Fedora 17 hangs on boot/Screen shifted

[ThatsHim]

Hi everyone,

I've been trying to install Fedora 17 on my desktop, but can't seem to get past this problem(s?).
Everything goes fine with the live usb and during the installation, but when booting the installed fedora the entire screen gets shifted seemingly at random (sometimes it just moves horizontally with the rightmost part of the image filling in on the left or the other way around, other times it just gets completely grey on the splash screen, I assume because the logo is too high/low...).
It also usually freezes on the splash screen or shortly after, but a couple of times it actually worked, albeit with the weird shifted screen, so i don't know if the two things are even related...
I'm tying to install it on a partition of roughly 30Gbs; I created the partitions manually at first but have tried letting Anaconda handle it with no luck.
I've tried both the 64 and 32 bit version, and one of the times it didn't freeze I tried switching to a text terminal, but the screen remained shifted. Also had no luck trying to mess with the monitor configuration, but I didn't really know what to look for there.
I'm using an AMD Radeon HD 6850 if it can be of any help.

So... I don't really know what to try now, any help would be appreciated

[robbin502]

I have the same video card as u.
and the situation just like u.
when I boot from a live USB media, and install fc17 into my hard disk, everything goes normal.
But when the first boot from hard disk, the nightmare begins.
I totally get a completely gray screen when system stops, I guess it should be FirstBoot screen, but I can do nothing with a completely gray screen.
And I've tried some method to get into text model, including press Ctrl+Alt+F2, and add 3 at grub menu, remove rhgb and quiet, but it doesn't works, the system give me a totally black screen instead.
I've tried reinstall several times, only once I can see a background picture, can switch text model by press Ctrl + Alt + F2, but the screen appears abnormally, like a full screen been divided into 2 piece vertically, maybe 70%:30%, and the 30% partition, which should be right, displayed in left, very strange.
I'm very appreciate any suggestions, thanks.

[ThatsHim]

Hi! I kinda forgot about this thread...
Anyway, try adding nomodeset to the boot options; that should let you boot properly, albeit with toned down graphics.
If that works, try following this guide to get the proper drivers with a compatible kernel version.
From what I could gather my problem was there, I solved it this way.

Oh, wait, I just read that actually since my last post AMD released the stable version of those drivers, those should work with kernel 3.4 I think.

[DBelton]

Actually, the AMD drivers probably aren't the issue here.

There was an issue where grub2 tries to set a video mode, and on some systems it sets video modes that are not VESA standards. Some video cards may support the mode it tries to set, some don't. If the mode it tries to set is higher than 1280x1024, then it's up to the video card manufacturer to support it. It's not in the standards.

To see if this issue is what is causing your problem, edit your /boot/grub2/grub.cfg file and scroll down until you get right at the end of the 00_header section. The last little bit of that section will have something in it that looks like this:

if loadfont $font ; then
  set gfxmode=auto
  load_video
  insmod gfxterm
  set locale_dir=$prefix/locale
  set lang=en_US
  insmod gettext
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
set timeout=5
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

the set gfxmode= line is what you want to look at.

If it has (like mine above) set gfxmode=auto, then try changing it to a known supported VESA resolution for your video card and monitor. This will force it to use a supported resolution rather than one the video card or monitor doesn't support.

You could change it to something like

if loadfont $font ; then
  set gfxmode=1024x768
  load_video
  insmod gfxterm
  set locale_dir=$prefix/locale
  set lang=en_US
  insmod gettext
fi
terminal_output gfxterm
set timeout=5
### END /etc/grub.d/00_header ###

Edit:
I wouldn't recommend using the nomodeset parameter unless all other options have been tried first. The nomodeset will severely limit your video for everything.

[robbin502]

thanks for replying.

my monitor is LG E2242, in windows 7 its default resolution is 1920 x 1080
and I'm doing this in my grub.cfg
"set gfxmode=1920x1080"
then reboot, but it seems this line doesn't work.

EDIT:
nomodeset parameter in boot option works.
and I'm using this guide to update AMD driver

1 more question:
step 2 akmod
action : yum install akmod-catalyst xorg-x11-drv-catalyst xorg-x11-drv-catalyst-libs.i686
if I use 64bit F17, this driver works ?

[droidhacker]

Interesting that that card doesn't work right. Must be some kind of regression.

I suggest trying to fully update the system. I.e., install, then "yum update".

If it still doesn't work, "yum install fedora-release-rawhide; yum --enablerepo=rawhide update kernel" and see if THAT gets it going.

I absolutely suggest avoiding crapalyst like its the plague.

[robbin502]

for ATM propriatary driver, I follow #3's guide, although the driver installed, but seems it occurs a kerner can't compile issue, and the GNOME 3 desktop env. appears a terrible lags.
this guide at last works for me.
I change a little and find it finally works.
in 2. Install driver
yum install akmod-catalyst xorg-x11-drv-catalyst xorg-x11-drv-catalyst-libs.i686
change to:
yum install akmod-catalyst xorg-x11-drv-catalyst xorg-x11-drv-catalyst-libs.x86_64

because I'm using 64bit fc17.

Thanks for u guys. Have a good weekend...