Do I need braille for Mint install?

[PussyCat]

I've done a search for this problem but found nothing so must assume that it is peculiar to me!

Want to install Mint 13 Mate 64bit (because it's lts and because 2 attempts at Mint 14 Cinnamon have screwed my mbr!). However when reaching stage 2 of the dialogue am presented with black text on black ground which is much too dangerous to risk proceeding with the usual Mint excruciating install process.

Any advice to rectify this dilemma would be appreciated.

[Never got beyond Mint 8 which I still love, though have looked at each subsequent edition to see if I could be persuaded to move on, so the newer version will go into a separate partition]

[xenopeek]

Linux Mint comes installed with brltty (http://mielke.cc/brltty/), but that is a braille driver for the terminal only. That doesn't help you with the graphical installation. Linux Mint doesn't have a text mode installer, so you might be more comfortable with a distro that does have a text mode installer as you'll be able to use brltty with your braille reader I think.

[PussyCat]

Sorry - my pithy humour/sarcasm is perhaps misplaced and I'll need to modify the title.

My problem is not being able to see black text on a black background in the installer dialogue!

[xenopeek]

Okay. Sounds like a graphics card driver problem. Perhaps this helps: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=122257

[PussyCat]

Thanks. I'll investigate that and report back.

But it seems strange that the graphics are perfect whilst exploring the live usb yet have this background/text problem only in the install dialogues - and only apparently on my machine.

[PussyCat]

OK - Compatibly Mode solved the problem of the appearance of the installer - but at what cost and why should it only affect the installer?

The third stage generated multiple occurrences of Caja and partition access violations. Possibly harmless but, in conjunction with no Additional Drivers being available for after an install, decided not to proceed.

A decision reinforced by the experience (and many previous experiences) of trying on another machine with two hdd, one pata and one sata, which causes the installer to throw a real wobbly. This time bombing to text mode whist performing endless probing.

Oh, dear! Another hitherto excellent distro bites the dust for me...

[xenopeek]

OK - Compatibly Mode solved the problem of the appearance of the installer - but at what cost and why should it only affect the installer?

Compatibility mode is in this case needed as likely you have an AMD or Nvidia graphics card, one that can't work correctly with the (default) open source drivers. It is a temporary workaround to get Linux Mint installed.

no Additional Drivers being available for after an install

As Jockey (Additional Drivers) has been discontinued, Linux Mint has integrated it in the Software Sources program as a temporary solution. You will find a tab "Additional Drivers" in that program. The new Device Driver Manager, as already available on LMDE, is set to replace Jockey in future Linux Mint release.

[PussyCat]

Sorry - should have indicated the graphics are Intel Mobile 4. Anyway, further testing and tried adding boot option xdriver=intel and bingo - install graphics now ok!

Although installed Mint 14 Cinnamon to that machine, I'm still in a dilemma between 13 and 14 (or neither) given that I would like consistency across machines - Mint 13 Mate being favoured given lts.

Toshiba - Intel Mobile 4 Toshiba Realtek RTL8178B

Mint 13 - Installation graphics solved with xdriver=intel

Mint 14 - No problems (yet)!

Netbook - ATI X1200 Broadcom BMC4312

Mint 13 - Graphics - correct res and display mostly stable but (occassional slight glitch and fonts sometimes become unreadable after idle screen blanking. Logout and back in restores normality - 'til the next time).
Wifi drivers not installed. Install via wired connection but still no wifi. If it requires a restart then that's not possible using liveusb and do not wish to risk install to hdd unless know will work.
May be worth a go if wifi can be sorted).

Mint 14 - Correct res (1366x768) but desktop backgrounds corrupts yet icons, menu and new windows mostly ok (til background interferes). Yet.xdriver=ati or compatibility mode stable graphics but wrong res (1024x768). Mouse pointer disappears when stationary!
Wifi as Mint 13.

PC 1 - ATI 9550 TPLink Realtek RTL8185

Mint 13 - Graphics seem ok.
Wifi. My n/w is seen but refuses to connect (just repeated demand for password at 2min intervals and excruciating delays before dialogue becomes active).
Install dialogues launches filemanager and repeated "access denied" messages then ultimately bombing to text mode and probing. Eventually grinds to halt but alt+ctrl+bksp returns to login and desktop.

Mint14 - as Mint 13 (without the delays).

And there are still two machines to try!