5th time trying to get fedora to install and still it messes up!

[Demonfire]

I really want to try out linux, i truly do. But everytime i try to install fedora or just about any other distro (mandrake, suSe) it freezes at one point.

In the fedora install it goes through the early stuff fine but when the gui gets loaded (off white screen with black pointer) the computer just freezes. I cant for the life of me figure it out!


Here are my specs if it helps:
2.6 Pentium4c
IC7-G motherboard
Ati radeon 9800
Sound blaster audigy
Western Digital - Caviar hard drive
Maxtor hard drive
Dvd drive
CD-R drive
Antec truepower

Is there something with my hardware causing it? Windows works just fine on my computer (I know, not a good representation of stability )

Please help as i would really like it to work!

 

[nonsequitur]

try using a generic ati driver if you aren't already. i don't have much experience with ati cards, but i'd bet that is what the problem is.

 

[XOR != OR]

It's very likely the ati card. Their driver support absolutely sucks in linux ( which is why I will never buy another ATI card ), and the 9600+ have issues with the default radeon driver freezing the system. In fc1/2, you could at least do a full install, but it'd lock up in X. Guess that's changed.

See if you can get your hands on an nvidia card. I bet that fixes it.

 

[Demonfire]

It's very likely the ati card. Their driver support absolutely sucks in linux ( which is why I will never buy another ATI card ), and the 9600+ have issues with the default radeon driver freezing the system. In fc1/2, you could at least do a full install, but it'd lock up in X. Guess that's changed.

See if you can get your hands on an nvidia card. I bet that fixes it.

Nope, cant get one. Im wondering if theirs some way i can insert the new ati nix drivers into the installation to make it work. Any ideas?

 

[deuce868]

Nope, cant get one. Im wondering if theirs some way i can insert the new ati nix drivers into the installation to make it work. Any ideas?

Actually I think you want to go the other way. Try starting out with basic vesa drivers that are not ATI specific just to see if you can get going. Once you get your system up you can try to get ATI specific stuff working.

 

[Demonfire]

Actually I think you want to go the other way. Try starting out with basic vesa drivers that are not ATI specific just to see if you can get going. Once you get your system up you can try to get ATI specific stuff working.

1.Where would i get these "generic" drivers for linux?

2. How do i insert them into the install program (the problem happens when loading up the gui in the install, i never get to loading the os.)?

Edit: If this helps, knoppix works fine although without ethernet support.

 

[nonsequitur]

xfree (or xorg) already has the generic drivers. look for the video card section of xfree86.conf or xorg.conf. open up whichever you have and look for something like

Section "Device"

and beneath that something that reads

Driver "ati"

or something like that. chage that "ati" to "vesa" and try to restart the x server. vesa drivers are super generic, but at least it gives you a chance to get into a window manager.

 

[Wolf31o2]

It looks like you're having trouble even getting Fedora installed.

Allow me to suggest you try booting with "linux text" to perform a text-only install. Once you get the machine up and operational, you can start worrying about those pesky ATI drivers.

 

[insanarchist]

Although it is generally not a n00b distro, wouldn't using Gentoo or the like which let you compile your own kernel from the start possibly solve the problem?

 

[tazio]

demonfire,
what do you actually mean with 'freezes'?
do you still see the black cursor and its not responsive?
or is the screen just blank? if so:
does Ctrl + Alt + Backspace something to your screen?
Ctrl + Alt +F1 ? for having another console?

i tried different distros by the time, all with my radeon 9500 and there were NEVER system-lockups caused by this card. and i never heard of that bad behavior of the radeon driver that comes eith x.

and if you just wnat to try out linux, dont go with gentoo.
its suits people who already know what linuxd can do for them

 

[Demonfire]

demonfire,
what do you actually mean with 'freezes'?
do you still see the black cursor and its not responsive?
or is the screen just blank? if so:
does Ctrl + Alt + Backspace something to your screen?
Ctrl + Alt +F1 ? for having another console?

i tried different distros by the time, all with my radeon 9500 and there were NEVER system-lockups caused by this card. and i never heard of that bad behavior of the radeon driver that comes eith x.

and if you just wnat to try out linux, dont go with gentoo.
its suits people who already know what linuxd can do for them

I see an off white screen with a black cursor which i believe is right when the gui is enabled and the real installation starts and then it does not allow me to move the cursor and does not progress at all. So, yes it becomes non responsive.