Live CD - Normal vs Safe Mode [Solved]

[M4dn3ss]

So I dug out an ancient PC that was (slowly) running Windows XP and planned to revitalise it by wiping out XP and installing Linux. Having tried (a very long time ago) live CDs for various Linux OSes, I quite liked Sabayon and decided to use that on my old PC.
After downloading and burning the ISO (Sabayon_Linux_10_x86_K.iso), I booted the Live CD.

If I try to start the Sabayon Live CD normally, I end up with a console with a blue Sabayon background instead of the GUI, and typing "startx" results in an error saying "Fatal Error: No screens found" and "xauth: file /home/sabayonuser/.serverauth.14031 does not exist" and the GUI simply doesn't start.

However, if I choose the safe mode option from the CD's boot menu, it works (although desktop effects are rather sluggish)

The question is, what does Normal Mode do that Safe Mode doesn't? (i.e, why doens't normal mode work?)
If I install it to the hard disk, will I still run into problems?

The PC is a Pentium 4B 2.4GHz, Geforce FX5200, 1GB RAM, Viewsonic 1928WM 19" 1440x900 monitor, 2 optical drives + floppy drive, and a basic Microsoft keyboard/mouse set.
(I know the 5200 is an extremely weak GPU but shouldn't it be able to handle basic desktop effects smoothly? Or is it just because of safe mode using generic drivers or something?)



Furthermore, I attempted to boot the Live CD on my main PC, which runs a Core 2 Q8400, GTX 260 and 4GB RAM, but all I get is a black screen, even in safe mode, with xdriver=nvidia.
What gives?

[wolfden]

Safe mode doesn't load all the drivers, you will need to use normal mode with cheat codes as your video card is no longer supported by nvidia-drivers http://wiki.sabayonlinux.org/index.php? ... c_Hardware

so you probably need xdriver=nv or vesa

[M4dn3ss]

Hey, xdriver=nv worked, thanks!

When I install it to the hard disk, would the video performance improve once I install the proper Nvidia drivers? (173.14.36)


And any idea why it doesn't boot at all on my main PC?

[wolfden]

you can install that driver, just make sure it matches up with your kernel for 3.6 http://packages.sabayon.org/show/nvidia ... 5,standard

Your other computer, you need to check the log files and see

[M4dn3ss]

Where would I find the log files considering it's a read-only CD?

[wolfden]

for log files: viewtopic.php?f=86&t=15530

generally the /var/log folder is a good start

[M4dn3ss]

for log files: viewtopic.php?f=86&t=15530

generally the /var/log folder is a good start

K, I'm going to mark this solved for now, I don't think I'll be using linux on my main PC at the moment
Thanks.