FC 2 no GUI, help

Donny Prime at myrealbox.com
Sat Oct 16 03:04:18 UTC 2004


Hardware: Dell Optiplex GX260 (2yr old machine),Pentium4 @2Ghz(400MhzFSB),640MB DDR (266mhz)RAM,40GB HDD (ATA80),Imbedded intel VideoChip (64MB mem) AGP4x on PCI IRQ 9-with VGA connector), Monitor IBM 14R28 (ANCIENT;from the 1st run of the Aptiva lineup days) 13"viewable (.28dot pitch CRT-SVGA 1024x768max resolution @ 60hz).

I've setup Dual Boot Grub as my Dual boot for Fedora Core 2 @ WinXP Pro SP1. file type is set to fat32 for WinXP ->I no issues using Grub to boot WinXP.

Let me tell you my issue that I'm going BALD over (had peach fuzz before).
1)the above hardware works perfectly with WinXP ->although I can only run 800x600 res max with 16-bit at 60hz, nothing more (even before Fedora).

2)I tried following RedHas instructions to the letter 3x(deleted WinXP "D:\" drive partition then Automatic install-->couldn't do it. I then tried installing Fedora with Disk Druid GUI by giving the whole partion "\"(root)+swap file (last 2BG) -->didn't help. My 5th attempt allowed installation instructions to be followed yet each and everytime, all installations seemed to go without a hitch Except at the beginning with linux couldn't recognize my monitor gave the option of choosing another

3)Rescue Disc (#5) I tried "nprobe" and "skipddc" commands both, nothing work.

4)No matter what I try I still cannot get GUI.When I select Fedora Core (instead of WinXP) at the Grub Boot Loader I get loadup scripts telling me all things, one by one, everything is [ok] - in green letter; UNTIL near the very end; I get something about monitor+check Bios settings. I have the latest BIOS install for my Dell mobo. This is very fustrating, 4 guys at work know that I cannot stand Windblows, cannot afford a Mac, and tell me Linux is the way to go!

5)Ok I dropped my pride & researched and tried again to load Fedora Core2 just to see my old nemises. I logged in as root at the prompt and I typed "startx"
I get:
(EE) i810(0): No Video BIOS modes for chosen depth.
(EE) Screen(s) found,but none have a usuable configuration
Fatal Server error:
no screens found
Please consult the X.org Foundation Support at http://wikik.X.org for help
please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information
XIO: fatal IO error 104 (connection reset by perr) on X server ":0.0" after 0 request (0 known processed"
with 0 events remaining


wheeew! I even typed: gedit /etc/inittab (hoping to change the id:3:initdefault to id:5:initdefault) and I get back: (gedit:2740)Gtk-WARNING **-cannot open display.

Lastly I load Knoppix3.6 to view my HD /mnt/hda3/etc/inittab file and the setting id:5:initdefault is already present.

last information Intel 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV chip with Intel Video Bios v.2833 modes 800x600, high color 60hz.

Can you please help me out or do I need to buy a new monitor??






More information about the desktop mailing list