[cquigley]

I just tried to install mandrake 10 on my hp pavilion ze4145. the installation went fine, i get the dual boot screen, but when i pic linux to boot up, the screen goes blank and nothing happens. does anyone know what the problem may be.

thanks
cquigley

[Whiteskin]

*sigh* Oh boy. This is turning into a long day. Not to say i'm annoyed.

First question. Absolutely nothing? Just blank? Does it still sound like its loading from the drive (Or, is your drive acess light flashing)? If its still loading, then chances are its loading an invalid framebuffer mode. If nothing is happening, then we have more problems.

So, you get the lilo (or is it grub... i cant remember) dual boot screen, after which when you select linux nothing happens?

[cquigley]

there is no sound and the light does not flash, it just sits there with a blank screen. i get the lilo boot screen.
when i click on linux it shows the loading bar at the bottom loading up, when its done it then goes to a blank screen where nothng happens.

[Whiteskin]

So, this means you can pass boot paramaters to the kernel. This is good. try booting with vga=normal, or (i'm not sure if you can do this) vga=ask (then, hit enter, and at the prompt type in 0317)

[cquigley]

ok, next question, where or how do i do this. I am completey new to linux.

thanks;
cquigley

[Whiteskin]

move arrows down to linux: Tupe in the paramater (be it vga = normal vga=0x317 or vga=ask

[cquigley]

ok, don't know if i'm doing wrong or not, but i moved down to the linux option, but i don't get any parameter to type in. i just tried to type it and it started loading up as usual, then it went back to the normal blank screen, but i was also unable to type anything there as well. do you think it would be easier to try and reinstall linux. just to let you know I really appreciate your help with this.

thanks;
cquigley

[Whiteskin]

Can you hit "control+alt+backspace" for me? IF it flickers to the commandline, then we have something to work off of. Otherwise, a reinstall might be the best bet, leaving out the X subsystem. You can then reinstall that, but configure it for your card/monitor better.

[cquigley]

didn't work. i picked another option to boot from and it gave a list of everything it was loading, i guess everything looked fine except for one thing,

Looking for DSDT in initrd ... not found!

not sure what this is, but thought it may be something.


when i go to reinstall it, will there be a option to leave out the X subsystem, or will i need to something to make it leave it out.

[Whiteskin]

Not sure. I've never installed mandrake (Let me go check. ) Ok. You need to select a "custom" install.

[Whiteskin]

(I hate initrd. Never has ever served me a purpose. if you can, try to install without bootsplash)

[BenWasTaken]

You should definitely do a reinstall and leave out x than configure it by "hand". You wouldn't happen to have the laptop user manual so you can figure out the vertical and horizontal sync would you?

[cquigley]

don't have the manual with me, but went to hp website and d/l it, what wold it be under in the table of contents so i could print it out. one more question, i was told that mandrake is pretty easy for the beginner, is this your opinion or would you recommend a better distro.

[BenWasTaken]

Mandrake and Fedora(previously RedHat) are probably the most noob friendly. Although I didn't have trouble installing Mandrake at all my first time, I did have to reinstall Slack a couple times to get it right. Anyway, I'm assuming the horizontal and vertical syncs would be under Hardware Specifications.

[cquigley]

I had no problem installing it on my desktop, it runs fine, i'm just having trouble on my laptop, i used my cousins disc, so i'm d/l it right now, once i d/l it and put it on a cd i reinstall and let you know how everything goes, thanks for all the help.

thanks;
cquigley