7.04 64 bit doesn't like my new PC

[Objekt]

First, the specs on the new system (let me know if I'm leaving out anything important):

Asus P53E Workstation Pro motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 (Wolfdale) 3.16GHz processors
4 GB DDR3 PC10666 1333MHz RAM
NVidia GeForce 9800GTX video card (I think this may be where the problem is)
Lite-On DVD-RW drive
1TB SATA2 (3.0Gb/s) HDD
3.5" diskette drive (I just had to!)
700W power supply

This is a new-ish 64 bit machine. Well, actually, really dang new, as in I powered it up for the first time ever only about 2 days ago.

I spent most of last evening getting Windows XP Pro installed on it. Now I'm ready to install a real OS, like Kubuntu. The massive HDD is partitioned into one 20 GB chunk (WinXP boot volume), one 120 GB chunk (future ext3 partitions for system, swap, and /home) and one huge >800 GB chunk (NTFS for general storage). And I have a Live DVD of Gutsy 7.04, the 64 bit version.

The problem is, it doesn't work!

When I boot off the 7.04 live DVD, I get the usual menu. If I pick the first option ("Start or Install" if I recall correctly), seconds later, I very briefly see a bit of text on the screen, then nothing. The monitor does its flashing power light "no signal" routine, and while the DVD drive keeps doing stuff, I can't see anything, so there's no point in continuing.

What could be going on? Does 7.04 not like the GeForce 9000-series video cards? They're not THAT new, having already been superceded by the 9800 GX2 dual-GPU cards, but I thought I could at least get the live version of Kubuntu running. I wasn't really planning to install 7.04, it's just that I don't have 8.04.1 64 bit downloaded yet.

[Objekt]

Re: 7.04 64 bit doesn't like my new PC

FWIW, it seems to have been a hardware problem. I RMA'd the motherboard, and installed Kubuntu 7.04 64-bit about an hour ago. It's downloading updates now.

[jglen490]

Re: 7.04 64 bit doesn't like my new PC

Just curious, but any reason why you're running 7.04 vice 7.10 or 8.04?

[Objekt]

Re: 7.04 64 bit doesn't like my new PC

Because it's what was available. Downloading 7.10 64 bit would have taken quite a while, and I didn't want to wait.

Am I missing anything by running 7.04 instead of 7.10? Since it's a fresh install, it's no big loss to install 7.10 over 7.04. I wish 8.04.1 would work, but it won't, so perhaps 7.10 is worth a try.

[dibl]

Re: 7.04 64 bit doesn't like my new PC

I suspect you are right about the video thing -- Nvidia's proprietary driver has been troublesome with the new -.26 and -.27 kernels:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...2004#msg142004

WRT 7.10 vs. 8.04 vx. 8.10, it's hard to say for sure, but my general rule is "use a new kernel on new hardware, and an older one on older hardware" -- at least to start with, until you can sort the hardware issues. If you're going to spend your time wrestling an Nvidia driver into submission, might as well do it on a recent kernel, huh?

Personally, I'd try the latest 8.10 Alpha 6, then try the Restricted Driver Manager, now known as "KMenu>System>Hardware Drivers", but you may not want KDE4, so that's your choice to make.

[Objekt]

Re: 7.04 64 bit doesn't like my new PC

I haven't gotten as far as installing the Nvidia proprietary driver in 7.04, and I couldn't even get the 8.04.1 Live DVD (even after re-burning at 2x, verifying the md5 of the image file, and so on) to boot. So, I never had a chance to have the problems you describe with the Nvidia proprietary drivers in 8.04.1, and have not yet done so with 7.04.

I haven't tried going straight to the "Install" option on the boot menu of the Live DVD since replacing the motherboard. Maybe that would work now.

[dibl]

Re: 7.04 64 bit doesn't like my new PC

A lot of folks seem to have had problems with the Live DVD -- I dunno if it's a media problem or what. If you think you want 8.04.1, why not give the Live CD a try? Burn it slow (4X) after you verify the md5 sum.

[Objekt]

Re: 7.04 64 bit doesn't like my new PC

I tried to download the 8.04.1 Live CD a few times in the last 24 hours. Each time, after leaving the computer alone for several hours to let downloading finish as fast as possible, I came back later to find the download stalled at a small percentage (say, 122 MB). That is, the image file was in Firefox's download window, but the bar wasn't progressing, and the estimated time to completion was stuck.

I'm not sure whether this is an issue with my ISP, or just the particular download site. I tried both Xmission.com and another one in the US I can't recall (some place in California). I guess I'll try Bittorrent next.