Installation fails: is it my video card?

[tommo88]

This is my first experience with Linux.

I read various articles on the Internet and chose to pop my cherry with Kubuntu 8.10.

I was keen on the idea of a LiveCD, so I downloaded and attempted to install, before encountering the following problem:

During the load process of the LiveCD, the system does not progress beyond "Checking battery... [OK]". It also displays a black screen with oddly placed, blue pixels on the left-hand side, and flickers between these two views for a bit before finally settling on the "Checking battery... [OK]" screen.

It has been suggested to me that it is likely to be a video card driver issue causing this problem, and that my laptop's ATI Radeon HD 2400 is not very well supported.

As a complete beginner, how do I remedy this?

... Or am I better off trying a different distro?

[Snowhog]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

First, welcome.

Reboot with the LiveCD. When you are presented with the initial menu, notice the information at the bottom of the screen. Select the function key to use safe graphics (vesa) mode (F4 or F6). See if you get further along.

Is this a laptop?

[tommo88]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

I'll do as suggested.

Assuming this works, would I then be able to apply a more permanent fix to the problem once I had network access from within the OS? I'd rather not install at all if it were to transpire that I'd have to settle for a slow system due to a lack of support for my graphics card.

And yes, it's a laptop.

Thanks for the quick response. Much appreciated!

[Snowhog]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

Strongly suggested that before you install, you try the LiveCD - that's what it's for. To answer your question, 'yes.' If you are able to get the the desktop using safe graphics, it's almost a certainty that a solution exists to get your graphics chip working with Linux.

Assuming you get the LiveCD up and running, open a console (K Menu > Applications > System > Konsole) and type:

lspci | grep VGA

This will tell us exactly what video controller you have in the laptop.

[tommo88]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

I was unable to get a desktop working in safe-graphics mode. I was instead presented with a shell - the prompt was something along the lines of $ubuntu@ubuntu:.

Eek.

It's promising that once this hurdle's passed, I should be able to get everything functioning correctly though!

I'll consult google some more while I wait for some more replies.

Thanks for your help.

[Snowhog]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

At the prompt, you can issue the command I gave:

lspci | grep VGA

Note the output (write it down) and let us know in your reply. This will help us get you booted off the LiveCD into the graphical desktop.

[tommo88]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

Running that command from the prompt returned the following:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Mobility Radeon HD 2400

Hope this means something to you!

Thanks.

[Snowhog]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

Yup, you've got an ATI/Nvidia card/chip. So some tweaking of the boot options from the LiveCD are going to be required in order to get you to boot into the graphical desktop. If I had paid more attention to your original OP, I'd have seen that you already identified your video card/chip. :P

The tweaking is fairly straight forward. I'm going to contact a forum member who has more experience with Nvidia issues. Watch for a post from dibl.

[tommo88]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

Haha!

Thanks for your efforts, I'm very grateful.

[dibl]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

Yep, you're going to have to do some experiments with boot options to get it past the boot splash. I think it is the F6 key that brings up the boot options, from the Live CD, right? So, here are the ones that I would try first (one at a time):

xforcevesa
vga=788
vga=791

Just type in the option, then then "Start" or whatever the menu item is to launch the Live CD. You'll know pretty quickly when one works.

If it turns out that it's not a video problem, then it is a power management problem. In that case, some of the popular boot options are:

noapic
noacpi
nolapic

The second FAQ in the link in my signature has more on the topic. Good luck!

[tommo88]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

Thanks very much!

I'll be sure to let you know which fix solves it (nothing like positive thinking eh?).

[dibl]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

Thanks very much!

I'll be sure to let you know which fix solves it (nothing like positive thinking eh?).

You're welcome. And YES, a positive attitude is 50% of the solution.

[tommo88]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

An update:

I tried the various boot options suggested by dibl

( xforcevesa: resulted in my being presented with a command-line,
vga=n: changed the resolution, but did not permit progression beyond "Checking battery state [OK]"
noapic: no visible effects
noapci: no visible effects
nolapic: informed me of a change, but again did not permit progression beyond aforementioned )

I found this post (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=980276), which refers to my specific laptop model.

On the advice of the post, I downloaded the alternate installation, burned it to DVD and booted from it.

I chose my language, and then proceeded with the installation.

The screen changed and was filled with errors, of this sort:
"Buffer I/O error on dev sr0, logical block 178171" - the last two digits seem to be variable.

So yeah... I'm at a complete loss as to what to do next. openSUSE perhaps?

[dibl]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

Ouch -- the second post on your Ubuntu link looks pretty grim.

So, you never got the Live CD to boot up?

You seem like a positive, enterprising soul, so rather than continue bashing against this particular brick wall by guessing at boot options, I'm going to deviate from my general policy of sticking with *buntu solutions, and recommend you give this Debian Sid-based distro a shot, with their Live CD. On the left of the page is a "Download" link - follow the trail to a mirror suitable for you to use for downloading the ISO file, and then follow the rules to check the md5 sum, use DAO mode, and set the burn speed to 4X. If that Live CD supports your Radeon chip, then you'll know that there is a Linux distro that potentially will work. And, if you can ascertain what the boot option(s) are that are letting it boot, you might be able to transfer that knowledge back to booting your Kubuntu Live CD. Good luck -- let us know how you fare.

p.s. Kubuntu is more fun, and our Forum is friendlier ....

[eDaniel]

Re: Installation fails: is it my video card?

Hello,

AMD released new Catalyst driver: http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/l...ux-radeon.html

Quote from the release notes:

Support for New Linux Operating Systems
This release of ATI Catalyst™ Linux introduces support for the following new
operating system:
• Ubuntu 8.10 production support

https://a248.e.akamai.net/f/674/9206...t_91_linux.pdf