MEPIS Community Forum

In order to make Install DVD for M11 GRUB more Novice Friendly (graphically boots in cases)

...NVIDIA seems to be covered pretty well....but ATI/Radeon is not.

...so we need some testing on various ATI/Radeon hardware configurations. Two alternatives are being explored:

Alternative 1
Change the VESA GRUB menu option to include ATI/Radeon and Nouveau (for nVidia) by adding


Alternative 2
Add another GRUB menu option for RADEON (similar to the NVIDIA option) that includes:

If we can test both of these on the current M11 B2 DVD, and see which one covers the widest range of ATI/Radeon hardware, we can forward the best alternative along to WW.

Best way to test these is to boot the M11B2 Install DVD GRUB and then edit menu by hitting <tab> at the following menu entries.

For Alternative 1:
VESA menu entry -- Insert "radeon.modeset=0 nouveau.modeset=0" before the word "confx"

For Alternative 2:
NVIDA menu entry -- Change the item "drvr=nvidia" to "drvr=radeon"

EDIT: Overall goal: ...we're looking for GRUB menu options that will get a new user to the proper resolution for ATI/Radeon on Boot, not necessarily to a HDD install with compositing enabled.

For this exercise, assume the compositing issue can be handled post install -- proprietary ATI driver install, or scripts like sgfxi.

And report on this thread...(Obviously, testers need to have ATI/Radeon GPUs.)

I don't have --but I agree this is a good and necessary line of testing. For many of us, ATI and Linux have not been a joyful mix.
Thanx, pcallahan!

I tested both and both worked on my ATI Technologies Inc Radeon 2100. For my untrained eye, option 1 did better (at least the sliding popups seemed a bit faster). However, I'm still unable to figure out how to get compositing working though it worked well on Alpha 2 (or 3?).

How to get OpenGL to function correctly on anything other than nvidia:


Tested on beta1 using the radeon driver and everything is working. Don't get me wrong though, this needs to be resolved by final.

@pcallahan

I will test your suggestion on my laptop with beta 2 shortly and will let you know.

Dell 6400 Inspiron with a X1400 booted with the above entry in GRUB under VESA
Still no OpenGL in Desktop Effects. Will be upgrading the computer to B2 as it only has A4 on it right now.



Same unit,
booted, seemed slower, but not sure. No OpenGL either

Both booted, just fine.

But then again, the Default line in GRUB (1st one) also boots just fine and gives the same results with no OpenGL.

Big thanks!! It worked!! Desktop effects work perfectly now.

I gave this a go and still have no desktop effects. Did a reboot and still the same. Maybe just not possible with an X1400 GPU.

Only works once mepis is actually installed.

Oops... I might have misread... disregard.

I have A4 installed, updated to present on a Dell laptop. This is the machine I'm testing this on. Is the X1400 just too old?

The boot options didn't seem to make any notable difference on my system. I tried both alternatives as well as a default boot. There's always beta 3