Problem going into graphical mode

[sadotra]

I am new to linux and just installed mandriva free 2006 on my PC as dual boot along with windows XP. It boots o.k. up to the loading of windows manager and then it gives me a compressed fussy image. I am using Riva TNT display card on my system.
Can somebody please advice.

Thanks in advance

[fingal]

It's surprising how many Mandriva issues relate to the video card and its settings. You can set up the card from within the Mandriva Control Centre (mcc). This assumes you can navigate to there from inside your system:

System>Configuration>Configure Your Computer

Then select Hardware (you need to supply your root password) then choose 'Look at and configure hardware'. In there you can configure your video card.

Make sure you have your monitor set to the correct resolution. If you can't get to those options from inside your Mandriva installation, you can do so from your installation disk: select upgrade rather than install from scratch and follow the setup options for your card. Mandriva is quite bad at configuring the card for you and sometimes you have to select the correct options manually.

Computers are stupid.

[sadotra]

Thanks fingal I tried changing setting one by one to get the optimum configuration but even after trying all the possible configurations I still couldn't get it to work.
Well I guess its back to Windows.
Thanks for the input anyways.

[fingal]

Oh well ... as the Rolling Stones once sang: 'You can't always get what you want; but you can try sometimes'. Sometimes selecting VESA or something more generic can do the job (but you're unlikely to get great performance out of your card for games etc.)

You might also consider - at some stage - trying another distro. Sooner or later you'll get something that works for you.

A final thought: do you have an onboard graphics card in addition to your Riva? If so you might want to disable it in your BIOS.