Just loaded Fedora C1... now it's "Stuck"

After the initial install, it rebooted and worked great. I logged in as root (only user created so far) and all was good. No sound, but still working.

I have a feeling it has something to do with me changing the display size *and* the video drivers.

It was originally set to 1024x786 using a generic VESA (I think) driver. I changed it to 1152x864 *and* changed the driver to ATI Radeon 9600 Pro....

So it reboots, allows me to log on... then freezes at "Fedora Core" on the screen. I waited 5 minutes then rebooted.

System came back up... blackscreen with arrow is all I have. I watched the screen during the boot and everything returned an "OK"... but obviously everything is not "ok".

..... help

Oh good lord. You are trying to use an ATI card. The horror. Well I see what I can do to help.

I thought that you were going to run Mandrake?

Anyways, reboot to a command line and then make your way to /etc/X11/

then run a text editior to open XF86Config-4 I use vi myself for this.

Find the line that says driver "radeon" and change that back to "vesa"

I would also change your resoultion to something other than what you have selected. It might be casuing problems. try either 1024x768 or 1280x960 to see if that works for you.

Ok, so we're talking a total Linux Newb here.

Computer boots to the boot loader, at this point I've got 3 options that I know of pertaining to Fedora

e) 'edit' command before booting
a) modify kernel argument before booting
c) command-line.

I assumed I should hit "c" and I get to a "grub>" prompt. Now what? I assumed I would enter something like:

cd /etc/X11

But that just says "Error 27: Unrecognized Command".

I'm totally new at this here.


Anyway, I *was* going to install Mandrake but the version 10 that I had wasn't booting and the "Rawwrightwin" utility in the "dosutils" folder (from w/in Windows) wasn't doing anything to create a boot disk. Fedora C1 booted up fine, so I figured, "eh, WTF I want to get into this right away!".... so now here I am

So now, as I eagerly await any assistance I am begining a DL of Mandrake 9.1 , or maybe 9.2

Are ATI cards not good with Linux? And does updating the drivers typically have the same (usually) benificial effect they have with Windows?

Thanks again!

Those there options you have are pre OS options. You want to boot into the OS. Then it should ask your for a logon and password. Log on but do not start X. Then you can do the commands that I told you.

You do not have it set to start X automatically for you, do you? Thats a bad idea typically. If you boot into X and can not get a command line try Ctrl Alt Backspace to get out of X, you should then be at a command line.

ATI drivers for Linux simply suck, and are so hard to get working. Nvidia deffianlty has much better support. With the Nvidia you pretty much load it in and change the X86Config driver and your done. With ATI you have to compile some parts of the driver, recompile the kernel sometimes, and then run a stupid autoconfig for X86Config. If you are looking to run 3D games weill you should look at a Nvida card, atleast for now.

Basically after the install of the OS was done it rebooted and automatically goes straight to the GUI. I am not sure how to get past the point I'm at now which is that all I can get is the grub. I'm hoping that during one of these reboots it actually lets me log in......

wait. If I can edit the command line before it boots, using option "E" from earlier... can I make some kind of adjustment so that I can boot into a commandline and not the GUI?

If so do you know what command and argument I'd need to (1) get to the command line, and (2) disable the GUI from automatically booting.

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While it's on my mind Fishy, since it seems you're a Mandrake user, am I better of (since I think this is where I'm going) installing 9.1, 9.2, or 10.0 ?

Toasty_Squirrel said:

Basically after the install of the OS was done it rebooted and automatically goes straight to the GUI. I am not sure how to get past the point I'm at now which is that all I can get is the grub. I'm hoping that during one of these reboots it actually lets me log in......

wait. If I can edit the command line before it boots, using option "E" from earlier... can I make some kind of adjustment so that I can boot into a commandline and not the GUI?

If so do you know what command and argument I'd need to (1) get to the command line, and (2) disable the GUI from automatically booting.

------------------

While it's on my mind Fishy, since it seems you're a Mandrake user, am I better of (since I think this is where I'm going) installing 9.1, 9.2, or 10.0 ?

Click to expand...

Im not sure what the commands are for Fedora. I know the boot options are stored in the etc/inttab file, and your should have it set to int5

Im using 9.1 and trying to fix things with my burner to move to 10 Community and play with that. It has all the new features already installed, including the 2.6 kernel.

9.2 fell short of delivering anything but problems.

My gaming machine runs on Fedora Core 1 and I have Fedora Core 2 Test1 running on another.

Fedora did a few things I don't like when they switched form being RedHat- one of them was to no longer give an install option for a console-boot.

It does boot into the gui....getting it to boot to a command prompt as default requires editing a text file. You MAY be able to get it to close the gui and go to a command prompt by pressing CTL-ALT-F12 but I am not certain of that...I know there is some key combo that switches though.
*(If you can get into a console, or a working X-session: the text that needs to be changed to get a console at startup is in /etc/inittab:
id:5:initdefault:
change the 5 to a 3
id:3:initdefault:
different from the linux norm, but foolows the way RedHat has done it for quite a while.)*

I have become an "NVidiot" simply because of the linux support: I have heard of nothing but difficulty using modern ATI cards in linux, so I stick with NVidia solely for that reason. Unfortunately, another of Fedora's changes makes getting 3d drivers working screwy as well!
They used a different version of gcc when building Fedora Core 1 than the version that is in the distro as installed. To get the nvidia 3d drivers working you need to either compile them, get a version that is precompiled FOR YOUR KERNEL VERSION or use a command line switch to ignore the gcc version.
I am hoping that this issue is resolved in Fedora Core 2........

Fedora is a pretty good distro overall, but those two issues are pretty serious ones, IMO, especially for linux beginners. Learning how to get past them is a pain but can help teach you a few things about linux, if you choose to pursue using it....

Unfortunately, even if you continue with Fedora, or choose a distro such as Slackware 9.1 (excellent also, and none of the wierd issues Fedora has!) you will still either have to fight your way through getting ATI drivers to install or get an NVidia-based card.