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Gateway MA3 Issues

  Date: Feb 11    Category: Unix / Linux / Ubuntu    Views: 412
  

I really need some advice here... I've been trying out (K)Ubuntu 12.04 since the
first day, with mediocre success.

First try was on my 6 year old Gateway, AMD Turion 64, 1 GB RAM, ATI Graphics on
board, 80 GB hard drive (which I completely freed up to use for the new
Operating System).

Result: it gets to the Word Ubuntu with 5 dots underneath and stalls. I've tried
with CD's, USB flash drives, Ubuntu, Xubuntu, LinuxMinut and Kubuntu; 64 bit and
32 bit. None of the 12.04 based versions will install. I even put on 11.10 and
upgraded over the air. The upgrade finished successfully and then stalled at the
same point. It's presently running the previous version os KDE LinuxMint, based
on 11.10, but I prefer, and want, Kubuntu.

I've done a fresh install on a 7 year old P$ 2.66 GHz machines, 2 GB RAM, Nvidia
FX5500. It worked but I can't get the video back to the way it was before:
1920x1080. Top end now is 1280x1024; good colour but circles are all oval.
Disappointing resolution and wrong aspect ratio. How could Ubuntu let this
update out the door when it won't support reasonable hardware that worked just
fine only 6 months previously? I'm disappointed they let this happen, although
I'll admit it could be Nvidia's problem.

I'm not going to take a chance on upgrading my other machines until I can get
some light on these issues. They are a couple of years older - but were still
functioning very well on 11.10.

I'm not a complete novice and I have done internet searches for answers and used
the "additional drivers" utility; also been to the Nvidia website and tried the
recommended download, which would not install because it said there was already
an X-server running. When I tried removing that there was no video at all and
the driver still would not install. I haven't figured out how to reinstall what
I had before, unsatisfactory though it was. Fortuately it was on another drive
in the same machine so 12.04 still runs.

What could have happened between 11.10 and 12.04? Every prior version installed
fine... (I'll admit I used Kubuntu rather than Ubuntu, to avoid the Unity issues
with low powered machines.)

Any ideas? I'd sure like to see 12.04 on this machine!

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6 Answers Found

 
Answer #1    Answered On: Feb 11    

I threw the Gateway out a few months back. However,
I do have Kubuntu 12.04 installed. I thought that it had stalled but
not so, the reading of the CD to even get it running in the trial option
was very slow. Then, I asked to install. Again slow and it took me
three attempts to get on to the HD. Computer a locally built machine
running Intel dual core processor, 2 Gb ram, 100Gb spare on the HD
which I partitioned again allowing 25 gigs for 12.04 installation.

 
Answer #2    Answered On: Feb 11    

Thanks for the reply. The Gateway can wait. Maybe it is just too old for
12.04; I'll see if anything emerges as a fix in the next few months.

The video problem is really vexing though. After running 1920 x 1080 for
years on four computers it's just not good enough to be restricted to lower
resolutions on the same hardware. It seems there just isn't a working
nvidia driver available. Here's hoping someone writes one soon.

 
Answer #3    Answered On: Feb 11    

Since it's on-board graphics, could it need a BIOS update? Maybe a newer video
card could help? You might need to disable the on-board graphics then.

 
Answer #4    Answered On: Feb 11    

I would like to know why it is stalling. I would press ESC when the
graphical bootloader shows and then it will switch to text booting. Then I
could see at what point it was stalling. Once I knew that then I would try
some boot parameters. If it was a graphics card issue then I would try
booting to vga or if it was something else I might turn off acpi, etc.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BootOptions#Changing_boot_options_Temporarily_\
for_an_Existing_Installation

These things are tedious to troubleshoot, but you can usually get them
working and once you are in then you can adjust things to make permanent
changes.

 
Answer #5    Answered On: Feb 11    

I will try pressing ESC. It will mean installing 11.10 again and upgrading
to 12.04 as the whole machine is completely unresponsive at the "Ubuntu"
with the 5 doors underneath when doing a clean 12.04 install. It doesn't
even get to the first option screen. Perhaps using the alternate installer
disk will work. I did try it once but wasn't looking for those error
messages.

 
Answer #6    Answered On: Feb 11    

The Gateway is a laptop so changing
video cards isn't an option. I looked for a BIOS update but there is none.

I'm just so puzzled by the change from one version that fully supported the
laptop (11.10) to total rejection in the next (12.04). Seems like a
backward step.

 
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