mint xfce w/ x1400 Raeon card

[dsonyay]

Hello,
After playing around with 4 Linux Live distros (Ubuntu, Mepis, PCLinuxOS, and Mint) I've made up my mind to use Mint. It will be the sole OS on my Laptop (a Dell E1505).
But I have the dreaded ATI X1400 video card. Will I be able to use Beryl properly after I install the OS?

I've read as much as I can on enabling ATI video cards (The fglrx driver), so I'm pretty sure I can get the correct screen res to work, but not sure if I will still be able to use Beryl.

Also, I think I may use the Mint XFCE OS (only because I think it looks nicer).

Mint really impresses me. I know it's not much different than the other distros I've looked at, but the layout seems nicer and the graphic have a nice look.

As much as I've read up on the ATI cards in all of the other forums, I feel really confused over my specific card the X1400.

Should I simply get an inexpensive Nvidia and be done with it?

David

[Husse]

Welcome ti Mint dsonyay
The Dell E1505 //Edit/ It's the 1405 that has all the problems
but the 1505 may be affected too - don't know/
is a terrifying thing as you probably have seen in the forum. But if you get the live CD to work I see no reason why it should not work installed - in general that is.
I have to say the same for Beryl, but not with the same certainty.
You have a laptop - to my knowledge you can't change video card in a laptop (possibly in those with two video cards - don't know about them)
The forum is there for you if you experience problems....

[merlwiz79]

Here are some how tos that should help get Beryl working for you.
http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu ... tion_Guide
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php? ... ight=x200m

If you end up with XFCE as your desktop use( http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... p?t=555247)
#!/bin/sh
Xgl -fullscreen :1 -ac -br -accel glx:pbuffer -accel xv:pbuffer &
sleep 4
export DISPLAY=:1
beryl-manager
exec xfce4-session

for startxgl.sh and this
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=XFCE with XGL
Comment=
Exec=/usr/local/bin/startxgl.sh
Icon=
Type=Application
for xgl.desktop.

I don't have an ATI card to test this on I always get Nvidia.
Like Husse said You can't change the video card.

[dsonyay]

thanks for the help,

I tried to use the Mint Gnome Live and the it would not start up properly, even in safe mode. The Xorg crashes. So, as with Ubuntu, it has the same problem. I do not have a problem getting PCLinuxOS to run in the Live CD. Is it because it is KDE vice Gnome?

I was thinking now about trying to download the Xfce version of Mint to see if it will run in Live mode, sice it's not Gnome.

One more question:
In the "Live" mode of Mint (Gnome), if I can boot to command prompt, can I do a "sudo get apt" to install the fglrx driver so I can get Mint to run in Live version?

David

[merlwiz79]

thanks for the help,

I tried to use the Mint Gnome Live and the it would not start up properly, even in safe mode. The Xorg crashes. So, as with Ubuntu, it has the same problem. I do not have a problem getting PCLinuxOS to run in the Live CD. Is it because it is KDE vice Gnome?

I was thinking now about trying to download the Xfce version of Mint to see if it will run in Live mode, sice it's not Gnome.

One more question:
In the "Live" mode of Mint (Gnome), if I can boot to command prompt, can I do a "sudo get apt" to install the fglrx driver so I can get Mint to run in Live version?

David

One of these should get you going.
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-414723.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2420732
For XFCE you use startxfce4.

[dsonyay]

One of these should get you going.
http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-414723.html
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=2420732
For XFCE you use startxfce4.

That's what I was looking for!
Last night I succesfully ran PCLinuxOS in Live mode with all the bells and whistles- I was able to load the Live version directly to RAM, get on the internet, download the proprietary drivers using Synaptic, reload, and have a great 1280x800 screen -- with Beryl. Man I like how Synaptic works.

With you link to Ubuntu's help, I will be able to solve the problem with Mint. I really prefer Mint--- But, will have to use PCLinux if I cannot resolve the problem I was having with X not loading in Mint.

Thanks and I'll keep you posted.
David

[Husse]

Sorry I must have missed something - never understood you came as far as having problems with X - sometimes that's solved using the driver "vesa" until you can boot into the desktop and then change to a better driver like flgrx or ATI
The posts above are an excellent help (I hope )

[dsonyay]

ok,
I'm up and running using Mint (Gnome edition).
When X crashed, I hit control alt f6 and did the update from command line. Loaded up correct driver (fglrx)

Nice.

Looking over a few things before I do a complete install.
Moments away from MS freedom.

Q: How does Emerald work? I can't seem to load the themes. I can't find the "Load theme" button.

Also, can't get desktop effects to work yet. Won't enable, says missing composite extensions or something to that effect.

For right now, I'm wavering between PCLinuxOS and Mint. Both are very nice.

David

[Husse]

from the live CD now?

Also, can't get desktop effects to work yet. Won't enable, says missing composite extensions or something to that effect.

This is because you have an ATI card with all the problems they bring
One of the forum members Lolo Uila has learned a lot about ATI and his answer in this post covers your question
http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopi ... ryl&t=2969
I don't use Beryl - don't feel the need for it (my computer is way more powerful than needed so it's not because of that)
and I could not find a load theme button either. Let's hope someone else knows...
This post will be noticed by me for some time and if I find out I'll post the solution

[dsonyay]

In the end I had to go with PCLinux. It starts up with the safe VESA mode, allowing me to get started right away. Also able to get full 3d capapbilities going in one step. I don't mean this as a slam in Mint, seems it's simply easier to find a distro that works first time rather than spending so much time in the terminal mode with another distro.

Thanks for all the help here. I'm sure some of you will see more posts from me on one of the generic Linux forums.

Windows free for the first day! (except for my wireless Mouse)

David

[Husse]

Good luck!
Sometimes PCLOS win sometimes we do