Before I attempt another install

[windtalker]

A few days ago I tried to install the newest Soho, (being a noob somewhat I'm assuming I downloaded and burned the proper version). I ended up with a black screen about 97% of the way through the install. I havn't given up however. I came back and read some more and downloaded and burned the live cd. I tried it out. I don't care for KDE but I do like what Soho has to offer. I understand I have the option to go with a Gnome desktop. My questions before installing are these....  I have a Dell Dimension 4600, w/ a pentium 4 processor, an Nvidia GForce 6200 video card, 250 gig hard drive, 1 1/2 gigs of ram and I use WildBlue which has 1 1/2 meg download and about 356kbps upload. (when weather permits that is. Am I compatible with VL Soho and what types of things should I be aware of before attempting an install? In the last month or so I've gone through roughly a dozen Linux OS's and have found only one I'm ok with. But,,,,,,, after being on windows for so many years it seems I can't get enough Linux into my system and I want the best out there. Oh yeah, shouldn't I be able to connect to the net with the live cd? I couldn't.

[Triarius Fidelis]

What do you mean by "black screen"? It is possible that the monitor simply entered power saving mode.

Also, have you done MD5 verification of the ISO?

[windtalker]

If the option is offered I always verify an iso before attempting an install. This one checked out ok in this case. What I mean by black screen is,,, the words came up on my screen checking hardware or verifying hardware, something to that effect. the entire screen was black except for the font. Then the font went by-by, for over half an hour. I rebooted manually and got the setup font, the splash screen and then the login screen. However the login wasn't accepted. This makes me think I downloaded an unstable version by simply not knowing.  I'm mainly concerned about the wildblue and my nvidia video card. Common sense kinda dictates to me that the wild blue shouldn't be a prob, however the nvidia might be.

[carsten]

Hy,
I made a few day ago some bad experience with a Nvidia 6200 Graphic adapter.
If your board has on-board graphics, it could be helpfull to try first an install without the Nvidia card. If this works, rigg up the card again, boot into tui (text user interface), log in as root, start vasm, make hardware detection.
If the problem is showing up again, you have a positive proof that the suspected is guilty.

Disclaimer: Nvidia products are great for Linux but according to my (limited) experience not this one specific graphic adapter (I use the Nvidia GeForce 5200 and I am satisfied within limitations. Its cheap inexpensive and that´s what you get). The 6200 seemed to work slightly better with the legacy-driver than the latest from Nvidia (100.14.11)

Carsten

[virtuallinux]

I don't know if this might be your problem or not, but when I installed vector I remember my screen going blank during the install process.  I just hit the space bar and everything came back up.

[hata_ph]

I don't know if this might be your problem or not, but when I installed vector I remember my screen going blank during the install process.  I just hit the space bar and everything came back up.

the monitor or LCD go to power save mode....

[newt]

If it's not a power saving mode issue then you may want to redo your install this time skipping (i.e. unselecting) the display setup - maybe it's called X-display setup.  I seem to recall some folks having issues during installation related to their graphics card.  One method of dealing with this issue is to skip the video (X-display) setup and do it manually after all is installed.  Once you have VL installed and booted you can edit your xorg.conf file and add the most generic support for video (vesa).  If it works, then you can try moving up to the next step of using a nvidia-specific driver.

HTH