FC4 installer switching to garbled video after /sbin/loader

[David G. Miller]

gibblertron at gmail.com wrote

>I'm having a problem installing FC4 on a machine with an "Integrated
>VIA UniChrome AGP Graphics with MPEG-2 Accelerator" graphics adapter.
>
>I start up with "linux text" to enter text-mode installation, the
>kernel starts and I see information about the hardware, and then just
>after /sbin/loader loads, the screen changes video mode into something
>that is all garbled. When the text installer starts, I can make out
>the colours, but cannot read any text as it is shaking and garbled.
>I've also tried booting up with vga=ask passed the kernel, picking a
>standard 80x25 vga mode.
>
>Is there any way to have /sbin/loader NOT switch video modes? If it
>would just stay in the same mode as when the kernel starts up, I'd be
>fine.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Patrick
>  
>
You also might try "linux nofb".  I had trouble getting past the same 
point installing on my HP laptop only the screen would go completely 
blank instead of just being garbled.  I originally used an external 
monitor and flipping the display back to the laptop gave me "garbled" 
output on the flat panel.  Forcing the installer not to attempt to use 
the frame buffer got me past that issue on a re-install without having 
to resort to hanging another monitor off the system.

Cheers,
Dave