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System rescue cd xwindows won't start on Dell laptop with ATI chipset
04/01/08
Thanks to a post by Don M. on the System rescue CD messages board I managed to get X windows to start on a Dell laptop with an ATI mobile chipset. I wanted to use the system rescue CD v0.4.2 to shrink the Windows partition so we could install Linux on the machine. The trick is to enter rescuecd doxdetect forcevesa at the boot prompt. That's not the end of the story though, neither Centos 5 or Fedora Core 8 would install. They could see but not use the nice 10GB free space we created at the end of the drive and gave a message about not being able to find enough free space to create the necessary partitions. Ubuntu 7.10 didn't have any problems though and now resides happily on the laptop. The wireless even worked right out of the box too.
5 comments
When I were a wee one, we’d run fdisk directly from the console commandline without even thinking to start X first to run it in an xterm. Of course, tell kids today and they won’t believe a word of it.
Yes, yes but gparted makes sure I don’t lobotomize the Windows partition if I type the wrong number.
I have just had my second Dell. Thinking by spending ?1500 this time I’d
would get someting really good. It’s OK but that is about all. The keyboard
didn’t light up when it came as per spec, so they sent a replacement part
which my IT guy fitted.
There are other issues but all Dell say arrgogantly is ‘they don’t supply faulty goods’
Now they ignore my emails.
I’ve had good experience with the Dell I bought 3 years ago. We also use them where we work and have gotten prompt and efficient service from Dell when we have had the rare problem.
Can anybody help me with my problem? I bought a Dell
laptop last May 08. Since I got it, it regularly shuts
down and goes to the blue screen of death. I contacted
Dell almost immediately and was told that they would be
able to fix it “100%”. Since I had confidence in their
abilities at the time, I patiently went along with their
updates, restores, replacements, etc. Finally, 10 months
later, I said enough and asked for another computer.
They informed me that I could only get a “refurbished”
computer. No one is interested in helping and there is
definitely no customer relations to go to. Any suggestions?
I was basically told to take the refurbished
computer or they would close my case.
