I just installed 11.4 with KDE on a COMPAQ EVO D510 SFF. The install seemed to go smoothly but after the boot completes I have only a white cursor on a black screen. The cursor moves with the mouse.
At the boot menu, I can select alternatively “failsafe” and that takes me (after login) to the Linux command line and I don’t know how to work that very well.
Any clues about what I can do to see my desktop would be GREAT! Thanks.
Does it use
Intel 845G chipset with Intel Extreme integrated graphics
Or have you added something to the AGP slot?
That’s if my Google came up with the right info?
georgeinacton wrote:
>
> I just installed 11.4 with KDE on a COMPAQ EVO D510 SFF. The install
> seemed to go smoothly but after the boot completes I have only a white
> cursor on a black screen. The cursor moves with the mouse.
>
Can you give some more hardware details (RAM, graphics card, …), what a
quick google request found is something like 256-512 MB RAM which will be
not enough to run KDE in a really usable way and you should consider a light
desktop environment like LXDE or XFCE and Intel 845G graphics card.
–
PC: oS 11.3 64 bit | Intel Core2 Quad Q8300@2.50GHz | KDE 4.6.3 | GeForce
9600 GT | 4GB Ram
Eee PC 1201n: oS 11.4 64 bit | Intel Atom 330@1.60GHz | KDE 4.6.0 | nVidia
ION | 3GB Ram
Possibly it uses the 845G. Is this a problem with 11.4?
Initially I had nothing in the expansion slots but I have added a GeForce 6200 and now I have the desktop out of its VGA port. Trouble is the display blanks for a second every ten seconds or so. Probably I need to figure out how to install the Nvidia driver? Currently I am downloading and installing 178 updates for 11.4.
Thank you.
I am not familiar with the 845G but your solution with the nvidia card is for sure not the worst solution. I have read about issues for old intel graphics with new kernel versions, but do not know if this applies for this model.
When your updates are done, you can add the nvidia repository to the list of your repositories and yast will then automatically select the correct driver for you when you start it or you can choose the 1-click solution (see link below).
Read this
SDB:NVIDIA drivers - openSUSE
But can you also give us the info about the amount of your RAM? It can be that you are very unhappy with your desktop choice if you do not have enough.
Thank you. I am doing the updates now.
I have 512MB RAM. Should I have more?
Following the driver selector at nvidia.com the correct driver for your model is the 270.41.19 which corresponds to this 1-click installer
http://opensuse-community.org/nvidia.ymp
This can be a real problem, we had several threads here where people tried kde with 512 MB but were not satisfied. It will run of course, no question, but not very performant. You can simply try if you are satisfied, but do not be too disappointed if it is not as good as you expect.
I know that the current gnome 2.32 runs really well with 512 MB (with compiz=desktop effects disabled) because I installed it on a comparable machine.
Or you upgrade the RAM to 1GB if that is possible, this will then work well with KDE4. (I know it runs good on a machine with 896MB)
Great martin Thanks! I have never used a one click installer before. I am writing to you on my 11.3 machine so I have written down your link and will try it on the 11.4 machine.
Upgrading to 1GB RAM is not a problem.
Great 1GB will save you some headache.
The 1-click installer is not black magick, it is just a convenient way to save you some manual work. It adds the repository you need and starts installation of the packages. In effect it does the same what you do otherwise yourself by adding a repository and selecting the packages by hand.
You can inspect the ymp file (it is just plain text) if you are interested to understand what it does.
Things are progressing well here I think. I used the one click updater you recommended with success. It did not ask me to pick a driver so I did not get to pick 270.41.19 but the display looks different (different font?) now after a restart and the blacking out of the screen is no longer happening so I guess I have the Nvidia driver. How can I tell which display driver I am using?
Another question please: the 11.4 display is currently 1024x768 and I do not have a larger option. On the 11.3 system using the same CRT but possibly a different display card, I have a 1280xsomething option. How can I get a finer display on the new system. I am accessing display settings using “Configure Desktop” off the Start menu.
Martin, at the reference you sent me, I notice that there is a potential crashing problem with the Nvidia driver 260+ and KDE 4.5+. How can I tell which KDE I have?
Thanks again, George
To see what driver is in use you can simply open a terminal and type
glxinfo | grep NVIDIA
it should show you something similar to that
server glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
client glx vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL version string: 3.3.0 NVIDIA 270.41.06
as output, in the version string you see the driver version.
KDE in 11.4 is 4.6.0.
You can check that by
rpm -q libkde4
in the terminal, which shows something like
libkde4-4.6.0-6.15.1.x86_64
For your resolution problem, I think it is somehow related to your monitor, I hope someone else has an idea about this. It is too long ago I used CRTs.
You should open a new thread with a good title in the multimedia forum about that detail to get the attention of the real multimedia gurus.
Ah, one last thought. You should have now a program nvidia-settings (you can start it with that name from a terminal).
In the X Server Display Configuration (menu at the left side) it should show you a resolution selector in the right window. Can you select there a higher resolution?
Thank you. I get the same results as you except that you have the 64 bit version of KDE 6, mine is the 32 bit.
Yes, CRTs are so old fashioned aren’t they? According to Viewsonic, my fine old GS90fb has a maximum of 1920x1440 so the problem is not the monitor. I cannot find the place in SUSE where the default monitor is shown.
You misunderstood me, with the monitor being the problem I mean: The new openSUSE does obviously not recognize the monitor in the correct way and has no clue how to deal with it and that this is the problem (not the hardware itself).
The X server display configuration in the program nvidia-settings shows you the model of the recognized monitor (maybe you see something like “unknown” there or a wrong model which is not your monitor?
Sorry Martin, just a lame joke.
I did find the NVIDIA XServer Settings in my recently installed programs but I cannot find any way to change the monitor? It shows only as CRT-1.
Some general information to try to assist those helping in this thread:
My experience is it is best to look at the /var/log/Xorg.0.log file in order to get a better handle as to what is happening with one’s graphics. I concede that file can be difficult to follow, but if one desires help in interpretting the file, then copy and paste the file contents to a site such as http://susepase.org and post here the corresponding URL/address where the file contents are posted. Then the monitor guru’s can look at the file and discover what the hiccup may be.
deano_ferrari is one of our resident expert on tuning monitor settings. I think please_try_again is also pretty good at that.
That just means it cannot find it (I was not sure what it shows in that case, the CRT-1 seems to just say: I know it is CRT but no more). No you can not adjust that there it is only giving you information.
Open a new thread, I know there are very clever people in the multimedia or hardware forum, they will know better than me what you can do to adjust your settings for your Monitor and I guess most of them will not look here at the install/boot/login forum.
Post there all related info about your monitor/driver version/graphics card, what nvidia-settings shows you and a reference to this thread, I am sure they can and will help.
Thank you Martin for all your help. I have followed your suggestion here: 11.4 - Higher display resolution?