. After being able to login to your system with X running, you should fetch and install the proprietary nvidia driver, which makes a HUGE difference, performance-wise. It's installation wasn't the simplest one, but currently it's quite easy, if you have set your software repositories (look at the "easyurpmi" link on top of this page). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montymintypie Posted December 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 Yes!!!! It worked!!! I now have a working install of Mandriva Linux :D :D :D :D :D Now my second problem, which is too small for another topic. I need a driver for my network card to connect to my wireless network. I have one off my Windows install (which is what it wants) but the extension is .sys instead of .inf. Any ideas on how to convert? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montymintypie Posted December 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 Just another update, I extracted the .inf off the install disk that came with the card. Now I can see the network, but can't connect (Airport Extreme Base Station). Have tried password in all three options (WEP open, WEP restricted and WPA) and also tried equivalent network password. Any tips? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montymintypie Posted December 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 BTW, sorry for triple post, but thanks for the quick and helpful replies! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoonma Posted December 7, 2007 Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 Hi Will, nice to hear your gfx card works now! On the networking problems, please browse the corresponding topics here (Forums / Advanced / Networking). Maybe you're already able to find the correct solution on your own. If not, it would make sense to start a different topic there. You won't need any Windows related files (.sys .inf ...). For a quick start, there's a Networking Module within Mandriva Control Center for Wireless devices. HTH, scoonma Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scarecrow Posted December 7, 2007 Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 Windoze files are only needed if you are forced to use ndiswrapper... but i agree, better start a new topic, whatever "small" the problem is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montymintypie Posted December 7, 2007 Author Report Share Posted December 7, 2007 Ok, thanks again for the advice and quick response times. I'm glad Mandriva works now! :D :D :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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