Gateway SX2800 won't load Ubuntu

[MASONTX]

I recently purchased a Gateway SX2800, Intel Q8200 quad processor, 4 GB DDR3, with built in GMA X4500 graphics. It works fine with the Vista that came with it (at least as fine as Vista works), but I have tried live cd's of 18 distro's, and only 5 will load (not ones I particularly like). I prefer Ubuntu, and it starts to load, gives the Ubuntu splash screen, then after a few minutes goes to a black screen. One of the non *buntu flavors I tried to load got to that point and showed a color band with the error message "Signal out of range". In searching this, the GMA X4500 graphics is listed as working with linux, and several posters on different websites talk about the SX2800 working with Ubuntu. I am at a loss, and would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks

Oh, my monitor is a Dell 17" CRT.

[MASONTX]

I should mention that all 18 distro's I tried work fine in another computer, so it isn't a disk burn problem.

[elija]

This sounds like one of those situations where a live CD won't correctly detect your graphics capability and your monitor is protecting itself from damage. Usually when this happens with Ubuntu, the alternate install CD will install just fine. If you still get the graphics issue when installed, it is easier to sort out that it is with a live cd.

[MASONTX]

Thanks elija. I downloaded the alternate install 2 days ago, but haven't had time to try it yet. If I understand you right, live cd may not work, but install should work?

[elija]

Well it's often recommended for this exact situation and usually seems to work. The alternate CD doesn't use X. Even if you still get the same problem post install, you can drop to a tty and configure things from there

[MASONTX]

Thanks, I'll give it a try tonight.

[capngloval]

I have had this with some machines, you may need to boot ubuntu in a low graphics mode with a low resolution untill you can get updated drivers. here's a good website with info on how to do that:

https:// help.ubuntu.com/ community/ BootOptions

I had to schew the website above to get it through, please remove the spaces.
please disable the 15 posts to whatever. How can anyone help with diagnoses without citing official information from the publisher?

i know there is probably a simple command, but I work on a lot of distro's and might have this wrong, so if anyone is reading this please chime in with corrections, but...

fb 800x600 or fb 640x480 should get you into a low enough grahics mode
this is in case the website listed above's idea does not work for you.

-Denny

[MrDaler]

I had a similar issue and needed to add xdriver=vesa nomodeset and the end of the boot parameters.

[MASONTX]

Thanks for the replies. To date, I have tried Ubuntu alternate install with no luck, seemed to install, but then went to the black screen again. I finally installed Mandriva, then switched and put OpenSuse on. Haven't gotten the USB wireless working yet. The wireless worked fine on live cd of CrunchBang, but the install reported a cd disk error and quit. Next stop reinstall my old computer, re-burn or redownload and burn #!, and try to install that again. If I could get an internet connection with either Mandriva or Suse, I might stick with them.

[Jonathan183]

To date, I have tried Ubuntu alternate install with no luck, seemed to install, but then went to the black screen again.

Did you end up with a blank screen during the install process or when you reboot. If the failure is during install try not installing grub as part of the initial install ... if you get a blank screen after reboot then try starting without the splash screen.