FW: Install problems Fedora Core 3 - Dell OptiPlex....

Irving, Dave Dave.Irving at logicacmg.com
Sat Feb 26 11:02:32 UTC 2005


Jim,

Thank you so much for your help. I did a text install this morning and
followed your instructions, and hey - would you know it - it all worked
fine!
Your advice was easy to follow - even for a total Linux newbie like me -
thank you!

Thanks also to David Cary Hart, who also gave me useful information last
night.

Im sure I'll have more questions soon - and its great to see such a helpful
community!

Thanks guys!

Dave.

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Cornette [mailto:fc-cornette at insight.rr.com] 
Sent: 25 February 2005 23:14
To: For users of Fedora Core releases
Subject: Re: FW: Install problems Fedora Core 3 - Dell OptiPlex....

Irving, Dave wrote:
>  
> Hi,
>  
> Im trying to install Fedora Core 3 on an old Dell box which was, until 
> today, running Win NT (Dell OptiPlex GX110).
> During the (GUI) install process, I noticed that the screen wasn't 
> refreshing very well (e.g, was not repainting properly if I scrolled 
> the help menus). I thought this might sort itself out after the install.
> However, after the install completed (successfully according to the 
> install tool), the screen just went mad (random colour lines all over 
> the screen) - moving the mouse or pressing keyboard buttons did nothing.
> So I rebooted, and at start up (the usual starting this, starting that 
> console messages appeared), but then the screen blew again.
> I have no idea what to do next.
> Can anyone help?
>  
> Many thanks,
>  
> Dave
> 
> This e-mail and any attachment is for authorised use by the intended
recipient(s) only. It may contain proprietary material, confidential
information and/or be subject to legal privilege. It should not be copied,
disclosed to, retained or used by, any other party. If you are not an
intended recipient then please promptly delete this e-mail and any
attachment and all copies and inform the sender. Thank you.
> 


The problem is that the driver for the 810 and 815 Intel videocards was
busted when FC3 was released. The driver is now fixed, so the next release
should be fine. (FC4)

What you will probably have to do is a text install. As you found out, you
have to type (linux command or option. To get into the text install you type
the below at the first prompt.
linux text

This is not as pretty, but is not that hard to figure out. Also, the GUI
programs will be installed, you are just doing the install in text mode
until you can fix the GUI problem post install.

A program that I recommend that you install is mc (Midnight commander). 
It is under system tools. The program is an editor, ftp, visual file manager
and a whole lot more. The program is similar to Norton Commander and uses a
lot of the same keystrokes. Why the program is not installed on default
installations is a mystery to me. Anyway, with this program, follow the
steps below.

After the text install is completed, reboot your computer. When the grub
screen shows (blue menu screen), hit any key to show the menu. Once the
choices are visible, highlight the Fedora kernel choice and press the a key.
This will display the boot line and you can backspace out the rhgb quiet
entries and enter a spacebar, then the number 1. This will bring you to a
terminal only in a single user mode. You will be the admin user, so be
careful.

Type mc then press enter. The visual shell (mc) will display. Navigate to
the directory called /etc/X11/ and locate and highlight the file xorg.xonf.
Press the F4 key to allow an editor screen to appear. Now, press F7 (search
feature) and type driver or scroll to the driver section entry in the file.
Then arrow down to the last line in the driver section of the file and add
an option called "NoAccel" to the file. This shuts off some features of X
that are busted within the FC3 distros version of xorg-x11.

Section "Device"
         Identifier  "Videocard0"
         Driver      "i810"
         VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
         BoardName   "My Favorite Videocard"
	Option "NoAccel"
EndSection

After you get your entry looking like you want it to look, Press F2 to save
the file with edits. Then press F10 to exit the file editor, then F10 again
to exit the visual shell.

After you exit the visual shell, type reboot to get your system to reboot.
The system should then start up in graphics mode and give you the first boot
screen, where you create your regular user and stuff.

If anyone can add to this explanation, it might be helpful. I believe I got
everything here.

Jim

NOTE: If you happen to botch something up during editing the file, press F10
to exit the file being edited. Do not answer yes to save changes, answer no
instead. Then if you want to try editing the file again, press
F4 and repeat the steps above.
The lines look like these lines

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