4mb riva 128 video card- no video after boot... suggestions?

howdy- i'm new to knoppix but know a bit about linux.

trying to help a friend out here, they want to be able to use OpenOffice and the console mostly. i tried the default settings; black screen- same with desktop=xfce.

am i asking too much out of a 4 meg card?

any lightweight desktops out there that could run OO?

all help appreciated.


thanks,

nomex

edit: added comment below

well, i reread the faq's and read all 76 posts in hardware with the word "video" in them and i found some clues. i guess i saw "very new (or exotic) graphics cards" in the faq and didn't think this one qualified. :)

possible fixes:

knoppix vga=normal
ctrl alt + or - (after boot. on-the-fly screen-resolution change)
knoppix xvrefresh=60
knoppix xvrefresh=75
knoppix xmodule=vesa
knoppix noddc
knoppix resolution=1024x768 (or 640x480 or 800x600)
knoppix xmodule=ati|radeon|fbdev|vesa|savage|s3|nv (i take it nv is the correct choice in this case?)
knoppix xmodule=fbdev
knoppix xserver=XF86_SVGA
knoppix xmodule=mga
and combinations of the above.

i'll post after i try these.

nomex

Not sure I follow you here. Does Knoppix boot ok and then when you try to use OO it crashes the Xserver? Or does Knoppix just not boot for you? How about some hardware specs? System RAM, cpu etc.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nomex

am i asking too much out of a 4 meg card?

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That's not a problem -- 4 MB is plenty. That's what I have on my SiS620-based board.

thanks for the replies-

knoppix seemed to boot fine, but then black screen.

i tried a bunch of the codes, and "ctrl alt -" twice brought up the desktop,
so i knew i was up and running, and xmodule=fbdev at the 'boot:' prompt
did the trick (but i don't know what exactly it is!).

the system is a 650 duron, 256Mb ram, with an old 14" 'daytek' monitor,
and i wasn't sure kde or OO would work.


is there any way to speed up the OO startup process?


thanks,

nomex

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nomex

I tried a bunch of the codes, and "ctrl alt -" twice brought up the desktop... is there any way to speed up the OO startup process?

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So the problem is your VGA-only monitor. It only supports 640 x 480 resolution. Use the cheat-code for that for now, then go for a better monitor.

I don't know of any way to speed up OOo, unfortunately -- at least from the CD.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by nomex

is there any way to speed up the OO startup process?


thanks,

nomex

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Put about a GB of ram in there and maybe it will start in under a minute and that would be on a HD install, OO is an absolute dog on startup.