HP Pavilion dv2000: latest nightly can't start x [Workaround found]

[Quaxo76]

Hello,
I would like to try (either live or installing) 8.10 on this notebook, a HP Pavilion dv2736us. But X just can't start, and it fails with the panic error "no screens found".
The video card is a nVidia 7150M.
I tried booting in safe graphics mode, but it doesn't help.
I'm using yesterday's nightly build.
What can I do? This is a 7-months old laptop, I was hoping 8.10 had native support for it...

Thanks
Cristian

[dibl]

Re: HP Pavilion dv2000: latest nightly can't start x

I'm surprised an Nvidia 7150 was put in a new design laptop so recently.

Well, you're posting under 8.10 so I'm working with 8.10 and an Nvidia card (9600GT) -- maybe I can point to things that seem to work. KDM 4 is a new K Display Manager and I've learned some new "coping skills" as a result.

Unless you are ideologically opposed to proprietary hardware drivers, I'd advise you to attempt to install the Nvidia driver (177.80), using EnvyNG. So, here's the process -- all at the tty console:

1. Boot recovery mode, and choose "dump me to command prompt" or whatever it says that means the same thing. This should put you at the ~# prompt.

2. Be double-sure that KDM isn't running by issuing

/etc/init.d/kdm stop

3.

sudo apt-get update

and then

sudo apt-get install build-essential

4.

sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)

5.

sudo apt-get install envyng-core

6.

sudo envyng -t

7. Choose #1 "Install the Nvidia driver"

8. Choose #5 "Restart the X Server"

You should get the GUI desktop. Post back if there are issues with your screen resolution or anything like that.

[Quaxo76]

Re: HP Pavilion dv2000: latest nightly can't start x

I'm surprised an Nvidia 7150 was put in a new design laptop so recently.

Well, this is not a high-end laptop, and by the way it's not a really bad card (it's not the desktop version!) I can run the X-plane flight simulator with decent details at 30 fps...

Unless you are ideologically opposed to proprietary hardware drivers, I'd advise you to attempt to install the Nvidia driver (177.80), using EnvyNG. So, here's the process -- all at the tty console:

Is envyng out for 8.10 already? I thought it wasn't... Anyway, I have no problems using proprietary drivers, but... how can I install drivers if I can't install the system first?
All I can get is a tty prompt, but the system is not on the hd yet - I can't start the installer.
I don't even know how to go online; I use a 3G USB modem, and I use kppp to configure it - and of course I can't run kppp from the console.

Maybe I should try the alternate CD and make a text install, but that will have to wait - I can't download big files from this location.
But I'm slightly disappointed that a 7-month old laptop isn't usable with the regular live cd! I wonder if the final version will support it...

Thanks
Cristian

[Quaxo76]

Re: HP Pavilion dv2000: latest nightly can't start x

Update... From the command line I was able to configure the modem and connect to the internet. Of course all modifications are lost at every reboot, since that's a virtual filesystem. Anyway, I could install the build-essential and linux-header packages, but apt-get couldn't find the envyng-core package. Should I add a repository? How do i do that from the command line?

Cristian

[dibl]

Re: HP Pavilion dv2000: latest nightly can't start x

All I can get is a tty prompt, but the system is not on the hd yet - I can't start the installer.

Oooops -- I didn't read/understand that you hadn't got the Live CD to run. Sorry, I thought it was on the hdd.

OK, the Live CD won't run on mine either. But if I choose F4 and "Safe Graphics" mode, then it will boot and give me a VESA display. And you say "Safe Graphics" won't work?

There's a way, I believe, to set the VGA mode prior to boot. I think you need "Other Boot Options" and then you're going to use a "vga=xxx" option. Try vga=791 first. If that doesn't work, try 788, and keep trying other resolutions. Here's a table of the so-called "cheatcodes" that you can use to get a balky hardware platform to boot Linux:

http://manual.sidux.com/en/cheatcodes-vga-en.htm

Also, if it turns out to be more than the video mode, you might need one or even two of the other cheatcodes, shown in the middle table "Common Linux ...." here:

http://manual.sidux.com/en/cheatcodes-en.htm

You can't hurt anything trying these, so just keep pecking away until you find the combination that boots it.

[Quaxo76]

Re: HP Pavilion dv2000: latest nightly can't start x

Hm. I tried most of the vga codes, without any luck.
Tonight I tried with another night build (Oct. 18th) on another physical media. Same thing: when kdm is started, I see for a moment a white cross mouse-cursor on a black background, then it disappears and I'm dropped to console.
What is even weirder is that the 8.04 live cd could be booted on this laptop, and the system installed - albeit at a lower resolution. 8.10 instead can't get me to a graphical UI at all...
So? What can I do? Is my only chance doing a text install? And what if I can actually install that way... will the system work at all?

Thanks
Cristian

[Quaxo76]

Re: HP Pavilion dv2000: latest nightly can't start x [FIXED]

I fixed it somehow. I just had to edit, from the command line, xorg.conf and add the line

Driver  "vesa"

in the Device section. Then I was able to boot the live cd (albeit at low resolution) and from there install the system, and then configure it.

So, all in all the fix was easy; but I really really hope this is fixed before going final, otherwise a lot of potential new users might get quite disgruntled when they see that Kubuntu doesn't "just work" - it actually doesn't even boot!

Cristian