installing without lizard

[Don19]

Alright i have caldera openlinux 2.2 with an old ver. of xf86 that doesn't support my vid card(tnt2 ultra). it detects that its an nvidia chipset but if i try to probe the screen goes all crazy and it hangs. Then if i just keep going and not prob it does the same thing after the install when it tries to load kde. I've tried low res's that didn't werk either. So what i want to do is install with out loading kde at the end or installing kde. Any suggestions.

Don

[Don19]

no one knows at all?? Will any of this help at all?? I can't seem to figure out when to hit the space bar to get these options. Thanks.

Don

*Appendix A - The "Install er=..." parameter and Lizard install HOWTO*

At the Boot: message there is a 5 second window where you can press anykey to stop the autoboot process (the TAB key will display the boot options) to get a boot prompt where special parameters may be entered. There are two important categories of options, boot and install.
Some of the boot options include:

boot root=: you can tell the Linux kernel to mount as root a different partition than the one appearing in lilo.conf. For example, a system might have a tiny partition hosting a minimal Linux installation where you could boot the system after destroying root partition by mistake. (boot root=/dev/hda3)
init=: can execute another command instead of /sbin/init, as specified on the command line. If you experience bad problems during the boot process, you can access the bare system by specifying init=/bin/sh (when you are at the shell prompt you most likely will need to mount your disks: try ``mount -w -n -o remount /; mount -a'', and remember to ``umount -a'' before turning off the computer).
A number: by specifying a number on the kernel command line, you instruct init to enter a specific run-level (the default is usually 5, 3, or 2). Refer to the init documentation, to /etc/inittab and to /etc/rc*.d to probe further.

A more complete listing of the boot options can be found in the HOWTO doc BootPrompt.


With OpenLinux 2.2 we have added a number of special parameter "install er=..." options. Using these options will change the behavior of the new install and turn on/off certain features.
The following special parameters are supported with the new Lizard install:

install er=modules

This will force the system to ask for a modules floppy and to continue to try until the correct floppy is successfully mounted.

The normal behavior (if this parameter is NOT specified) is the following depending on the case:

You booted from a small initrd on the install floppy, it will display a line saying Mounting modules floppy ....... WAIT, and gives you 5 seconds to try and insert the modules floppy. If that fails or you are too slow, it will just continue.
You booted from the CD, the big initrd, or performed a Windows DOS loadlin install, no Mounting modules line will display because all of the modules are included in the initrd.


install er=cautious

This will do a cautious autoprobing. If you do NOT specify this parameter, we do a more aggressive autoprobing which in some circumstances may cause your systems to hang. What actually gets autoprobed depends on the available modules. So if you use just the install floppy, you should insert the Modules floppy to make all the modules available and to get a broader probing.


install er=noether

This will exclude all ethernet card probing. If you do NOT specify this parameter, all available ethernet card modules will be probed. This may take too long for you or even hang your machine in some cases. (Watch the output on tty5 (alt F5) to see what currently gets probed (use alt F1 to return).)


install er=911
install er=expert

The er=911 will set several breakpoints. This is very useful for debugging. So whenever the machine seems to do nothing, it probably ran into a breakpoint. Switch to tty5 (alt F5) and see where we are in the process (use alt F1 to return). The virtual console on tty5 will have a line that says: "er=911 breakpoint:" and then the breakpoint spot. Login on tty2 (alt F2) and fix whatever is necessary then switch back to tty5 and press <return> to continue.


Currently the following breakpoints are normally encountered:


Breakpoint "before Probe_Hardware"
Breakpoint "before Do_Mount_Source"
Breakpoint "before Prepare_lizard"
Breakpoint "before Run_lizard"
Breakpoint "before Run_finish"
Breakpoint "before quitting initrd"


The er=expert enables two more breakpoints:


Breakpoint "before autoprobe"
Breakpoint "after autoprobe"

[bdg1983]

Don't probe your video card during the install if it's hanging your system. You should be able to select a generic video card when installing and then upgrade xwindows to the version that supports your card.

You can also try the Lizard text (or other) install instead or create the lisa install and modules diskettes from the CD to install from.

Search the Caldera knowledgebase here http://support.calderasystems.com/caldera for 'lizard', 'nvidia' or others.

[bdg1983]

Why not install eDesktop 2.4? I've been using it since it's release and never have problems installing on desktops and laptops. Should also have support for your video card.