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[SOLVED] Problem at Boot

PostPosted: Jun 3rd, '11, 00:27
by h3xl3y
Hi. Installed today Mageia 1 x86_64 and after selecting Mageia at boot screen in a few seconds my screen is full off multicolor dots and i can't do nothing.
If i press F3 at boot and write nomodeset at the same time instead of multicolor dots appear black screen.

When installed Mageia RC2 i had the same problem but when i write nomodeset it loaded the desktop and after updating the system it booted just fine without nomodeset.

My videocard: ATI Radeon HD 3850 512Mb

Re: Problem at Boot

PostPosted: Jun 3rd, '11, 10:01
by martinw
Your multi-colour dots problem is almost certainly https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1471.

If instead of 'nomodeset' you use 'radeon.modeset=0', does this make any difference?

Is there a 'vga=xxx' entry on the modeline when you press F3 (xxx could be any string of three digits)?

Try pressing <ctrl>+<alt>+"1" (all three keys at once) - does this give you any display?

Try pressing <ctrl>+<alt>+"7" (all three keys at once) - does this give you any display?

Re: Problem at Boot

PostPosted: Jun 3rd, '11, 15:06
by h3xl3y
martinw wrote:If instead of 'nomodeset' you use 'radeon.modeset=0', does this make any difference?

No, its the same

martinw wrote:Is there a 'vga=xxx' entry on the modeline when you press F3 (xxx could be any string of three digits)?

vga=788

martinw wrote:Try pressing <ctrl>+<alt>+"1" (all three keys at once) - does this give you any display?

ctrl+alt+f1 enter in tty and it says to log in and enter password, tried startx after but it gives an error

ctrl+alt+f7 appears the writing that normally appear when press ESC on Booting and the final line is

Starting display manager: OK and below the cursor remain blinking and nothing happens

Re: Problem at Boot

PostPosted: Jun 3rd, '11, 18:49
by martinw
OK, at least you have a working text console!

Let's first try to fix the kernel mode switching bug. After pressing ctrl+alt+f1, log in as root, then type
Code: Select all
urpmi radeon-firmware
bootloader-config --action rebuild-initrds

Now reboot, and this time don't add 'nomodeset'. With a bit of luck, you should at least get a working display, even if X doesn't start.

If X doesn't start, again press ctrl+alt+f1 and log in as root. Now type
Code: Select all
XFdrake

This will start the text version of the X configuration tool. Check everything looks correct (and in particular make sure the option "start X automatically on boot" is enabled). After saving and exiting, try
Code: Select all
startx

If this doesn't work, let us know what the error message is.

Re: Problem at Boot

PostPosted: Jun 3rd, '11, 21:18
by h3xl3y
Hey that did the trick
Many thanks
Sorry for late reply but i had to configure network (WiFi) because that didn't work too and until i found how to add nonfree repos

Re: Problem at Boot

PostPosted: Jun 4th, '11, 16:31
by billo
h3xl3y wrote:Hey that did the trick
Many thanks
Sorry for late reply but i had to configure network (WiFi) because that didn't work too and until i found how to add nonfree repos


I had the same problem with an HP-dv7 -3067cl laptop with a Mobility Radeon HD 4650, AMD Turon processor, 64-bit Mageia from the DVD. This solution worked for me as well. Thanks!

Re: Problem at Boot

PostPosted: Nov 12th, '11, 02:20
by KaffiMann
Hey, linux noob in the house.

I got a related issue, i installed everything (except partition settings, irrelevant) with the auto/default options, installation went just fine.

When i booted up the system first time i got 640x480 resolution... I haven't used 640x480 for as long as i can remember, ITS HUGE! Could not change it at all, no other options to choose from in the display settings.

So, long story short: after some searching and insane amounts of fiddling, I got the terminal open (did not know there where several menus to choose from...), su login, XFdrake, and set the graphics settings to radeon >HD<. Then i could finally see stuff on my 42" after some settings corrections and a reboot.

So now, my only problem is a message in the lower right corner with an AMD logo saying "Unsupported hardware".
Tried downloading drivers from AMD, as i did not find the newest drivers in the repository thingy or what you call it. Had a hard time figuring out how to install the drivers (apparently i had to: open terminal, su login, go to the directory with the downloaded file, write "chmod +x ati-driver-installer-11-10-x86.x86_64.run ./ati-driver-installer-11-10-x86.x86_64.run" to make it executable, then i could start the installation, but it didn't seem to install properly when using the upper option, so i chose the lower option for a more distro specific install, which seems to run just fine, after the install I ran aticonfig --initial in terminal, which tells me: "aticonfig: No supported adapters detected".

As far as i can see from the Catalyst control center, I have driver version 11.5. I probably need a newer one.
Can anyone point me in some direction to get my little issue solved.

System: AMD A8-3850