Installing Mandrake on PC with dual VGA cards

Hi,

I have just installed Mandrake LE2005 on my pc (asrock P4I45GV motherboad, with intergrated VGA and Geforce4 on AGP slot), I have tried to make the Geforce as my primary vga but only the onboard vga is detected by Mandrake on setup. I have sent a mail to asrock requesting some info on how to physically disable the onboard vga as I don't need it.

In the mean time is there a work around in Mandrake to have a dual view.

Kind regards
Thulani

I use Mandriva 2005, but I'm not sure about your dual view question. However, with most motherboards, you are able to disable the onboard video by going into the BIOS, making the change there. Nearly every BIOS is a bit different in how it is set up, but you should quite easily find a setting there. Your Nvidia card should work just fine with Mandriva.

zenarcher

Hi,

Thanks for your quick response, some developments, when I browse through the detected hardware list I can see the Geforce card, how can I make it the primary card i.e. something to do with configuring the X config file. please bear with me am a new baby in linux.

regards

Hi,

I did a fresh install and now the geforce is working. The problem is when I set on bios the PCI as the card to use the mandrake crashes while loading and restarts over and over until I change to onboard vga, but that means I wont see a thing until the desktop login (I can't see grub where I do a dual boot), how can I solve this problem.

Kind regards

You may have the wrong setting. Is the Geforce card a vga card or pci? If vga, then you need to disable onboard video, not vga as the preferred video card.


P.S. nevermind, I looked at the manual. So, the geoforce is a PCI card? If you choose in the bios; advanced-->Primary Graphics Adapter--> PCI/int VGA it reboots continuously?

Thats correct, the screen will go blank as it like is trying to load to graphic mode and the reboots the pc.

I got this reply from asrock about disabling the onboard graphics.

I'll add that response from ASRock to my list of reasons why I always stay with MSI motherboards. I've had exceptionally good luck with them and always use them in customer systems, unless a customer insists otherwise.

zenarcher

Yes MSI has been good for me also. I also have 2 Soyo boards and an Asus motherboard...all rock solid performers.

I also like the Asus motherboards and have had good luck with them. Here's another one you might want to add to your "No Way" list.....Syntax motherboards.

I ordered a new Syntax motherboard and found it to be faulty, right out of the box. I contacted Syntax, went through the troubleshooting and was given an RMA number to return the board. Before sending, I read the details of the RMA sheet and found this:

"Syntax Groups Corporation has discontinued all Motherboards and USB Wireless Adapters. Syntax does not provide replacements for motherboards. Syntax RMA Department will need a copy of the original purchase in order to reimburse credit to the customer."

I returned the motherboard, per their instructions, on 24 May 2005, from Oklahoma, all the way to the distant land of California. After three inquiries, I finally received the refund check last week.

zenarcher