[HLUG] Failed Mandrake installation

[Mark Broadbent]

Hello,

Sue & Michael Ranyard wrote:

> I installed Mandrake 10.1 and had problems.  It will not work with my  
> internal or external modem, though both work fine with Windows.  It 
> will  not work with my sound card (though I know I need a different 
> one for  Linux.)
> I installed a Graphics card on my computer - a Radeon 9550 - having 
> read  somewhere that this would work with Linux.  But now, when Linux 
> loads, I  finish up with a blank screen.  Clearly Mandrake Linux 
> doesn't work with  this graphics card.  I have tried looking for 
> drivers and failed to find  any.
>
> I tried using a CD live version of SuSe 9.3 but also got a blank 
> screen.   Clearly it does not like this graphic card.
>
> However the CD live version of Knoppix 3.9 works OK


There is a general hardware compatibility list at [1] however this is 
not distribution specific.  It clearly depends on the X server version 
to whether it works at all or not and a very recent distribution (Fedora 
Core 4 springs to mind) should be more successful (Mandrake 10.1 is 
relatively old in open-source software terms).

>
> Can anyone tell me if drivers exist for the card?

ANTI provide drivers, see [2].

> If they do, how can I install them?
> If they don't, then, for the moment I want to uninstall Mandrake.  I  
> understand that if I just reclaim the Linux partition for windows, 
> then  LILO will not work.  But how can I get get rid of the LILO menu 
> that  allows me to choose between Linux, failsafe and Windows?

You'll need a command prompt (that's a real DOS prompt) and run the command:

 > fdisk /mbr

to restore the windows bootloader.

Thanks
Mark

[1] http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/showcat.php?cat=182
[2] https://support.ati.com/ics/support/KBAnswer.asp?questionID=1176