edwardp Posted January 26, 2008 Report Share Posted January 26, 2008 (edited) While attempting to diagnose an audio problem on Desktop 2, which was eventually resolved, I removed the GeForce 2 MX video card and replaced it with a card containing a 3DLabs Permedia 2 chip and 4 Mb of video memory. When the system was booted up the first time with the Permedia card, I did not get the graphical GRUB menu, it was all-text, but the system for some unknown reason, booted up to a point, then displayed a non-flashing cursor in the upper left corner of the screen, nothing else. FWIW, I purchased and returned a GeForce 6200-based video card recently. It had a DVI input on the back of the card with a VGA connector that plugged into the DVI input connector, to allow for a VGA monitor to be used. I am guessing that because the card is DVI-designed, the BIOS in Desktop 1 did not even detect it as a video card (it beeped three times upon powerup) and correctly stopped on the error. Does Mandriva have a minimum requirement for video memory on-board a video card? I know that 16 and 32 Mb cards work and the 4 Mb card does not. Regular VGA video cards are somewhat hard to find today. Edited January 30, 2008 by edwardp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted January 28, 2008 Report Share Posted January 28, 2008 It sounds like you are having a graphics driver issue after flipping cards. When you get the blinking cursor, try pressing CTRL+ALT+F1 and you should get a login prompt. Login here as the root user and run the program XFdrake and try reconfiguring your card. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardp Posted January 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2008 (edited) I have placed the Permedia card in Desktop 1. Upon bootup, it displayed "graphics initialization failed", then after a few seconds, the text menu appeared. I selected "linux". It went through the console messages, said one file was missing (imwheel) and as was the case with Desktop 2, it also brought me to a NON-flashing cursor. At the non-flashing cursor, CTL-ALT-F1 does nothing. I rebooted, this time selecting the kernel revision listed instead of "linux" at the menu. This also eventually brought up a non-flashing cursor, CTL-ALT-F1 also did nothing. Rebooted again, added "init 3" to the boot string to see if it would now boot up to a text prompt, it did. xfdrake (command not found), I then ran drakx11. Correct card was listed, I then selected Test, nothing else happened, no colors, nothing, just a blank screen. At this point, I'm going to assume that this card will not work and since the S3 card has even less video memory on-board, that will probably not work either. Edited January 28, 2008 by edwardp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg2 Posted January 28, 2008 Report Share Posted January 28, 2008 I have placed the Permedia card in Desktop 1. Upon bootup, it displayed "graphics initialization failed" What driver are you using? I would suggest using 'glint', please see 'man glint' to set up the “Device†section of your xorg.conf file. You may have to specify the VideoRam entry in the “Device†section. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardp Posted January 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 Thank you both for the replies. I do not believe the Permedia or S3 cards are going to work. I reinstalled the Permedia, booted up in runlevel 3 then configured it with drakx11, choosing "glint". After it wrote the new config, I edited xorg.conf to add the VideoRam entry, then saved the file. I then did a startx which resulted in a blank screen. I rebooted the system, the same "graphics initialization failed" message appeared before the text menu. I powered it off, removed the card and reinstalled my 3dfx card (which has 16 Mb of video RAM). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardp Posted January 29, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 (edited) I installed the S3-based card today (actually a VideoLogic GrafixStar 410), this has 1 Mb of SDRAM video memory on it. To my surprise, when booting up, it displayed a graphical GRUB menu but could not find the splash system, so it displayed the console messages. When it reached the point where the system would have started X, it displayed a blank screen and after 5 minutes, the screen remained blank. This card will not work either. Edited January 29, 2008 by edwardp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 Did you again try my suggestion of CTRL+ALT+F1 (press all 3 simultaneously) and logging in at the prompt as root, then running XFDrake? The cards while likely not work until they are properly configured. I would expect a blank screen if you did not configure the card yet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardp Posted January 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 (edited) Yes, see my second post in this thread. XFDrake is not installed, I had to use drakx11 instead. When the NON-flashing cursor was displayed, pressing CTRL-ALT-F1 simultaneously, did nothing. A flashing cursor never appeared, it was either a non-flashing cursor or a blank screen. Edited January 30, 2008 by edwardp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted January 30, 2008 Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 Right, I know it didn't work with the non-flashing cursor screen and the previous card. I was asking, did you try it also with the new card, the one that is just giving you a black screen. Sorry, guess I didn't clarify... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwardp Posted January 30, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2008 The S3 Trio64 card is installed and I have booted the system into runlevel 3 to run drakx11. After configuring it, I selected Test, which resulted in a black screen. CTL-ALT-BKSP eventually displayed an error and to change some parameters. I went through several of them, primarily screen resolution and all of them displayed blank screens when Test was selected each time. I'm going to mark this thread as solved, as it is now obvious that neither card will work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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