Onboard video card conflicts when it's not primary.

[Annoyingrob]

I decided to install Linux on me gaming rig, I resized the partitions, and installed debian....got pretty much to the end, and...oops, video error, cannot start Mach64 X server. But i'm not using my Rage pro (Onboard nic) I have it selected to use my Geforce as primary in BIOS. Oh, but Linux is a B**tch, and seems to be running on my geforce, but only "sees" my rage pro.

I seem to be having a little bit of a problem here, and it's a real pain. The only way to run linux is to select my onboard nic (ATI Rage Pro AGP2x) as default. But then windows doesn't work because it's set up to use my GF2MX PCI as the primary, and disable the ATI. Even if I did set windows to use my ATI, it would defeat the purpose of even having a Geforce.

Why does Linux only see my onboard AGP card, even if everything is running on the default PCI card? How can I fix this? This is kind of confusing. It was running itself on my geforce, yet still thought that it needed to use my Rage Pro.

Help!


BTW: I also tried reinstallation many times, on different distros as well (RH6.1), and got the same result. And no, upgrading to a decent mobo with an agp slot and new gfx card are not an option....yet (Need money :>)

 

[sockmonkey]

did you try taking agp support, ati drivers, etc. out of the kernel and your XF86config?

 

[XWRed1]

Maybe the installer just picked up the Ati and stopped there. You'll probably need to dive in an edit your XF86Config file yourself.

 

[Shep]

I don't know if it will make a differance or not but make sure the bios is set up to boot video from pci not agp.

 

[Annoyingrob]

The bios is set to use the PCI as primary. I can get it to work if I switch the primary to AGP, but then that's no good for windows.

I want Linux to recognise my PCI card when it's primary, but when the PCI is primary, it still notices the agp as primary, and trys to use it.

Edit: I did some research, and found that the AGP is scanned first, then the pci. it finds the AGP, then stopps there. So, is there a command line option i can type when i'm installing to tell it not to check the agp? (I don't know, maybe AGP=0)

 

[David]

You may be able to recompile your kernel and remove support for AGP cards, or disable agp modules.

 

[XWRed1]

Are you getting the text console on your Geforce or your Ati?

I bet you just need to fix your XF86Config. Removing Agp from the kernel won't make a difference.

 

[Annoyingrob]

It was running on the Geforce.

I just wiped the partitions, and did a clean install of Debian with the ATI as the primary, and got the same errors. Now I'm confused. It won't create the XF86Config on installation, it trys, then comes up with an X Server error, then asks if I want to try again.


BTW, on Redhat, with the Geforce as primary, The graphical install came up with a similar error to the one above, when I switched to the ATI, it worked. Of course, this contradicts what I just found in the above paragraph.


Linux doesn't like me. Maybe if i try a clean install of Redhat it will work better. Oh well, that's for tomorrow, i'm out of time for tonight.

 

[XWRed1]

I'm telling you how to fix it. But your reformating and reinstalling instead. If your console is coming up on the Geforce, then all you need to do is edit the XF86Config and tell it to use the Geforce rather than the Ati.

 

[Annoyingrob]

and I"m telling you, it came up with a error when it tried to create the XF86Config file. There is no file there to edit.

Edit: Sorry man, I didn't mean that to sound angry.

 

[David]

Is there an XF86Config-4 file then?