Fedora Core 3 on Aopen EZ18

[dbc 0]

Hello, maybe this one is for Wilhelm??

 

I have tried a few times to install Fedora Core 3 from DVD; here is a summary:

 

1. The graphic installation method did not work at all well; this is not too surprising since FD3 does not contain the NVidia

graphics drivers.

 

2. So, I changed to "Text Mode" which was completely successful.

Just to be on the safe side I changed grub.conf to "linux 3"

so that the text mode prompt comes up when FD3 is booted.

3. I installed the NVidia graphics drivers and made the changes to xorg.conf and tried "startx" which works fine.

 

4. BUT the graphics interface seems unstable; it runs emacs and LaTeX etc very well and my own g77 codes which are quite compute-demanding. The acrobat reader ALWAYS crashes the system and other tools cause intermittant freezes and crashes.

 

5. Using text mode for running batch jobs works perfectly!

 

I installed Windows XP on another partition and it is the same story; some things work and some things don't. Interestingly the acrobat reader also crashes XP. Often closing a window (in XP or FC3) leaves a "trace" on the screen a few lines here and there before it is covered up by a new window.

 

My inevitable conclusion is that there is something wrong with either the (Nvidia) graphics drivers or with the hardware on the Ez18 both of which sound fairly unlikely.

 

I would welcome any suggestions;

 

Dave

[danleff 0]

What NVIDIA card (make and model) do you have? Generally, NVIDIA cards run very well in Linux, unless the card is newer than Fedora Core 3.

 

Also, how much ram is in the system?

 

This sounds very much like a bios problem.

[danleff 0]

I also found this compatibility report. So in "normal use" it should work fine.

[dbc 0]

Hello Danlef,

 

The EZ18 has the NVidia "card" as part of its integrated motherboard; I think that it is equivalent to nForce 2 GT

but I'll check my "manual" (if that's the right word for the supplied comic-book!)

[Philipp 6]

I have an AOpen EZ18 and had no problems so far. In fact, it is my only machine where Fedora Core 4 is installing without problems . I have 1GB Ram installed and set the onboard nForce 2 GPU to 64MB.

 

Perhaps faulty memory or a wrong setting in bios setup?

[danleff 0]

NVIDIA GeForce4 MX video chipet.

 

Since the problem is a memory intensive one in XP and Fedora, I would suspect a bios memory setting as well. Did you change any bios settings?

 

Philipp's points are well taken. I would also check that the memory is well seated.

 

Did you add any memory to the system, other than the base memory that came with the system? If so, is the memory that you added the same brand and exact rating?

 

If none of the above, I would try the default bios settings.

 

What do you think, Philipp?

[Philipp 6]

Another idea. Are you using 128MB shared video memory? Try to changing this to 32MB or 64MB. This is another setting in bios setup.

[dbc 0]

Hello Again,

 

I have 0.5 Gig memory which was installed by the EZ18 supplier because the original was faulty!!!!

 

I am running the EZ18 at lower than spec speed simply because I did not (and do not) adequately understand the "manual" instructions. What does "doulbe pumped" mean in this context?

Since I have a 3500 Athllon processor does this mean that the speed should be set at half the tabular value?

 

I would be surprised if it was the speed of the processor which was causing the problem but then I am often surprised by computing kit!!!!

 

Regards

 

Dbc

[Philipp 6]

Athlon 3500? Are you sure?

 

The AOpen EZ18 is a Socket A system. The highest CPU available for Socket A was the Athlon XP 3200+

[dbc 0]

No I,m not sure so it may be a "slower" CPU; however, it obviously "fits" since it does actually run. I will check (I am not at home now).

 

The speed problem baffled me from the very start. There is a very comprehensive list of Speed and Voltage settings for various CPUs in the "manual" but the BIOS uses a completely different nomenclature so I simply left things at the (low) default settings since I was in difficulties anyway without melting the CPU.

 

I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN THE VIDEO MEMORY SETTINGS SINCE (IN MY NON-GAMING(!) IGNORANCE) I KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THESE THINGS; I ONLY USE THE COMPILERS AND eMACS/LATEX!!!!

 

dbc

[danleff 0]

The users manual lists the highest rated processor for the board (UK79G-1394) as an Athlon XP 2800+. The bus setting is 333MHz @ 2.25 GHz.

 

Did you install your own processor, or did it come with the system? This could explain a few thngs.

 

In the bios, you picked "Load setup defaults" and saved the settings?

 

Reference

 

[dbc 0]

Hello Danleff,

Thanks for your continuing stamina and interest!

 

In fact, I could not read my own writing in the installation "notebook" I kept; the CPU is Athlon 2.6XP 333FSB OEM (or, atleast, thats what it says on the Invoice.

 

I did install it myself and, I admit, was slightly put off by the God-awful CLICK with which the cooler went home on top of it BUT it seems to work absolutely fine outside any graphics use at the "load setup defaults" speed. For example it runs a large set of compute-intensive numerical programs for over an hour of CPU time and gets the answers right to ten significant figures; thats good enough for me. As you will gather, unfortunately I am not a PC wizard but an old-style "hacker" more used to writing code than fathoming the deatils of BIOS settings. I thought it was going to be easy, at the moment I am getting more work out of an old 600Mhz (should that be 0.6 Ghz?) system which is rock-solid.

 

What is particularly tiresome is the fact that none of these difficulties are even mentioned in the "manual" and it won't run Windows XP stably either. For example, how do I set the Video memory?

 

Regards