PCLOS 2012 and ACER laptops - SOLVED

[kjpetrie]

Sorry, my fault, I remembered the command wrong. You got to a textual log-in. That's good and it means you'll get there. The error also confirms it's a driver problem. XFdrake should do it.

Also, please do not use the "video=vesa" and the 3 together, as there is no benefit in that and the video kernel option might interfere with XFdrake when you run it.

[Archie]

Even if you can install PCLinuxOS, you're going to have problems with the video card.

Also try the option, instead of video=vesa, how about video=ati?

[semper-linux]

Hi Forum,

Thank you all for your input.

I haven't even managed to get as far as trying "XFdrake" as for some reason, the boot-up is failing at loading the file system.
Output as follows.....................

" Searching for loop filesystem                         /dev/sr0                [OK]
ERROR:   Unable to mount loop filesystem

Commands were :
losetup /dev/loop0 initrd/cdrom/livecd.sqfs
mount -r -t squashfs /dev/loop0 initrd/loopfs

Most likely cause is bad burn or bad download
Please run media check on LiveCD
Dropping you to a limited shell

Loading /initrd/bin/ash  /initrd/bin/ash : can't access tty:
job control turned off

$_
"

end of output
N.B. - have checked and re-checked the media - passes every time.

This is getting so frustrating - I must have booted this machine 20+ times last night - the poor thing is nearly black and blue.

Archie - I'm no stranger to problems with the video card - it took me months to get it set up with Kubuntu - will certainly try video=ati if and when I get the chance i.e. get to a login prompt

I tried making a USB boot stick. Eventually I found Universal-USB-Installer which created a full copy of the .iso file on the USB stick but didn't include the boot options.

Anybody know of a utility that will create a boot USB with ALL the boot variations ?

Once again, thank you all for the input.

semper-linux

[AS]

That's the output from KDE-2012.02 while booting a LiveCD, using the following boot options:

Code: [Select]

noquiet  splash=verbose  debug


I invite you again to boot the LiveCD using the debug option, as that may provide useful info otherwise hidden.

[semper-linux]

Hi Forum,

That's exactly the out put I've been getting WITH the following boot options..........

noquiet splash=verbose debug video=vesa

Previously I added a "3" at the end but stopped doing that.
I also tried substituting "ati" in place of "vesa".

For my last 30 - 40 attempts at getting thgis to run I have ALWAYS used boot options.

End result always the same - machine hangs at this point. Ctrl-Alt-Del re-boots the machine.

How did you manage to capture the screen like that ?

many thanks,
semper-linux.

[AS]

How did you manage to capture the screen like that ?

That's from VirtualBox 

[AS]

Did you get the following ?

DBG: Mounted /dev/sr0

[semper-linux]

That Virtual Box is one class piece of software.





This is the output from the latest boot-up attempt being run in a Virtual Box virtual machine. The system hung at this point

I suspect that the boot failure this time just might be something to do with the Virtual machine - not sure. It's just that I haven't seen it crash with this o/p before.

Boot options used were........noquiet spalsh=verbose debug video=ati

I'll post and await your comments.
Many thanks to you all,

semper-linux

[semper-linux]

Hi Forum,

Well, it seems a little determination has paid off - I've actually had PCLinuxOS 2012 running - sorry, not running - no functionality - on this ACER laptop - albeit only for about 30 seconds and then it crashed.

Story is in two parts and it goes like this.................

1)   I managed to burn the iso image onto a DVD - the installation runs nearly perfectly every time and at 10X the speed of a CD.

2)   The installation was done "in" a virtual machine - Oracle's Virtual Box running on top of the Kubuntu OS. (Thank you VERY much AS).
It actually produces the fastest boot-up and best results using the LiveCD option.

(Trying to run the LiveCD on the ACER hardware seems to be so buggy it is a real nightmare.)

Unfortunately, it only ran for about 30 secs but I did take a snapshot of the state of the virtual machine which may have some useful debug info.
I'll gladly make that available to anyone who is brave enough to have a go at investigating the problem.
I certainly will have a look myself although I doubt very much if I'll make any sense of it.

Thank you one and all for sticking with me on this - your advice and assistance is truly appreciated.

semper-linux

[semper-linux]

Hi Forum,

All images are screen captures taken while trying to boot up PCLOS 2012 in a virtual machine. The boot options are......splash=verbose debug 3

This first image is of the XFdrake / Xorg config output. Because of the VM, the video card is not correctly detected.
When trying to boot up on basic hardware (no VM), the video card is reported as.........
ATI Radeon HD2000 and later (radeon / fglrx) - the Xorg driver reported as fglrx.
The actual video 'card' in the laptop is an ATI Mobility Radeon HD5470

When XFdrake output is confirmed, the system says to re-boot which is senseless - the only thing to do is to confirm XFdrake which returns you to the terminal prompt and try and start the graphical server with..................startx



This second screen shot shows the output of the command "startx".
Shortly after this text o/p, a post login splash screen appears and the 5 icons gradually appear.



This third screen shot is the final output of the boot process. There IS a movable mouse but nothing happens when any of the icons are clicked - tha system is unusable.





When attempting to boot the LiveCD on basic hardware, the system always crashes after the "startx" output.

There are various logs and machine state snapshots available if they are of any interest.
Will be pleased to supply any of these on request or run any specific tests.

When booting up with this DVD on the basic hardware, I'm ALWAYS able to get to the localhost login and get a terminal / command line with root privileges.
I don't know enough about the finer points of setting up the graphical server from there but would appreciate any advice as that seems to be the right way to go from this stage.

Many thanks,
semper-linux

[AS]

Hi Forum,

All images are screen captures taken while trying to boot up PCLOS 2012 in a virtual machine. The boot options are......splash=verbose debug 3

When you are using VirtualBox you are really using different PC (i.e. emulated hardware), PCLinuxOS 2012.02 will simply work out of the box while installing in VirtualBox, provided that you don't mess up the things!.

The video card, in VirtualBox is:

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH VirtualBox Graphics Adapter

 

[semper-linux]

Hi AS,

I appreciate that entirely.

It's just that at some point the I/O must "tunnel" through the virtual machine to its target on the hardware be it mouse / kbd input or sound / video output and, presumably any errors / failures may well be logged.

Just trying not to leave any stone unturned here.

Instead of using startx I tried xinit - system crashed just as normal.

Thanks for the input.

semper-linux.

[kjpetrie]

No, because Virtualbox simply presents the host window manager with a picture to display and the host's X server then takes care of it. There is no connection to the hardware from within VB.

I think you said the host is another Linux distro, so if you know enough you might gain some insight by comparing versions and configuration between the two when running natively, but that could also be misleading.

The only sensible way to try it is to troubleshoot from a native install or live session. It seems booting into runlevel 3 (which is what putting the 3 at the end does) at least gives you a stable, usable system or sorts and that is what I would use to experiment. I would try the various ati-related drivers in XFdrake, both ATI and xorg, as well as vesa and mesa. Something ought to enable you to get a basic desktop, especially if it works with another Linux OS. Obviously, you can't reboot and keep the driver, but you can try selecting the drivers and startx.

Once you have a desktop you can install, and that gives you the ability to reboot, which might give more success with better drivers.

[semper-linux]

Hi there,

Thank you for your input kjpetrie

My current Linux distro is Kubuntu / Natty Narwhal. I had awful graphics problems at the start so I downloaded and installed the proprietary driver for a Mobility Radeon HD 5470 graphics card from AMD / ATI.

The graphics on this hardware / OS combo work as intended (I only assume as I've nothing to compare it against).
There is an HDMI output on the laptop which I hook up to a 42" HD telly which gives me excellent results - video and sound

I cannot find anything in the list of drivers that appears to match the proprietary AMD offering. There ARE proprietary AMD drivers listed but they are for HD2000 (and upwards) cards. I've tried these but they do not work.

The most successful driver I found was the "xorg : ati" as the machine didn't crash with that.
I selected that driver, went back to the terminal prompt and ran "xinit" - I got the following output..................

(EE) failed to load module "glx"         (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) failed to load module "dri"         (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) no devices detected.

Fatal server error: no screens found

xinit : giving up
xinit : unable to connect to server : Connection refused
xinit : server error

[end of output]

Machine returns to terminal prompt (instead of BSOD)

..................................

I'm fairly sure if I can get xinit to run correctly, something like "startkde" should fire up.

Any thoughts and advice gratefully received.

semper-linux

[semper-linux]

Hi Forum,

Would this possibly be something for the distro builders / testers ?

If so, does anyone have contact info. for that venerable group ?

many thanks,

semper-linux.