olivetti p100 with onboard ATI Mach64

DISCUSSION Andrew Langdon-Davies 2 participants 4 messages Apr 30, 2003 – May 2, 2003

Share & tools

Andrew Langdon-Davies

author

2003-04-30 17:50 UTC #0 lore raw

Hello,
I have two machines as described above and both give me exactly the same problem. Soon after booting from a Linux floppy the screen goes blank. In the case of Tomsrtbt this happens just after the screen for choosing a video mode. The manual describes the video controller as:
-Component ATI Mach64-CT with 1 MB or 2 MB of video memory, integrated on the motherboard, and the DPMS, DDC 1 features
-Board IN2052 with video connector output.
Is there a solution to this?
TIA
Andrew

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to [email protected]
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs

Ray Olszewski

2003-04-30 18:54 UTC #1 lore raw

See below.

Quoted 7 lines · Andrew Langdon-Davies

Hello,
I have two machines as described above and both give me exactly the same problem. Soon after booting from a Linux floppy the screen goes blank. In the case of Tomsrtbt this happens just after the screen for choosing a video mode. The manual describes the video controller as:
-Component ATI Mach64-CT with 1 MB or 2 MB of video memory, integrated on
the motherboard, and the DPMS, DDC 1 features
-Board IN2052 with video connector output.
Is there a solution to this?

I'm unfamiliar with your hardware, and I can't recall ever seeing a system that did not boot/init successfully to a console prompt. So I'm guessing here quite a bit.

You mention testing with tomsrtbt. As I recall, it uses a framebuffer device to let it set the video mode. You don't say what you have tested with other than tomsrtbt. So I don't know if you've tried any distro that does not default to using the framebuffer (in general, the small penguin picture on the boot screen indicates use of the framebuffer).

Offhand, I don't know whether any of the full-strength distros do not use the framebuffer by default, particularly in their installers (since you talk about testing with floppies). Offhand, I know that the router-oriented LEAF distros (leaf.sourceforge.net) do not use it, and probably other floppy-based distros (trinux? maybe) also omit this. So you might try one of them to see if this is your problem. If it is, you can easily compile a custom kernel that leaves out framebuffer support, assuming you are working toward a hard-disk install.

Andrew Langdon-Davies

author

2003-05-02 09:21 UTC #2 lore raw

Quoted 8 lines

Quoted 4 lines
I have two machines as described above and both give me exactly the same problem. Soon after booting from a Linux floppy the screen goes blank.
You mention testing with tomsrtbt. As I recall, it uses a framebuffer device to let it set the video mode.
Offhand, I don't know whether any of the full-strength distros do not use the framebuffer by default, particularly in their installers (since you talk about testing with floppies). Offhand, I know that the router-oriented LEAF distros (leaf.sourceforge.net) do not use it, and probably other floppy-based distros (trinux? maybe) also omit this. So you might try one of them to see if this is your problem. If it is, you can easily compile a custom kernel that leaves out framebuffer support, assuming you are working toward a hard-disk install.

Looks like you were right. Bering boots to a console prompt with no trouble. (It must be great to know so much). Next step is indeed to go for a hard-disk install, which means I can't put off learning to compile a kernel any longer. Presumably I can do this on another machine and then transfer it (?). I was thinking of installing something like Peanut. What do you reckon? I can probably rustle up about 800 megas of disk space on two disks. The machine will not be used for anything more ambitious than text-processing, Internet, etc.
Andrew

Ray Olszewski

2003-05-02 14:39 UTC #3 lore raw

See below.

At 11:21 AM 5/2/2003 +0200, Andrew Langdon-Davies wrote:
[...]

Quoted 4 lines

Quoted 2 lines
You mention testing with tomsrtbt. As I recall, it uses a framebuffer device to let it set the video mode.
Offhand, I don't know whether any of the full-strength distros do not use the framebuffer by default, particularly in their installers (since you talk about testing with floppies). Offhand, I know that the router-oriented LEAF distros (leaf.sourceforge.net) do not use it, and probably other floppy-based distros (trinux? maybe) also omit this. So you might try one of them to see if this is your problem. If it is, you can easily compile a custom kernel that leaves out framebuffer support, assuming you are working toward a hard-disk install.
Looks like you were right. Bering boots to a console prompt with no trouble. (It must be great to know so much).

I'm sure it would be, if I did. <sigh> It is easy to sound knowledgeable when you can pick and choose which questions you answer.

Quoted 2 lines

Next step is indeed to go for a hard-disk install, which means I can't
put off learning to compile a kernel any longer. Presumably I can do this on another machine and then transfer it (?).

Yes.

Quoted 2 lines

I was thinking of installing something like Peanut. What do you reckon? I can probably rustle up about 800 megas of disk space on two disks. The machine will not be used for anything more ambitious than text-processing, Internet, etc. Andrew

I don't know what you intend "etc." to cover, so I don't know the range of your ambitions. But you say you will connect to the Internet, so I would encourage you to select from among the distributions that stay current with respect to security patches. Whether this includes Peanut or not I do not know, but you should look into that before you commit to it (or any distro, though you can count on the half-dozen or so "big names" all passing this test).