I have a Gateway 3103u that I have been trying to run Kubuntu/Fedora on with KDE and I am having a weird video issue. I am trying to install both using a live USB. With Kubuntu, the USB boots fine and the OS loads. I try to run the installer and the video goes nuts. Its like the screen becomes scrambled. It makes it extremely difficult to install. I did manage to install it once but the issue continue to happen after it was installed.

I tried the same with Fedora. I was able to install without an issue, but when I tried to play solitare and play full screen, the screen becomes scrambled again, though after a moment, it clears a little. I did change the settings to low resolution and low cpu, but it continued to have issues.

I also tried with Kubuntu netbook and had the same issues. I'm not really sure what is going on. I've tried searching for this issue with no luck. I was going to try Kubuntu netbook 9.10 tonight to see if that makes a difference, but wanted some feedback on troubleshooting as I've only been working with Linux for a short time.

welcome

I think you've got a graphics driver problem, not a kde problem

this thread might help http://www.uluga.ubuntuforums.org/showt ... ?t=1471701 especially post #16 http://www.uluga.ubuntuforums.org/showp ... stcount=16

fyi your gpu is a Radeon Mobile x1270 - correct? It helps when asking q's to include the graphics card and graphics driver being used as well as the version of Linux

I will check on those. I was using 10.04 for Fedora and Ubuntu. I will try 9.10 just to see if there is a difference. I will also check the links you provided when I get a chance and let you know if it worked. Thank you for the info.

It has a ATI Mobility Radeon x1200 card. I haven't been able to change the grub file as my account doesn't have permission and I haven't had much luck trying to sign in as root. I did try installing the drivers over the weekend for the card such as fglx, but I still had an issue. I did try editing the grub file in Fedora, but could not find it as the path that was said on the article. I have been trying to use Ubuntu Netbook Remix 10.04 lately as I don't have the issue as often. If I sign in using the 2D desktop, there are no issues. This is starting to get frustrating trying to get this to work as I really want to switch to Linux.

In the *ubuntu's the root account is locked by default https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo

You use kdesu to run a gui command as root and sudo to run a command line. The password to provide is your's (weird, I know)

examples:
kdesu kate
kdesu -c 'kate file'
sudo vi
sudo -c 'vi file'

I found that very post not too long ago. I will try that tonight and see if the grub file will fix the issue.

Modifying the grub file did fix the video issue. Do you happen to know what the "nomodeset" attribute does exactly? After I did that, I've noticed the login screen is bigger and the icons aren't as nice anymore such as having white backgrounds or being a little pixelated, but, at least the video is glitching out anymore.

way above my pay grade

I think, and could very well be wrong, that using nomodest is dependent on whether or not you are using proprietary drivers (you were using the opensource drivers and nomodeset disables them. I think). I think that nomodeset has forced you into a very generic set of video drivers (maybe vesa, which might explain what you're seeing). Have you installed the fglx (ati/radeon) drivers? If not you should, then reboot.

this may explain/help http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Nomodeset
as well as the "background" paragraph here https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Rootless

Remember when in doubt Google or in this case search in the *buntu or ati forums

Lastly you could rename or open a new thread being more specific and including words ati, nomodest

I do appreciate all your help is this issue. Thank you.