Problems with LiveCD - ATI X1900XT straight to powersave.

[stormy]

Hi,

I have been trying out Linux Mint after using Ubuntu many moons ago for a while (Ubuntu worked with this graphics card, at least on Edgy as thats the one I tried). I have had a new motherboard since then though /

I tried following the advice in "Problems with the video card and its drivers" but am utterly confused as to what I do when I am at the command prompt, do I continue in the section "This helps "X problems" in installed systems as well"? with the LiveCD?

If I try and boot normally or with the safe mode graphics, everything is fine splash screen etc) until the end of the boot sequence and then the screen flashes and dumps my monitor into powersave.

Sorry to be a n00b.

My graphics card is an ATI X1900XT with a Dell 2407WFP 24" widescreen monitor.

Cheers,

Mike

[Boo]

I just got that monitor, aint it cool.

the xserver is dieing at start so it could be the video driver is bad.
the safe graphics mode should give the gnome desktop as it uses a general basic graphics driver (vesa).

this could be due to a bad CD burn or bad download.
check out:
http://www.linuxmint.com/wiki/index.php ... ur_Live_CD

[stormy]

Hmm, how can I tell if its a bad download or burn?

I can't get any desktop with either safemode or normal, if I choose to remove the splash etc I just get a command prompt when the CD has finished.

Its annoying because in both normal and safe Mint does finish loading as it carries on when the graphics are gone and I get some audio.



Bit disappointed, I didnt expect this to be so hard. Ubuntu worked fine lol. I checked out the troubleshooting, thats what my first post was based on.

I don't know if its just me but:

This will get rid of the Mint/Ubuntu splash screen and stop half way through booting with a command prompt (ignore any error messages for now). This is caused by a bug that discards the setting "Safe graphics mode" (which is vesa) if the card is recognized - in the case of nvidia the driver vesa is replaced with "nv" when X starts.

I am lost here? It does just that but what am I supposed to do then?

As I said I was confused about the This helps "X problems" in installed systems as well" Can I edit those files on the LiveCD boot?

Thanks,

Mike
[/i]

[stormy]

Looks like I will be going back to Ubuntu or sticking with Windows, I just can't get graphics output whatsoever from the Linux Mint LiveCD. As soon as it boots up powersave here we come.. Ah well

Tried 3 different downloads and 3 different CDs, oddly on the last one Nero complained about "Burn Phase" or something. Didnt do that on the first too.

Going to give the Light CD one try and then I am outta here..

Edit: No joy with the Light on a new CD, so I dont think its a Bad CD. Just wont work with my graphics card, no joy in safemode either.

Cheers anyway, not much traffic on these forums for n00bs which doesnt help.

Mike

[Tsume]

Same problem here... funny thing is I have to reboot the pc about 3 times to get the LiveCD to not hang during boot. Guess it doesn't like my CD drive? Ubuntu liked it...

Ubuntu has this problem on my X1600 Pro too. I had to use the alternate text CD to install.... Mint does not have.. so I can't use it?

I know what FIXED the problem after installing Ubuntu (which still did not work after it was installed) was to tell it to use the ati driver instead of vesa... some of these ati cards don't like vesa and I wish it would figure out that I have an ATi card and use the ati driver automatically, or if someone could tell me how to get the liveCD to use it that would be great too

[Tsume]

Somehow got xorg.conf edited so it uses the ati driver, got it to load in a super low graphics mode, start the install................

Got to partitioning. Deleted my two old Ubuntu partitions, created a new parttion . . . . .. . . . .. . . ................................ ................. . . .. . .. . .. .

and that's it. Hangs right after I hit okay to create a new partition. I can still exit the installer normally, but all of the partitioning functions in it are frozen and do not respond.

Why does Linux Mint hate me?

[Tsume]

I reburned the CD at 8x (lowest speed I could) and it seems to be a bit happier now in terms of actually booting up each time I load the LiveCD. Weird that I could burn Ubuntu at 52x with no problem.

Anyhow, I fixed my problem. Here's how, and hopefully this can either be fixed/automated in the next release or hopefully at least stickied or wiki'd. Internet required!

I booted the LiveCD, don't bother with "safe graphic mode". Once the CD is done spinning and your screen is in power save mode like it shouldn't be, hit CTRL ALT F1.

Do "sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf", find the line saying driver = "vesa" and change it to driver = "fglrx", and hit CTRL X. Press Y when it asks to save.
(You may also want to see that it won't try anything stupid resolution-wise- I deleted an entry that said 1440x1440 in there, confused would anyone be doing with a SQUARE SCREEN?)

Then do "sudo apt-get install xorg-driver-fglrx" and once that's done do "sudo apt-get install xserver-xgl".

Once that's all finished, hit CTRL ALT F7. You'll be back at your screen in powersave mode. Then hit CTRL ALT BACKSPACE. Voila! Your xserver should be restarted with WORKING graphics. If it asks, username is mint and there is no password- leave it blank.