Suse 10.3 video card support

[shaker25]

I'm really new to Linux, I'm evne below the term noob.
I have however had Suse 10.0, running ok 10.2

P4 1.8/1gb/40gb/ati radeon 8500/LG dvdrw/gigabyte titan MB S3 chipset.

I finally decided to install 10.3 and thought I'd try my hand at installing the Video Driver so I could get 3d support.

I followed the info on Suse's website.
Added the repository for ATI.

prep'd everything and hit ctrl +alt +f1
so I was at the konsole(console)
logged in as SU and followed the rest of the directions for the install.
eveything went off without a hitch.
So I felt a bit confident and wanted to get all my mouse buttons working.
so I opened yast and changed my mouse to the MX310 listed.
Tested the mouse, the test failed.
so I figured what ever no worries don't really need the buttons anyway.

The next time I booted up I went in to yast to change my screen resolution
it brought up an error saying my video card drivers don't support 3d acceleration.

so I figured maybe they didn't install correctly.
So back to the suse site, and I removed the drivers as per the instructions.

Tried the one click driver, went to yast change the res, tested and ok.
next day when I booted up All I get is the console.

?

so I did some hunting and found this:
------------------------
init 3
/etc/X11/cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.install
startx

it got me back into the gui xwindow but the res was terrible and still couldn't use 3d.

--------------------------
However when I reboot I always get the console.
so I treid to run Yast from the console, did a hardware test.
all checks good, even sees the Radeon as an 8500.
However in graphics and monitors when I wanted to make changeds the screen flashes, but does nothing.
--------------------------------

exit yast, reboot, not my machine stays at the console screen, and when I try to use
init 3
/etc/X11/cp xorg.conf xorg.conf.install
startx

it brings up and error and xorg.conf is not in the directory anymore??


would this be a best case of re-install ?

[gogalthorp]

No not really.

try running as root

sax2 -r -m 0=vesa (0 is a digit, not a letter!)

if this goes alright
then run

init 5

This should bring you back to square one.

If not then maybe think of a reinstall. If you have data and settings that you wish to keep then when you install be sure you tell the installer to reformat the partition that contained / (root) and mount as / and not reformat partition that contains /home and remount it as /home. This will save all your personnel settings and data.

[shaker25]

thanks I'll try it tonight.
PS - are there any site's you can recommend for people like me that want to learn and use linux.
Or even books you may have used?

[gogalthorp]

Yes here is a couse that is going on now it started a while back but it is just up to chapter 4 so it would not take much to catchup or you could just read the online book.

course:start [LBo]

[shaker25]

Futher to this, thanks for your help the Sax solution was helpfula nd got me back into the system and back to square one.
can't get the 3d workng now though, but I'll surf around.

[gogalthorp]

Sorry I can't help too much on ATI I use NVIDIA. ATI support for Linux is at best dicey.

You might consider going to the ATI site and following their instruction. Be sure to get the driver that supports your chip set.

[shaker25]

so I've been close to getting this working, however in the last step of the install process my power went out now every time I try to run this part of the install / removel I get this error.

linux-xz1v:/home/user1 # rpm -e$(rpm -qa|grep fglrx)
rpm: one type of query/verify may be performed at a time

?? ?? ??!!
Agh!
Maybe I'm better off with the basic Radeon driver.

[gogalthorp]

Did you try just going though the install process again. This would be like updating the driver. It should just over write the old stuff.

[shaker25]

Ok got them working, no re-intall needed -
I actually followed teh steps on the SUSe web page and instead of following the steps under my linus version ( linux-2.6.22.13-0.3) I just went under (linux)
cleaned that and rebooted the system found eveything ok after that.
3d works too.
Thanks for the help again!!