[Mageia-discuss] mageia 2 live cd

[blind Pete]

Paul Simon wrote:

> I've been working for two days running a live cd on an old laptop as well
> as my main linux machine before attempting installation of mga2 on both
> machines.  I have been unsuccessful.  I"m not a newcomer nor an expert and
> am not interested in (to me) exotic CLI workarounds.

Depending on what you mean by "exotic" you might be out of luck.  
 
> It's apparent that the default drivers (?) on the live CD aren't
> appropriate.  The display on the laptop eventually ends up as rows and
> columns of white dots on a black backround with the arrow cursor still
> visible.  The video card is an Nvidia NV17 GeForce4 440Go.
> 
> My attempts on the relatively new Dell desktop with an NVidia GeForce 2
> MX/MX400 also failed.  

I have one of those video cards, but it is not new.  It was given to 
me years ago as old and second hand.  

> All the text boxes were empty and text on the
> background were missing characters.
> 
> Mga 1 worked for me like a charm.  I love it.  I hope that my experience
> installing mga 2 are rare; if not, mga 2 has a significant problem in
> recruiting new users.
> 
> Paul Simon

There is no nVidia driver for that card and the current X.  

The current nouveau driver does not work on that card.  

The VESA driver does work.  

I have raised a bug report, 
see <https://bugs.mageia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4970>.  

Soutions:

1) Go skip diving for a newer card.  

2) Use a different distribution.  Mageia 1 is good.  Mageia 3 should be too.  

3) Select the VESA driver.  

3a) Install from the DVD and pay attention to the questions asked.  
The answer is VESA.  

3b) Live CD.  At the splash screen hit F6 Kernel Option.  
UP ARROW FOR BUG WORKAROUND, unless you want to install.
Add xdriver=vesa to the boot options. 
ENTER, and be on your way.  

3c) Boot from the live CD, when the screen goes wrong switch to 
another virtual terminal, logon as root, telinit 3, XFdrake, 
telinit 5, switch VTs again.  

BUT you will only get Gnome 3 in fall back mode, because the 
card is a bit well.. old.  

-- 
blind Pete
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