Pls i need help!

i am a linux newbie and have been trying to install linux on an old laptop. i am still running the live cd to know which distro best suites me. i have no problem with the 1st screens (from the language option screen to the text mode) but the problem is that during startup i get a flickering screen, like this
http://www.vtunnel.com/index.php/101...0382f174a21593
and this
http://www.vtunnel.com/index.php/101...0565a662221593
(note: these are not my laptop screen but they look just the same).

i've tried different distros, ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10, pclinuxos, linuxmint 8, elive, etc but they are all the same. ubuntu and pclinuxos displayed well but the resolution was so big, like some 800x400 on 8bit. i went to the monitor option to change the screen resolution but doesn't have a higher resolution there. i run windows vista on this laptop and it works flawlessly with high resolution and good graphics but no linux distro seem to work (the laptop was originally made for xp but it runs vista very well). i really don't know what to do again. there is sound but no graphics. sometimes, the screen splits into 4. i really want to change to linux.

my laptop is Zinox s96h (based on the ASUS s96h/z96h model. they use the same drivers on xp), 3GB ram, 1.3mhz.

i'll appreciate your assistance.

Thanks in anticipation of your kind response.

The problem is in your xorg.conf file. You need to plug in your monitor information, such has horizontal and vertical sync rates. Here is my xorg.conf file with my monitor stuff in bold.

If you can get in a command line this file is located at /etc/X11/xorg.conf.

If your laptop does not boot to a command line, turn it on and wait a few minutes for it to boot up. After a few minutes press ctrl+alt+F1. This should knock you out of the GUI login and to a terminal login.

Hi Worm5252,

Thanks for your nice and prompt assistance. I am so happy to get your response.

But like i wrote earlier, i am a linux newbie, i just started trying out linux distros like 2-3wks ago. i know that i may be asking too much questions but you wrote "...plug in your monitor information...." and "...this file is located at /etc/X11/xorg.conf....". i really don't know how to get/generate the monitor information to plug in. i've looked at your's but i don't know how or where to get the 'monitor section' information (horizontal sync, vertical refresh, options, etc) i understand you are using a desktop and your monitor is LG with Nvidia video card. I'd appreciate it if you can guide me on how to get these details, how to edit (plug in) the details and save it. i'm so sorry for asking to be 'spoon-fed'.

Let me tell you something else i tried, i downloaded Kubuntu and ran it as Live CD, i did some google-ing and managed to select get it to show, but i still had the 800x600 and 600x400 resolutions on the screen panel. i am running MS-vista now and it's on 1280x800. i still don't know how i get it in windows but can't get it in linux. And on Kubuntu start-up screen (the logon screen) it split into 4, sometimes 2 and they are not proportional.

I once more thank you for your kind assistance and also thank you in advance.

cheers!

****NOTE**** I had this amazingly awesome post pre-written that I was working on and I accidentally click a link and lost it. I have done a ton of research about you issue and was writing and awesome step by step guide including links to everything I looked at and what I was looking for, what worked and what didn't. Now since I lost it I am going to have to go back to square one and see if I can remake it. Forgive me if I am not super detailed in my response. I will write this post in a text editor and copy it over when I wish to post it so I don't loose it.

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Please forgive me, I made some assumptions and did not reply as if you were new to Linux to spite the fact that you said you were new. I am sorry. I hope this post is not too remedial for you, and if needed I can clarify this post in much more detail. Just let me know.

OK First off I need to address how Windows and Linux are different. To understand how Windows and Linux are different you will need to understand what Windows and Linux are.

Computers are made up of 2 things, Hardware and Software. Every computer has a Motherboard, Memory, Hard drive, Monitor, etc. These are physical components that you can physically see and touch. All these components are called Hardware. Software are applications. Software is a broad term and can be broken down into many categories such as Operating Systems, Shells, Firmware, Embedded Software, etc. Microsoft Windows and Linux are both Operating Systems. In a very basic way of defining it, an Operating System is a user friendly interface to allow the user to control the hardware of the Computer. In other words Windows and Linux make it easy for you to control the physical components of your laptop. With that being said clearly you can not have 2 Operating Systems going at the same time on the same hardware. They will conflict each other and one will fail to work. Since you can only have 1 Operating Systems going at a time, it could be assumed that if you make changes in 1 Operating System it will not effect the other since the other Operating System is not running to know a change has been made.

In addition to the fact that only 1 Operating System can be running on the Hardware of a Computer at any given time, you need to understand you Hard Drive Layout. All hard drives have a Master Boot Record (MBR). If the hard drive is not as bootable drive and is only used for Storage the MBR is blank, but it is still there. If a hard drive is bootable, the MBR cantains information about what Operating systems exist on the Hard drive, where they are located, and what files need to be read to start the boot process. In addition to the MBR, every hard drive has a minimum of 1 partition. Think of a partition as a container to put data into. Each Operating System requires a minimum of 1 partition that is for that Operating System only. The 1 partition each operating system requires is where it will put all the files that 1 Operating system needs to run. An Operating System or Hard drive can have as many partitons as you want, but requires a minumum 1.

Now you have done what is called a Dual Boot. A Dual Boot is where you have more than 1 Operating System install on the primary hard drive of a Computer, which allows you to select which Operating System you want to run when the Computer is turned on. Now in my last paragraph I stated that each Operating system requires a minimum of 1 partition for itself. So since you have Windows and Linux installed on your laptop that means your hard drive has a minimum of 2 Partitions, 1 for Windows and 1 for Linux. It is possible that you have more, and is actually likely since you have Linux installed, but at the bare minimum you have 2 partitions. Remember I said to think of a partiton as a container. So Both Windows and Linux have a partition, that means every for Windows is in 1 container (Partition) and everything for Linux is in another container (Partition). The data is seperate. This data includes configuration files.

Since the data is seperate, Both Windows and Linux operate independently of each other. Meaning if you make a confiugureation change in Windows, that does not mean that same configuration change was made in Linux. With that being explained, do you understand why you can change your screen resolution in Windows and it works, but it does not work in Linux? If you still do not understand, please let me know and I will go into moe detail and explain it better.


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Now onto why your Video does not work on Linux. Well there is some key information that is needed to get you sorted out.

1. What type of Laptop do you have?
2. What Monitor and Video Card are installed in this laptop?
3. What are the specifications of this hardware?
4. What configuration files need to be modified to make them work?
5. How do you modify these configuration files.

So to address all of this we will walk through this 1 step at a time.

First we need to know what type of laptop do you have. You stated in your first post "my laptop is Zinox s96h (based on the ASUS s96h/z96h model."

Second we need to know what Monitor and Video card you have in this laptop. If I google the Zinox s96h, it points me to the Toshiba 4900. However you stated your laptop is based on the ASUS s96h/z96h models. Well now I do not know which on to use, but I am going to assume (I know this has gotten me in trouble before) that you know your machine and I am going to see what monitor and video card are in the Asus models. So Back to google I will do some searching. After about 30 minutes of searching I have invested all the time I have at the moment. Do some searching and see if you can find out what model of monitor is installed in your laptop. If we know that we can get the specifications on it. See if your laptop came with a manual, it may have this information listed in there. Once we find out this information we can continue on and get you up and running.

Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it.

I ran 'dxdiag' on my system this is the info it showed:

System manufacturer : ASUSTek Computer Inc.
System model : S96H
Processor : Genuine Intel(R) CPU T1400 @ 1.83GHz
Memory : 3GB RAM
DirectX : version 10

Display Device

Name : SiS Mirage Graphics (Microsoft Corporation - XDDM)
Manufacturer : SiS
Chip Type : SiS 662
DAC Type : Internal
Approx. Total Memory : 30.5 MB
Current Display Mode : 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor : Generic Plug'n'Play Monitor

Main Driver : SiSGRV
Version : 6.14.0010.3744

I believe this is it. Thanks you so much.

Cheers

This is good information. It is a start. At least we get the monitor manufacturer. We still have to figure out the model.
With a little more googling I found this page, http://old.nabble.com/New-ASUS-noteb...d25528201.html. Looks like these guys had a driver problem when using Madriva. However it does say on this page what his /etc/X11/xorg.conf file is. Now we can try it out on your machine.

Here is what we need to do. You probably want to either print this out or have it on another computer next to you when you do this.

1. Boot into Linux.

2. Wait several minutes for Linux to boot and get to a login screen

3. Once Linux is at the login screen press ctrl+alt+F1. This should Kill the graphics login and take you to a command line login.

4. Login

5. If your distribution allows you to change to the root user account by issuing the following command
If your distribution does not allow root login then we will use sudo instead.

6.Change to the directory /etc/X11/ by issuing this command
7. now we will use nano to open your xorg.conf file for editing. If you can not login as root in step 5 use 'sudo' without the quotes in front of this command.
or
8. Now we will use the arrow keys to locate the Monitor section. It will being with 'section "Monitor"' and look something like this.
NOTE your xorg.conf file may look different and may not contain all the options under this section

9. We need to change or Add the HorizSync and VertRefresh options under the Monitor section. This is what we want those lines to look like
10. Press ctrl+X

11. Press Y and Enter

12. Reboot


If everything goes well then this should get you all fixed up.

Hey Jay, I am assuming you are good to go since I haven't heard anything back after 2 days. Everything working out ok now?

Hi Worm5252,

Sorry about the delay. My internet subscription ran out so i just got reconnected today.

Well, i told you that i was running linux as a live CD then and encountered the graphic problem. Now, i decided to give away the old laptop and run linux from a USB drive, hoping to fix the issue from there instead of re-installing the windows (the person whom i'm giving the laptop to has no idea of linux... ha!). So today, i just bought a USB drive to install the linux unto. when i run it i'll definitely give you a feedback on how it went.

Thank you for your kind assistance.

Cheers and have a nice day!

***NB: Of course, there's no way that i wouldn't let you know if i have fixed it. Not after your sincere kindness and assistance.

Hi Worm5252,

i'm now trying to run linux from a pendrive (got the USB write from pendrivelinux.com). the screen is still flickering. i went to the /etc/X11/xorg.conf but it is blank. i think it is bcos i am not running linux from my HDD. is it possible to write the 'section - Monitor' details and save/make it available for the xorg to read it, since the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file is blank?

i know that this time i am exhausting your kind assistance. i'm so sorry.

i still appreciate all your kind assistance and thank you immensely.

cheers.

Hi,

I finally got MacPup_Foxy3 linux running from a USB on the laptop. On startup, it displayed an option to choose 'Xorg' or 'Xvesa'. I tried them both, Xorg goes blank and then nothing but Xvesa runs very well. That's what i use now.

I encountered a problem while trying to install chinese font. (i've just been falling from one problem into another in linux). The problem is not related to this topic so i'll put it on a new thread with the appropriate topic.

THANK YOU VERY VERY VERY MUCH FOR YOUR ASSISTANCE. YOU DON'T KNOW HOW GRATEFUL I AM.

THANK YOU INDEED!

Excellent, I am glad to see you got it sorted it out. Sorry I couldn't have been of more assistance to you.