unable to load linux GUI due to graphical corruption

You know, I just hate this sort of thing.

I downloaded Mandriva Linux 2006, burned the ISOs to cd and installed it on my newish Linux box. I had no problems viewing the installation screens, and it detected my card (an old Gforce 256) perfectly, everything was fine. Because the monitor is so damn old (a KTX 14" that harks back to when the Pentium 200 was considered a fast processor ) it states its an "unprobed monitor". So I set the resolution, hertz, etc to the lowest possible, and test it. Installation hangs, screen goes black except for a thic band of neon green on the bottom, with the display picture compressed and distorted if i reinstall and ingore the test phase, and then trya nd load it up, I get a similar thing, after Linux initialises everything, except that it's still trying to start a few modules.

The seriously annoying thing is that I can't see what module is mesing me about, and the Mandriva bootscreen is fine The REALLY annoying thing is that Mandrake 10 works perfectly, except I'm missing a CD, so I can't install things like samba

[edit]Seems Xorg-x11 seems to be the problem (damn X Windows). Anyone have any clue on what to do?[/edit]

 

Try using a generic vga driver and see if that gets you a display.
You could also run xorgconfig from the console (as root of course) and set up your display there.
After that, try installing the official nvidia drivers, remembering to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf and change the driver to "nvidia"

KTX 14"? I used to have one of those too

 

Thanks, will try that, it's seriously pissing me off. My first real attempt at Linux too, and I get this crap

 

Another suggestion is to try Ubuntu Linux. I have installed it on my son's mchine and it seems to be the most idiot proof distribution.

I also recently installed 64bit Suse on a machine I built for a friend of my Wife's. Very slick and detected all the hardware. It even installed nvidia's closed source 3D drivers!

Personally, I left Mandrake(Mandriva sorry) a long while back for Gentoo. Gentoo is bare bones so you have total control of what you install but it is all compiled for your machine from source code so it takes about 2-4 days to install. The end result is a faster machine, but you do need to know what you are doing.

 

Gee, thanks for your high opinion of me

It's funny, everyone raves on about Ubuntu, but I've only had problems with it trying to detect my hardware. Ironic, seeing how Ubuntu is South African and all...

 

Sorry for the late reply. You dont have a VIA chipset by any chance do you?
Try booting up the install disk with noapic and noalpic options and it will make a huge difference. I have two machines that didn't have the network card detected without those options. Give it a go even if you dont have a VIA chipset