PCLinuxOS 2011.6 Hardest Yet to Install

[Ramchu]

I have an older Compaq (2004) that has on board integrated graphics and I have added an Nvidia FX5200 256MB pci
graphics card.
I did a reinstall the other day and had to let the live CD boot to the 1st selection in the boot menu, there I get a black
screen with only the cashew in the upper right corner of the screen and I have to move the mouse to the right to get
the pointer to appear.
I then have to right click on the desktop and click add widgets and double click on the PC icon to add the launch menu
button to the desktop.
I can then click on the PC icon and get the menu and go to More Applications>Configuration>Configuer Your Computer>
Hardware>Configure Your graphics Card and set it to Nvidia FX5200.
Then I had to logout and back in again to get to a normal Desktop and install - after the install then the computer must be rebooted.
Again I was presented with a blank/black screen so I had to reboot into Safe Mode and do XFdarke again to set the graphics to
use the added Nvidia FX5200 pci card, then reboot again before getting to my normal desktop.

All of this simply because of the on board integrated VIA graphics that  uses the S3 Unichrome drivers.

Is there anyway that the Live CD can be made to select the added Nvidia graphics card ?

[Old-Polack]

I have an older Compaq (2004) that has on board integrated graphics and I have added an Nvidia FX5200 256MB pci
graphics card.
I did a reinstall the other day and had to let the live CD boot to the 1st selection in the boot menu, there I get a black
screen with only the cashew in the upper right corner of the screen and I have to move the mouse to the right to get
the pointer to appear.
I then have to right click on the desktop and click add widgets and double click on the PC icon to add the launch menu
button to the desktop.
I can then click on the PC icon and get the menu and go to More Applications>Configuration>Configuer Your Computer>
Hardware>Configure Your graphics Card and set it to Nvidia FX5200.
Then I had to logout and back in again to get to a normal Desktop and install - after the install then the computer must be rebooted.
Again I was presented with a blank/black screen so I had to reboot into Safe Mode and do XFdarke again to set the graphics to
use the added Nvidia FX5200 pci card, then reboot again before getting to my normal desktop.

All of this simply because of the on board integrated VIA graphics that  uses the S3 Unichrome drivers.

Is there anyway that the Live CD can be made to select the added Nvidia graphics card ?

Boot to the vesa safe mode selection instead. At least you should then get a usable desktop.

[Ramchu]

Boot to the vesa safe mode selection instead. At least you should then get a usable desktop.

Thank You !

How ever after I do the install I still have to boot into the safe mode and XFdrake to get the correct video card and
driver.

Still it is much simpler with a lot fewer steps.

[menotu]

I feel for you Ramchu

For me, KDE 2011.06 (and lxde 2011.06 and kde-minime-2011.07 installs in VBox) have basically been the same as the earlier releases which were problem free.

Actually, now I think about it, the 2011x installed a bit quicker than before.

Another thing I've noticed in KDE 2011.06 is that the sound volume keeps the same volume setting after a restart or reboot which is nice.

[Just18]

All of this simply because of the on board integrated VIA graphics that  uses the S3 Unichrome drivers.

Have you tried disabling this in BIOS?

[moniac]

I think 2011.6 was hard to install. In fact I dropped back to 2010.12 and updated. With 2011.6 I would get kernel panics randomly and sometimes it just lost my internet setup and other odd things I can't specifically remember. I got it going and everything working nicely now.

[Ramchu]

Have you tried disabling this in BIOS?

Yes - I cannot disable it all that I can do in BIOS is tell it to use the pci Installed card

[luikki]

Yes - I cannot disable it all that I can do in BIOS is tell it to use the pci Installed card

that has the same effect of

disabling this in BIOS

[Just18]

Yes - I cannot disable it all that I can do in BIOS is tell it to use the pci Installed card

that has the same effect of

disabling this in BIOS

I would suggest that may not be the case .....  if the device is disabled in BIOS then it cannot be see by the OS ......  whereas setting another device as the preferred one in BIOS still allows the other to be seen and used by the OS. At least that has been my experience .....

I hope I have explained myself sufficiently ...


regards.

[luikki]

I would suggest that may not be the case

you might be right...
in that case the bios must have an option to select the vga to be used... may be not in n obvious place...
in any way, i don't see where ramchu says that the integrated card is seen...

[Archie]

For me, KDE 2011.06 was easier to install. It was also faster. I had no issue whatsoever. I got everything back the way I wanted - customization, importing bookmarks, address book, calendar and email accounts, and installing apps I use - all within the hour.

[Ramchu]

I would suggest that may not be the case .....  if the device is disabled in BIOS then it cannot be see by the OS ......  whereas setting another device as the preferred one in BIOS still allows the other to be seen and used by the OS. At least that has been my experience .....

I hope I have explained myself sufficiently ...


regards.

Exactly - and you explained it much better than I ever could have - Thanks !

[luikki]

so, how many graphic cards do you have in pcc hardware ,browse and configure hardware,video card?

[Hootiegibbon]

There is an additional detail here some may not be aware of

some versions of the FX5200 hardware, miss-report their abilities to the xserver - this causes graphics corruption and lock up, I would look to using the video=vesa in place of the vga=788 entry, (or trying the fbdev boot)

I suspect its the FX5200 that needs to be set up correctly (manually) I have 5 of these cards of which 3 are effected by garbled/freezing graphics.

I would be tempted to install initially without the pci-Nvidia card then when installed, adding in the nvidia card, booting into run-level 3 to set the card up then rebooting with the pci card as the primary video source.

If your's is one of the cards effected then is a hardware issue that has work arounds - I willsee if i can locate them incase

Jase  

[Ramchu]

There is an additional detail here some may not be aware of

some versions of the FX5200 hardware, miss-report their abilities to the xserver - this causes graphics corruption and lock up, I would look to using the video=vesa in place of the vga=788 entry, (or trying the fbdev boot)

I suspect its the FX5200 that needs to be set up correctly (manually) I have 5 of these cards of which 3 are effected by garbled/freezing graphics.

I would be tempted to install initially without the pci-Nvidia card then when installed, adding in the nvidia card, booting into run-level 3 to set the card up then rebooting with the pci card as the primary video source.

If your's is one of the cards effected then is a hardware issue that has work arounds - I willsee if i can locate them incase

Jase  

I do not have any issues with the 5200 card - it works perfectly.
The only issue is when I run the live CD, It always detects the integrated built in graphics card and therefore makes the install very difficult .