MEPIS Community Forum

I upgraded my system and part of it involved moving from a Geforce 7300gt to a Radeon HD 4250 integrated. Now I can't boot into Mepis 11 or Mepis 8.5.
Can anyone tell me how I can fix what I figure is a video driver problem?

Thanks in advance,

Jeff

First provide a bit more details... do you get to any kind of splash screen or just a curser or failed boot message?. I assume you get to a splash and boot fails beyond that due to no drivers for your Radeon card installed as you previously had Nvidea card. Let us know. Jerry

Also see here> http://www.mepiscommunity.org/user_manu ... ection03-3
and here> http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php?title=Cheatcodes

At the GRUB boot selection screen hit the Tab key and type <xdrvr=radeon confx> and hit the Enter key. That will give you the KDE Desktop. (radeon is the debian open source ATI/AMD video driver)
Follow the directions here: http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php? ... gfxi#sgfxi
Please note that you may have to run sgfxi more than once. There have been very isolated reports of needing to run it more than two times.

(sgfxi will install the proprietary AMD/ATI video driver)

I'm using grub 2 and multi booting Mepis 11 & Mepis 8.5 among along with 2 other OS's. When I tried the TAB at boot screen it didn't do anything. Do I need to use a command line or?????

Thanks,

Jeff

I don't have any machines using GRUB2. So, I don't know if there is a way to enter a cheat code using it or not.

But, have you considered just installing [legacy] GRUB again? Then, let Mepis handle the boot menu choices for you.

You can boot into the Mepis 11 DVD you installed it with, then go to KMenu>Settings>Mepis System Assistant, and you can install GRUB in the MBR from the "Repair System Boot" Tab.

Basically, from that Repair Tab, just select sda as the system boot disk and installation disk if that's where you have Mepis installed (sda is the first disk in your system), then select the partition Mepis 11 is on from the drop down menu choices and let it install GRUB in the MBR and update /boot/grub/menu.lst in the partition you selected with Mepis 11 installed, adding entries for any operating systems it finds on the drive so that you'll have boot menu choices for them.

Whenever I've installed a different distro on a drive after Mepis was already installed, I always just reinstall GRUB and let Mepis handle the boot choices for me. That way, I've got a text file I can edit to make changes to boot options, versus "jumping through hoops" trying to make changes with GRUB 2.

See below for that screen, where I'm selecting sda6 as the partition I've got Mepis 11 installed in (change it to where you have it installed). Then, when you click on Apply, it will install GRUB in the MBR, and update an editable text file named /boot/grub/menu.lst with any operating systems it finds on the drive. That way, if you have any issues and need to "tweak" any of the boot options for Operating Systems you have choices for, you can easily edit it using KWrite or similar.

Perhaps could tell us. But at the GRUB 2 boot screen there should be a way to insert the necessary cheatcode. Perhaps just start typing would work?

I'd vote for using the Repair Tab in the Mepis 11 System Assistant also. At least if you can't find the info needed to use GRUB 2.

P.S.

If you decide to reinstall GRUB in the MBR and let Mepis handle your boot options, you may want to backup your MBR real quick, just in case you run into something odd where GRUB doesn't figure out the correct boot choices for all of the operating systems you have installed (but, it usually works fairly well, recognizing most popular operating systems and distros and adding boot choices for them).

Just mount a partition you want to save a copy of it to by clicking on it using Dolphin from a Mepis 11 DVD.

Then, do this from Konsole (Terminal), substituting the correct path to the partition you mounted for /mnt/sdb, and it will write a copy of the first 512 bytes from /dev/sda (which is where the MBR and Partition Table are located) to a file named mbr_backup on the mounted partition you specified (/mnt/sdb in this example). You should see the mount point (/mnt/sda, /mnt/sdb, etc.) in the Dolphin Location bar after you click on a partition to mount it (the partition you save the file to will need to be mounted). Just enter root as the password when prompted if running from a Live DVD.

su
dd if=/dev/sda of=/mnt/sdb/mbr_backup bs=512 count=1

Then, if you have boot problems you can't figure out and want to restore it, boot back into your Mepis 11 DVD, click on the partition you saved it on using Dolphin (which will automatically mount it for you), and do this, which will copy the backup you made back to the MBR for you, so you'll be right back where you are now (with the original GRUB 2 installed again). For example, this would restore the backup file named backup_mbr saved on /mnt/sdb in the above example to the MBR on your first drive:

su
dd if=/mnt/sdb/mbr_backup of=/dev/sda

BTW, you do realize that the Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT outperforms the integrated HD 4250 graphics, right? Neither one are super performers, but the Nvidia Card you already have is faster.

So, if you just did something like upgrade the motherboard, you may just want to plug in your 7300 GT and use it instead, unless you need a feature the 7300 GT doesn't support. I'm assuming it's a PCIe version (as it looks like some manufacturers also offered that chipset in an AGP card).

If you look at the Passmark test series, the Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT scored a 229:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video ... ce+7300+GT

The Radeon HD 4250 scores a lower 164:

http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/video ... on+HD+4250

I think you'd probably find the same thing looking at reviews of both chipsets using popular benchmarks. The HD 4250 is OK for integrated graphics. But, most modern entry level video cards are a lot faster (and even your 7300 GT is faster, even though it's not a newer card model).

The GeForce 7300 GT is also supported by the latest Nvidia Drivers for both Windows and Linux. Click on the "Supported Products" Tab for any of the current Nvidia driver pages and you'll find it under GeForce 7 Series:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/linux-disp ... river.html

You can install the latest drivers in Mepis 11 using the sgfxi script:

http://www.mepis.org/docs/en/index.php? ... 28sgfxi.29

For Windows, just use the drop down menus to select your card (GeForce 7 Series), and Operating System, and you get the latest drivers from here:

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

So, unless you need a feature that isn't support by that card with the latest Nvidia drivers installed, I'd probably use it instead of the integrated HD 4250 graphics if it's the PCIe version.

If not (it's an AGP versus PCIe card), ignore all of the above. ;-)

Thanks for the responses.
I'll have to give a shot at changing the driver when I have some time to play with it.
I do know that my other card is better but I upgraded mobo, cpu and ram and can't get a card yet. So integrated video is what I have for the moment.
It is definitely much slower though.

Thanks all, and I will see if I can get to the suggested fixes in the next couple days.

Jeff

If you use the command line, first login as root... at the root prompt paste this> cd /usr/local/bin && wget -Nc smxi.org/smxi.zip && unzip smxi.zip and press enter. smxi & sgfxi will then install. Once installed follow the directions to shut down the desktop even though it is not running and follow the remaining directions. You will be asked to make some initial preferences and then continue with the script. I recommend NOT allowing smxi to run upgrades unless you become very familiar with it... just skip on till you get to option 7 which is graphics installer sgfxi and install your drivers... reboot... enjoy!. Also, Grub2 is your friend in M-11 and will make future upgrades easier especially if you end up running non stable repos... Grub2 is no harder than legacy you just make changes in a different way. See here>http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub-2.html or here if you choose legacy>http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/grub.html ... Jerry