0

Can anyone suggest or recomend a suitable Graphics drive? I can only find these for Windows OS. lspci gives VGA info:

 VIA Technologies KM400/KN400/P4M800 S3 Unichrome (rev 01)

When running "Try Ubuntu without installing" from a UnetBootin USB stick or booting from a clean Ubuntu Hard Disk install the screen "The system is running in low graphics mode" is displayed, from which there is no recovery. Pressing Enter (OK) displays a further 4 options but none can be selected with either mouse or keyboard. During an install (twice now) all graphics display perfectly.

mikewhatever
  • 32,638
Neil Duncan
  • 1
  • ...and which GPU does it have? If you don't know, open a terminal window, type lspci, hit Enter, and add the output to the question. – mikewhatever Aug 13 '14 at 14:45
  • lspci gives VGA info as being VIA Technoligies KM400/KN400/P4M800 S3 Unichrome (rev 01). Does this help? – Neil Duncan Aug 13 '14 at 15:03
  • That is one of the worst supported pieces of hardware, not sure there is a driver for it. What makes you think you need one? – mikewhatever Aug 13 '14 at 16:58
  • When running "Try Ubuntu without installing" from a UnetBootin USB stick or booting from a clean Ubuntu Hard Disk install the screen "The system is running in low graphics mode" is displayed, from which there is no recovery. Pressing Enter (OK) displays a further 4 options but none can be selected with either mouse or keyboard. During an install (twice now) all graphics display perfectly. I have tried holding down "Shift" during re-boot to invoke GRUB but failsafe option does not correct the the issue. The AOpen MK77m-8XN is a dinosaur that ran XP obliterated now by a clean Ubuntu install. – Neil Duncan Aug 13 '14 at 21:52
  • Maybe some of the non-vendor-specific answers to How to fix “The system is running in low-graphics mode” error? will solve (or help with) this. – Eliah Kagan Aug 14 '14 at 09:32

1 Answers1

0

IMHO, Ubuntu is not a good candidate for old hardware, try Xubuntu instead. It's less pretty, but should run snappier, and it also doesn't need recent OpenGL enabled graphics with a decent driver support.

VIA's graphics are known to have bad reputation in the Linux world. There are a least two drivers, both incomplete, and porly maintained. If the AGP slot on the board works, it's worth getting an Nvidia card, even something like FX5200.

Searching for a driver for computer X, downloading an installation file, doubleclicking, and going through a wizard is something you'd do with Windows. Linux doesn't have that, in fact, graphics drivers in linux are a mess with various components, not always compatible with each other, worked on by different devs, not easily installable or upgradable, etc.

mikewhatever
  • 32,638
  • The AOpen MK77M-8XN Dinosaur is born again in Ubuntu 14.04. Thanks to the suggestions made by "mikewhatever" I purchased a FX5200 256 MB Graphics Card for .99p on eBay and installed it and all is sweetness and light with Ubuntu 14.04 LTS. No further graphics issues. Goodbye Windows - hello Linux. Many, many thanks. – Neil Duncan Aug 16 '14 at 13:21