Problems with 8.04 and AMD

[ffohwx]

This is my first venture into Linux, and I'm having problems. I am currently running 6.06.1 on my AMD Athlon 64 x2 6400+ based system, and it works just fine. However, I like how the 8.04 system works, but when I try it, my screen goes crazy. The only way I can explain it is that it looks like an old style TV with the dials, and it is badly tuned. It's not just static, but all kinds of lines and crackles running through the screen. If I try to install it, it gives me an error at the end saying something along the lines of "GRUB could not be installed. This is a fatal error". BTW, I am dual-booting this with Windows XP Home SP2. These problems occur with both i386 and 64-bit, and with Ubuntu 8.04 as well as Kubuntu. I am posting this here, because I like the KDE environment more than GNOME, and want to stick with Kubuntu. However, the 6.06.1 version works just fine.

If you are wondering how I know what I like more, I have an old computer that I test things on first (but I have to use i386 on it).

My System Info

AMD Athlon 64 x2 6400+
2 GB OCZ RAM
70 GB HDD
nVidia 6150 built in
Dual-booting with Windows XP Home

Thanks for any help!

[JerryG]

Are you trying to do a new install, or a version upgrade?

I'm not 100% certain, but I seem to recall reading somewhere, that you can't do a version upgrade, and skip over a version. That is, you can go from 6.x to 7.x, but not 6.x to 8.x.

HTH,

-JerryG

[ffohwx]

That is for fresh install, I actually am not sure how to do a version upgrade. Also, I get the screwed up screen when I boot form the Live CD as well. Also, I checked the i386 version of 8.04 on my old computer, and it runs fine on that. It is a pentium 4 with 512 RAM.

[JerryG]

Maybe I'm shooting into the dark here, but have you tried running the i386 version on this machine? It should run, I've run 32-bit SuSE on my AMD64 with no problems.

-JerryG

[ffohwx]

Yep, I've already tried that, too...

[JerryG]

Well, I'm not sure how to proceed from here, as far as what graphics driver to use (I'm using a Matrox G550 card), or settings to pass to the kernel. But you may want to read through this forum -

http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=57791

It's a bit long, but you may find something there... please let us know if you find a fix.

HTH,

-JerryG

[ffohwx]

OK, I have resolved the problem. I was investigating BIOS, because the AMD cool & quiet re-enabled itself when I updated XP to SP3. I noticed another setting that I had set and long since forgotten about...Robust Graphics Booster, which comes with a warning: "Warning: VGA Graphics card is not guaranteed to operate normally" It operated normally in XP with that enabled, but not Linux. I am running 8.04 KDE 4 Remix with no problems at all ;D

[JerryG]

Great! Enjoy!

-JerryG