[HLUG] Failed Mandrake installation

[Julian Robbins]

Mark Broadbent wrote:

> 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.
>
Just for comparison - A user with the latest version of Ubuntu says '

> Well I have a Radeon 9550 that I purchased about a month ago which is 
> running on a dual boot sys WinXPmce/Ubuntu.
>
> But, I am Having a hard time getting the 9550 running well. This was 
> actually my first ATi purchase, as I purchased all nvidia in the past 
> with less problems.


So it may not be completely plain sailing but he did get them working. I 
think getting the hardware acceleration working might be what he means 
by 'working well' Nvidia cards are always better supported and better 
drivers under Linux.

Also someone else said :-

> I just wondered if someone can help me install my ati radeon 9200/ 
> 9550 under MDK 9.2 or 10.2. I got the 9200 to work under 9.2, but is 
> still not that good. I got nothing working with the 9550.
>
> I am using the drivers provided by ati.
>
> Is there any drivers available that performs better, and that are 
> easier to install?
>
> Yes I did go the init 3, init 5 way also.
>
> Are them drivers any good? Better than MESA I must say!
>
So you're not the only one with issues. Is there any ware you get get 
another (nvidia) based card?

Julian

>>
>> 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
>
>
Knoppix probably has the best hardware compatability of any distro all 
told. Although that might start another thread of its own ;-)


>
> 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
>
>
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