Haines Brown via Dng said on Tue, 17 Feb 2026 13:54:54 -0500

>On Tue, Feb 17, 2026 at 03:09:09AM -0500, Steve Litt wrote:

>> With Haines using maximum size 2TB boot drive (or 1TB, he
>> stated both sizes),
>
>At one point I was trying to install to a 2 TB SSD and in another to
>a 1 TB SSD. I installed to a single partition because my understanding
>is the wipes out all partitions and starts from scratch

To simplify troubleshooting. Remove all drives except what you call the
"target drive". Solving installation problems is no time to add any
extra features at all. When your computer's running perfectly, it's
trivial to add other disks and incorporate them in /etc/fstab.

>
>> UEFI isn't necessary,
>
>This cmes as a complete sudrprise. Are you saying that an install on a
>drive initiall without partitions, UEFT not involved?

No. Both UEFI and Legacy (often called "BIOS") require partitions. UEFI
requires one additional partition.


>
>> and it sounds like his
>> motherboard is probably old enough to have "Legacy BIOS Mode". Taking
>> UEFI out of the picture would simplify things if it can be done.
>
>But didnnt you say that instralling to entire disk takes UEFI out of
>the picture?

No, I never said that, and hope it's not true. UEFI and number of
partitions should be completely independent of each other. By the way,
even when you use "the whole disk", you have at least one partition:
The partition mounted to / (root).

>
>> Just a question Haines: You didn't enable secure boot, did you?
>
>Nope

Good!

>
>> One more thing I can tell you Haines. Nvidia video cards sometimes
>> cause base system problems like hard freezes and spontaneous reboots.
>> Just such an Nvidia problem stopped me cold for over 48 hours before
>> I ordered a Radeon video card to replace it, and the problem simply
>> vanished. I tried all combinations and permutations of the Free
>> Software Nvidia driver and the proprietary Nvidia driver, asking all
>> sorts of questions on all sorts of lists, and never got the Nvidia
>> card to work on that computer, which is the same computer I've used
>> for 5 years and the same computer I'm using right now.
>
>That I have suspected all along the line. I should try an inexpensive
>video care witn the Intel driver.

I've heard Intel video cards are more Linux compatible, but I *know*
most modern or semi-modern Radeon cards are: Their drivers are already
incorporated in the Kernel.

Unfortunately, video card prices have doubled or tripled in the past 5
years, and by the nature of your situation, "used" or "refurbished"
doesn't fulfill your need for "known good", so today we're talking $120
to $200 for "inexpensive". I paid about $70 for the following in
December 2020:

============================================
[slitt@mydesk ~]$ lspci | grep VGA
2b:00.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
[AMD/ATI] Cedar [Radeon HD 5000/6000/7350/8350 Series]
[slitt@mydesk ~]$
============================================

Looking at eBay, I see that you could buy two or three used ones for
under $100 total, and certainly *one* of them would probably work:
Maybe that's your best bet. Be sure it's a Radeon, and make sure its
video output will match up to your monitor.

https://www.ebay.com/shop/radeon-hd-5450?_nkw=radeon+hd+5450

I especially like this one, because it's fanless and has a full
gigabyte:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/116739653137?_skw=radeon+hd+5450&epid=672378219

> I have a spare motherboard, but
>replacing the old board would be a challenge.

True. That might end up being as much of a hassle as what you have now.


SteveT

Steve Litt

http://444domains.com