Unable to configure display on Toshiba Tecra M1 with Trident

[mss]

Please point me in the right direction to get the display on my Toshiba Tecra M1 with Trident CyberBlade XP4m32 (rev91) controller, to display properly.

It works with an external display (making it a desktop!)

I've spent weeks in many forums, reading and applying various fixes using openSUSE, Ubuntu, and Puppy (all newest releases, all with no success).

I see only vertical stripes of colors of different widths.

I really want to learn & use Linux on this computer. I hope you can help me.

Best regards for 2011.

Mark

[looseSCREWorTWO]

if your PC has less than 512mb of RAM you will need a Swap Partition (or Swap File) so that
RAM + Swap = 512mb
Reboot and Puppy will use the Swap as extra "virtual RAM"

my Toshiba 1800-s203 laptop (circa 1999) also has a Trident CyberBlade video card and it runs good on Puppy 431 Retro (the version with kernel 2.6.21.7). Download here:

http://ftp.nluug.nl/ftp/pub/os/Linux/di ... modems.iso
md5sum: be0a741dc9d29795250441546b473e84 pup-431-k2.6.21.7-scsi-intel_modems.iso

There is another version of 431 Retro:
http://ftp.nluug.nl/ftp/pub/os/Linux/di ... modems.iso
md5sum: 64e1e1d973cd1a1b827813c9a5b59fab pup-431-k2.6.25.16-intel_modems.iso

Hope this helps.

[mss]

Thank you Steve. You're using too big of words...

How do I know how much RAM I have?

How do I make a "swap" file if I need one?

Why do I need a distro other than the latest one?

I really appreciate your suggestions, I hope you don't find yourself in a bigger mess than you bargained for!

Mark

[looseSCREWorTWO]

If there was no mess, life would be very boring.

According to the Cnet archive, your PC had 256mb of RAM when it left the factory, so we'll assume you have 256mb of RAM. To run any version of Puppy successfully, you need to create a 256 mb Swap Partition (or Swap File).

First though, what is on the PC Hard Drive at the moment? Windows XP ? Windows 98 ? Ubuntu ?

[mss]

This is a hybrid computer made of parts of 2 identical laptops: one with a broken screen and one with a worn out hard drive. I put the good HD from the broken screen computer in the good screen computer. I wonder if I could take the RAM out and put it in here too?

The HD has been formatted several times. It has Ubuntu on it but I'm booting from the Puppy CD since I have higher hopes for Puppy on this computer.

[rcrsn51]

If the laptop works with an external monitor but not its own screen, it sounds like a hardware failure. When was the last time that the screen worked?

[mss]

The computer's screen works well until after a Linux distro loads (after the password). There's no problem with text nor was there a problem with Windows 3 weeks ago (until I formatted over it). I believe it has to be a driver issue and/or some aspect of xorg I don't understand.

[looseSCREWorTWO]

Before doing anything else I would completely erase Ubuntu. When I first started with Linux I tried Ubuntu on a couple of my "found in dumpster" PCs and when I tried to switch over to Puppy, the Ubuntu install seemed to Bork a few things, including the video. It was like Ubuntu had installed a Rootkit that persisted even after I thought I had erased Ubuntu from the HDD. Both of the above computers have now been running flawlessly on Puppy for over 12 months but getting rid of Ubuntu was harder than cleaning out a nest of Christmas Island Crazy Ants.

rjbrewer recommends Dariks Boot and Nuke to clean out Ubuntu:
http://www.dban.org/

I would use DBAN, then create a 256mb Swap Partition and see how Puppy runs after that. Puppy 431 Retro (links previously posted) might run better than the later Puppies.