One of the mods requested some data, here ya go..think it is a video issue... I think I am narrowing it down to choking on my ATI ES1000 controller..which might be causing some issues. When I did a full desktop, everything worked okay though, but command line only or with x windows system video is a complete no go. although I can pull up text things like system-config-network, x will choke on config/hal: couldn't initialize context: (null) and pop right out. Display cannot open. Its make sense because now and then my ipmi card just gets a blurry video image and I have to reset the card. Also, it just shuts off (loses connection/video) sometimes and I must login again. Thought it was the card...but... it only happens when I am installing linux or it is installed. If playing in bios it has never happened. Tried the nomodeset thing, no change. SELinux: Starting in permissive mode dmesg of insterest, command line, install with package 'virtual host' --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ACPI Warning for \_SB_._OSC: Return type mismatch - found Integer, expected Buffer (20090903/nspredef-1006) \_SB_:_OSC evaluation returned wrong type _OSC request data:1 7 ACPI Warning: Incorrect checksum in table [OEMB] - 96, should be 8B (20090903/tbutils-314) Firmware did not grant requested _OSC control (this was between pci hotplug stuff) Firmware did not grant requested _OSC control Firmware did not grant requested _OSC control Firmware did not grant requested _OSC control composite sync not supported (with gnome installed there was a ton of these) composite sync not supported fbcon: radeondrmfb (fb0) is primary device [drm:radeon_i2c_sw_put_byte] *ERROR* i2c 0x08 0x30 write failed [drm:radeon_i2c_sw_put_byte] *ERROR* i2c 0x09 0x00 write failed [drm:radeon_i2c_sw_put_byte] *ERROR* i2c 0x0a 0x90 write failed [drm:radeon_i2c_sw_put_byte] *ERROR* i2c 0x0c 0x89 write failed [drm:radeon_i2c_sw_put_byte] *ERROR* i2c 0x08 0x3b write failed Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 128x48 fb0: radeondrmfb frame buffer device drm: registered panic notifier [drm] Initialized radeon 2.1.0 20080528 for 0000:01:01.0 on minor 0 composite sync not supported ( a couple more of these just appeared a few lines lower than the previous line) composite sync not supported --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------- below is a whole section that seems to have dealt with the video card, and all seems okay for this (earlier in the boot up than errors above) ----------------------------------- [drm] Initialized drm 1.1.0 20060810 [drm] radeon defaulting to kernel modesetting. [drm] radeon kernel modesetting enabled. radeon 0000:01:01.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 18 (level, low) -> IRQ 18 [drm] initializing kernel modesetting (RV100 0x1002:0x515E). [drm] register mmio base: 0xFBAD0000 [drm] register mmio size: 65536 radeon 0000:01:01.0: VRAM: 64M 0xD8000000 - 0xDBFFFFFF (32M used) radeon 0000:01:01.0: GTT: 512M 0xB8000000 - 0xD7FFFFFF [drm] radeon: irq initialized. [drm] Detected VRAM RAM=64M, BAR=128M [drm] RAM width 16bits DDR [TTM] Zone kernel: Available graphics memory: 12299360 kiB. [TTM] Zone dma32: Available graphics memory: 2097152 kiB. [drm] radeon: 32M of VRAM memory ready [drm] radeon: 512M of GTT memory ready. [drm] GART: num cpu pages 131072, num gpu pages 131072 [drm] Loading R100 Microcode platform radeon_cp.0: firmware: requesting radeon/R100_cp.bin [drm] radeon: ring at 0x00000000B8000000 [drm] ring test succeeded in 1 usecs [drm] radeon: ib pool ready. [drm] ib test succeeded in 0 usecs [drm] No TV DAC info found in BIOS [drm] No valid Ext TMDS info found in BIOS [drm] Radeon Display Connectors [drm] Connector 0: [drm] VGA [drm] DDC: 0x60 0x60 0x60 0x60 0x60 0x60 0x60 0x60 [drm] Encoders: [drm] CRT1: INTERNAL_DAC1 [drm] Connector 1: [drm] DVI-I [drm] HPD2 [drm] DDC: 0x6c 0x6c 0x6c 0x6c 0x6c 0x6c 0x6c 0x6c [drm] Encoders: [drm] CRT2: INTERNAL_DAC2 [drm] DFP2: INTERNAL_DVO1