Please help

[ldconfig]

What do I need to do to become a Linux Mint beta tester?
The reason I am asking is I bought my Wife a Gateway laptop core i3 with built in Intel HD graphics a little over a year go when the core ix series first came out. Worked ok on mint 9 32bit with 2 exceptions. One is I had to format the hard drive to ext3 when I tried to select ext4 about 5 seconds into the format the laptop would lockup for a couple of seconds then reboot. The second and this one was huge. No matter the web browser some web sites would lock it up tight like a bad video card on a desktop back in the day.
Last week my wife said Gateway has a new bios bin out for her laptop. After loading the bios I got black screen on xserver. Even tried --xdriver=vesa nomodeselect with no luck. At this point I told her I could put mickeymousesoft winblows 7 on it and she said and I quote "If you put that windows BS on my computer I will castrate you in your sleep" So I started trying distros with zero luck (almost 80gb's worth of .iso's) until a friend sent me a ftp link to Unbnutu daily snapshots and the 03.20.11 .iso worked! Still have the ext4 issue but thats very minor as ext3 still works great.
Well my wife hates ubnutu (the spelling and grammar police can byte me) The Unity desktop she said... no I won't it was way X-Rated lol. After installing gnome that wasn't enough as every 5 min's I get yelled at with Mint does this and Mint did that always ending with "I WANT LINUX MINT NOTHING ELSE!"
So again is there any way possible to become a beta tester? I will not share it or upload it I just want peace at home.
The laptop is
Gateway Nu7915 - 4gb DDR3 - 500gb hard drive - video is on the cpu/chipset Intel HD - Intel HD sound - core i3.
If anyone that sees this can help please do so as ubnutu makes her gripe really loud every 5 min's while shes on it ... She loves Linux Mint and anything less is making my life a living... well you get the point.
Thanks
ld

[slider]

What do I need to do to become a Linux Mint beta tester?

Contact exploder. Send him a PM. He is a very good man and knows his stuff. He is the "Top Tester in charge" so to speak. He is also my friend.

I also believe that you are a very blessed man to have a wife like that! Listen to her!

[ldconfig]

Thank you very much I will do that. And yes my wife is one great woman she accepts nothing but the best.
ld

[maverickjesterx]

Hey ID,
The problem with the blank screen is still most likely the x ,conf. However I am not the right one to tell you how to fix it. I can tell you how to get around it. Most likely your Gateway has a graphics card or shared memory controlled by the bios since the bios update broke it. The OS is actually being displayed when you boot! The problem is it is sending it to the wrong monitor. Something changed in your bios and x does not know/understand the daptops monitor any longer. If you connect an external monitor to the laptop you should see the computer boot with a Linux Mint 10 disk. Once the install is completed this problem should go away especially if you use "additional drivers" such as nvidia. As a last hope there are ways by making Ubuntu look like Linux Mint. The simplest way is to install Ubuntu using KDE. I really hope this helps.

[ellipse55]

I'm sure you would get more help if you changed your subject to something more specific, such as "How do I become a Mint beta tester?"

Best,
Pierre.

[ldconfig]

I am so dead yes I'm a walking dead man. When my wife finds out the Mint 11 RC that came out today is just like Mint 10. Black screen on boot. Seems whatever fedora with their 15 beta and Ubuntu 11.04 done to fix the intel video driver problems is not included in the Mint 11 RC
She saw the RC was out and told me about it like a kid at xmas ... I am so dead lol

Gateway core i3 with on chip video

[ldconfig]

I just tried the new Parted Magic and it works great on her laptop.
From their release notes "The black screen problem with the Intel Mobile 4 Series Integrated Graphics Controllers has been fixed. A mess of other minor issues were addressed."
And all she wants to use is Mint and my big yap told her over and over again I bet thats the first thing thats fixed.
I'm off to buy roses
ld

[lmintnewb]

Tell her to stop screaming atcha and do it her D self.


Messing round ... beta testing ? Not the solution to your problem. Surely will lead to more problems. It's called beta for a reason. Your situation in general is odd to me. Trying to figure out where you're going wrong. Cause things aren't adding up. You shouldn't be having problems with one of the many Mint releases. Esp if Mint 9 was working. The lock up would probably be solved by using Mint 10.

Sure things and hardware support have advanced with Mint since then. The issues with 9 you were having. To me sound like driver/hardware or flash/java support ... and/or both.

Yep ... was smart enough to side step the ext4 issue the 1st time I installed Mint 10 on older hardware. Figured older hardware ... newer file system. So I googled and found folks talking about ext4 having issues on older equipment.

Though ... kinda like your wife's style. She sounds like she has her priorities straight ... luvs Mint and hates buntu. Feel exactly the same on both counts. Where buntu is concerned it's horrible junk compared to what Mint makes in the magic minty HQ.

Also when it comes to scumbag megacorps that make me wanna puke. M$ is at least in the top 10 and believe me that's saying something.

[ldconfig]

Mint 9 worked until I updated the bios. Fedora 15 beta is on it now because her flash games works they do not with Ubuntu 11.04
But all I hear now is it don't do this I can't change that and mainly its not Mint.

[lmintnewb]

Hmmm odd situation overall.

A suggestion then. Why not dual boot for her ? Give her Mint 10 main, with the latest kernel and firmware installed and whichever other OS she uses that's working for her gaming. Wouldn't have to be a very big partition for that one. Not like hdd space is hard to comeby nowadays.

You could install java and adobe and/or the flash plugins you needed ( if she uses firefox ) and see whatcha get. Plus o course any drivers and etc you need. Also don't see why you can't roll back your bios if ya wanted. An upgraded bios ... obviously isn't always a good thing. Though all that's your headache to deal with. Info readily avail on google ( these forums etc.) Is it a 64bit comp and proc ?

Then she has her Mint ( set to boot by default ) and her gaming when she wants it.

[ldconfig]

Thanks but none of the versions of Mint has anything but black screen. Yes its a 64bit cpu (core i3 310 with series 4 intel on chip video) I hear the mint sound when it boots up and our cell phones can even connect to it shows up on the router etc etc just no video. With fedora 15 beta I had to force the xdriver into veas mode then installed to hard drive and do another force vesa then ran the first updates that included new mesa video drivers. After a reboot wow full screen gnome 3 3D goodness getting flash to work on it took me and the terminal a bit but it was worth it because there are these on line flash games she plays at work and so far this is the first time they have worked in Linux for her.
But she hates fedora calls it 'nerd Linux' and 'about as polished as burnt coal' and she wants Mint nothing else.
Again thanks for the tips

[trollboy]

When you get the black screen can you press Ctrl + Alt + F2 and get a login prompt?

If so, try logging in and then

Code: Select all

cd /etc/X11
sudo mv xorg.conf xorg.conf.saved
sudo reboot


That's a capital x and two ones in the first command.

This should set the X config back to the default in case it has been changed. Admittedly this is a long shot but...