Startup problems with Mandrake 10.1 Official

[Admiral]

I'm fairly pissed here, after downloading the 6 CD 10.1 Official Powerpack and installing, it won't bring up the login manager.
Basically it loads all the processes/services, starts Xorg, shows me the nVidia logo and then it gets stuck on the blue desktop (with Mandrake... wrote in white on the right lower corner).
Any ideas ?

[Marshmallowman]

ctl alt del, to see if a login prompt appears.

ctrl alt BS to kill the xserver to see what happens.

Failing that press alt f1 to bring up console and login in console mode, the try reconfigureing X, eg run xconfig or the nv version of xconfig.

[Admiral]

None of the above worked, in the sense that it's stuck on the desktop and doesn't respond to any commands.

Booted with the second CD again, chose upgrade, reached the post install configuration stage again, configured the video card (Nvidia 6800 generic, 1024x768x24...) and when it came to testing that config it says:

(EE) failed to load module "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules/extensions/libglex.so" (once-only module, 135962511)

(EE) Failed to initialize the NVIDIA kernel module !

try to change some parameters.

[The PIT]

Well at least my mandrake 10.1 boots into X when doesn't reconise my X800 XT.

Strangely it reckons that my network card isn't working yet once logged on it's working perfectly.

So far I haven't found any distros that work with my X800XT

Fedora doesn't undertsand my sata drives and bombs out.

Suse 9.x doesn't like it.

Mandrake doesn't.

Bunta or Bunga or whatever doesn't either.

Haven't tried Debain as yet.

[Marshmallowman]

If you purchased mandrake you probably get the full mandrake confiured driver when you install(in theory)

But if you are using the downloaded verson it will not include the driver, so you have to download it yourslef then install it, You usualy also have to change the driver from nv to nividia(or maybe nvidia to nv) in the \etc\X11\XF86config file.

But to save some hassles what you could do is install using the vesa driver as this is the most failsafe/compatible driver, and also set mandrake to boot to the console and no load the gui(for now)

Then start x using the command startx.

This way you can manual tweak or reinstall the video drivers and still be able to boot to a console and fix stuff. without doing a full reinstall.

Definety try using the vesa xserver to get started for now.

[The PIT]

What do you do when the vesa driver doesn't work properly???

[leech]

You configure xorg/Xfree86 manually.... Which I've done many times in the past.

And to clarify, the open source driver for the nvidia cards is "nv" and the closed source one (which is apparently the one that is trying to be used) is "nvidia"

@Pit
By Bunga or Bunta, I think you mean Ubuntu? It had no problems on my system, and you should only have to 'apt-get install fglrx-driver' and it'll install and (hopefully) configure the ATI closed source driver for the X800.

And it <i>should</i> detect your SATA drives. Mine even detected the External Firewire hard drive. The next release coming out in April, should be even better as far as the install goes.

Leech

[The PIT]

Doing manually doesn't work either well it worked once then crashed on the next restart.
Probably have to wait until the next kernal upgrade before it's detected properly.

[Admiral]

Tryed Ubuntu 4.10, same thing, it won't start the X server.
Went into /usr/X11R6/bin and configured it manually with xf86config. Doesn't work with vesa, vga or unsupported vga. Updated the X server to the latest version (4.40), tryed all of the above, still won't work.
Is there any particulal location I should choose to save the config file ?

[Marshmallowman]

if you run x86config as root it will save the file in the right location.
That being \etc\X11\XF86Config-4

I don;t know if that has changed for xorg 6.7/8

[The PIT]

Originally posted by Admiral
Tryed Ubuntu 4.10, same thing, it won't start the X server.
Went into /usr/X11R6/bin and configured it manually with xf86config. Doesn't work with vesa, vga or unsupported vga. Updated the X server to the latest version (4.40), tryed all of the above, still won't work.
Is there any particulal location I should choose to save the config file ?

Try an old graphics card it will probably work then and wait til Linux catches up which should be around this summer.

Sadly this sort of naffness is what is holding Linux back.

[Admiral]

The bloody thing was trying to load XF86Config-4 instead of XF86Config in /etc/X11.
Now the problem is that it fails to initialize the mouse. Anyone knows (for Ubuntu) which file in /dev is responsible for the mouse, eg. tty0..., as I don't have any /mouse in there.

[Admiral]

ok, so it was /dev/input/mouse0, I've now managed to start the X server using the vesa driver... yuppy !!!

[The PIT]

It's good when it does that.

[The PIT]

Admiral you may want to try Suse 9.2.

Just tried the latest 9.2 eval CD which is hidden away on their ftp servers. It reconises my ATI card so theres a good chance it will reconise your Nvidea properly.

Just posted this using their CD