Install problems

[iamme]

Hi all,

I just bought this box used and it has a small 5400 rpm hd that I will be upgrading to a larger/ faster drive as soon as possible.
So this install is something of a dry run for which distro I'll settle on. Mageia is my first choice after reading dozens of distrowatch.com reviews. I enjoyed Mandrake and felt hope for Mandriva . . . And obviously I'm not the only one.

I only get a couple of hours a day to rtfm and install this os, and so far this has been the better part of a week and more than a few joules burned in frustration. . .

First I tried the live version from the Mageia DL page. It looked trim but with everything I want, plus. It loaded nicely from the usb flash drive with wireless internet and video working fine, but no sound from any device or program, i.e. youtube, jump drives, cds or dvds. So I tried to upgrade the system from the default package manager, figuring that the update was the next step anyway. . . This lost me my wireless connection, . . which is the only network connection I have right now. Hence a time vortex because I don't have network...

Ok, so I jumped on my wife's box. . . (laptop that is), and quickly found the broadcom driver and dl'd it only to find out that it a binary with a makefile and make isn't included with the mageia install.....

So fine, this seems weird to me but, since I've been out of the *nix/ techie community for almost a decade, who am I to judge.
Now I had a choice to install make or just try the full dvd, which I did, thinking it should fix all this config issue anyway since the live version is so close. . . So I dl the full distro, burn a dvd and try again.....

Mind you, this is now day three for me, with about 8 hours in, because of the time constraints I have right now..... I mean, I gotta sleep and I gotta go to work. . .

Full dvd install starts smoothly, only I stopped at the monitor query considering whether or not I should go with the generic default or stop and look up the laptop specs to see what if any model monitor matched the laptop screen. . . I go default figuring I can adjust and upgrade hardware features afterwards. I mean, the live disk didn't have the full feature drivers for my vid card but, it worked fine anyway. . .

So now, I have a laptop with no gui because of . . . ???? After the install completed it rebooted and when it came time for X and the gui to load. . something bad happened. What? I don't know yet. I haven't had a chance to get back to it as yet. I'll need to figure out how to write a shell script to print the boot log so I can find the errors. . . Anyone know a nice shell script to print just the errors from the last boot log?

Part of my frustration is, it's been so long I no longer remember bash syntax or where stuff is but, that's part of the reason I chose Mageia to begin with. . . I was hoping to ease back into bash with little tweaks on config files, not dive in the deep end.

Plus I have come across some various odd posts from other distro's forums, from folks with other model dv7 laptops that have had good experiences and bad. . . I just never wrote down their specs so I don't know if I have a problem hardware setup or not.


So here's my box's specs.

I have an older hp pavilion dv7 entertainment PC with:

Core2 Duo P7450
PM45 Express chipset
ATI Radeon™ HD 4530 Graphic
Broadcom , 802.11a/b/g/n wireless (I don't remember the model # offhand but I do have the driver dl page)

It's model nb406av, I don't have any specs besides 17.3 diagonal for the display yet.

I'm sure my lack of knowledge on how to engage the wifi in terminal isn't helping to expedite some of the fixes I apparently need, so I'll be rtfm on this tomorrow.

Please, any suggestions that can help me resolve the install issues are really appreciated. . .

Thanks

[iamme]

Oh yea, on the dvd I went with the default install except for gnome. As I remember the live disk that mostly worked, defaults to kde, but on the full version install I tried gnome. . . Maybe tomorrow I could try the full install again only with the kde gui. It's either that or rtfm including your suggestions.

[doktor5000]

You may want to take a look at https://wiki.mageia.org/en/Mageia_2_Err ... rd_drivers
Switchig to vesa driver should at least give you a working desktop - although normal gnome session may fail, as it requires hardware acceleration if i remember correctly.
(There's this screen during login showing a sick computer saying "Something bad has happened ...") which is not a problem with X server, but with gnome missing hardware acceleration. Selectin "Gnome classic" session from the login manager should work in that case.

[iamme]

Yes I know about the vid drivers too, the install program told me what you just did. But since it boots into term and I have no wifi access I have to fix this before I can fix gnome.

BTW I never did get the splash screen that something bad happened, I was just trying to keep it light.

I read this page yesterday but haven't had time to open my box and try it out yet.... Maybe this evening.
http://www.ghacks.net/2009/04/14/connec ... mand-line/

[iamme]

Ok, I'm still without a working OS it seems. I did another install, this time with an all mageia formatted drive and kde desktop. . .

It freezes, locks up, no gui, no prompt, nothing. . . I can boot into a safe mode but that's it. .

[oj]

When I have time constraints, a live-to-install Linux image has one* shot at sticking around. If my need is a functioning computer -stat- , there's always one among a few dozen 'core' distros that will "just plain work."(tm) Immediately. Everything.

Lately the stable fedora has been cooperating well vis "everything," near as well as you could maximally expect.

But I'd rather have time, then I'd install Mageia and try to get buggy hdw going at my leisure.

If you do continue to give Mageia a shake, I'm sure your driver issues could be tackled, but I'm equally sure you'd be accepting some compromise(s), too.

(*might entail 7+ boots to account for my mistakes )

[digigold]

Hello iamme. I run Mageia Cauldron w/KDE on a HP Pavillion g7-1167dx which has a similar Radeon HD 4250. The proprietary fglrx drivers no longer support Radeon 4xxxx. In the X display wizard choose "Radeon HD 4870 and earlier" option. This will select the proper driver (x11-driver-video-ati).

Here is the contents of my /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Code: Select all

# File generated by XFdrake (rev 262502)

Section "Device"
    Identifier "device1"
    VendorName "Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI"
    BoardName "ATI Radeon HD 4870 and earlier"
    Driver "ati"
    Option "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "screen1"
    Device "device1"
    Monitor "monitor1"
EndSection
# File generated by XFdrake (rev 262502)
# **********************************************************************
# Refer to the xorg.conf man page for details about the format of
# this file.
# **********************************************************************

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier "layout1"
    Screen "screen1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
    Load "v4l" # Video for Linux
EndSection

Section "ServerFlags"
    # allows the server to start up even if the mouse does not work
    Option "DontZap" "False" # disable <Ctrl><Alt><BS> (server abort)
    #DontZoom # disable <Ctrl><Alt><KP_+>/<KP_-> (resolution switching)
    Option "allowmouseopenfail"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
    Identifier "monitor1"
    VendorName "Generic"
    ModelName "Flat Panel 1600x900"
    HorizSync 31.5 - 90.0
    VertRefresh 60.0 - 60.0
EndSection



I imagine your conf file should look very similar if not identical.