Corrupt Display

arzer · 10-12-2006, 02:23 PM

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone can help me. I have installed RH9 and think I have set up my monitor type incorrectly. The system boots, but when it brings up the GUI welcome screen, the display gets corrupted. I think I need to reconfigure the monitor type to something else, but I dont see anyway that I can do this..

I tried pressing 'i' during the boot process for an "interactive boot" but nothing happens..

I there anyway to recofigure the display or fall back to a generic one?

Thanks

Zmyrgel · 10-12-2006, 02:30 PM

Boot linux with "single" mode. If you use grub, just press 'q' on boot screen and append 'single' to the end to the kernel line.

It should then boot to single mode with CLI and then just issue 'vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf' and fix the monitor settings.

arzer · 10-12-2006, 02:40 PM

Hi,

Thanks for the prompt reply Zmyrgel. I am using grub version 0.93

I gives me the option to:

press "e" to edit commands before booting,
press "a" to modify the kernel arguments,
or "c" for a command line.

I dont really know how to get to the stage you talk about from either of these options!
Any ideas?

Thanks very much.
Arzer

Zmyrgel · 10-12-2006, 02:44 PM

The 'e'. Sorry that I forgot that one. After you have modified the line, press 'b' for boot.

arzer · 10-12-2006, 02:48 PM

The closest I think I came was to use the "a" option. This then brings up a grub> prompt with the following

ro root=LABEL=/

I modified this to read "ro root=LABEL=/ single" and then booted, and this seemed to drop me at a # prompt.
When I entered the "vi /etc/X11/xorg.conf" command as you suggest it just brings up what looks like a text editor with a blank file to edit?

Am I well off the beaten track here?

arzer · 10-12-2006, 02:50 PM

Hi,

The "e" option gives me a list of commands as follows:

root (hd0,0)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/
initrd .initrd-2.4.20-8.img

I can modify these command or insert new ones but not really sure what to do?

Thanks

Zmyrgel · 10-12-2006, 02:56 PM

Choose the line which starts with 'kernel' and add the 'single' to it's end and boot.

I'm not sure about RH9 but commonly all distros have the /etc/X11/xorg.conf file where the display settings are. It might also be older one with something like Xf86free or something similar.

Edit and check the lines for monitor and for the graphics card.

arzer · 10-12-2006, 03:17 PM

Hi,

Ok, so i managed to get to the command line interpreter, and located a file called XF86Config in the etc/X11 directory. This contains all sorts of stuff, and one of the section seems to be about the monitor which is listed as a "General Laptop Display Panel 1280x1024" which looks wrong!

Is there a generic type of display that I can put here?

Other things in this sections are as follows:

Identifier "Monitor0"
VendorName "Monitor Vendor"
ModelName "Generic Laptop Display Panel 1280x1024"
HorizSync 31.5 - 67.0
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0
Option "dpms"

Maybe its the sync / refresh rates which are knackering it?

I think I need to be running at 1024x768.

BTW: When using "vim" how to you save changes and return to the prompt?!

arzer · 10-12-2006, 03:30 PM

I managed to google for "vim" and now know how to write changes and exit.

Zmyrgel · 10-12-2006, 04:11 PM

I don't even have sync values in my xorg.conf (just renamed version of XF86Config).

Here's mine configuration for sample.
Which driver are you using?

Code:

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "X.org Configured"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	#RgbPath      "/usr/share/X11/rgb"
	#ModulePath   "/usr/lib/xorg/modules"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/misc"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/75dpi"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/100dpi"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/TTF"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/Type1"
EndSection

Section "Module"
	Load  "glx"
	Load  "extmod"
	Load  "xtrap"
	Load  "record"
	#Load  "dbe"
	Load  "dri"
	Load  "freetype"
	Load  "type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
	Option "AutoRepeat" "500 30"
	Option "XkbModel" "pc105"
	Option "XkbLayout" "fi"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
	ModelName    "Monitor Model"
	DisplaySize	325.12 203.2
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Card0"
	Driver      "nvidia"
	VendorName  "nVidia Corporation"
	BoardName   "Unknown Board"
	BusID       "PCI:1:0:0"
	Option "Coolbits" "1"
	Option "NoLogo" "true"
	Option "RenderAccel" "1"
	Option "NvAGP" "3"
	Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "1"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Card0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     1
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     4
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     8
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     15
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     16
	EndSubSection
	SubSection "Display"
		Viewport   0 0
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "Extensions"
	Option "Composite" "Enabled"
EndSection

A lot of above isn't necessary to get operating X but that should give some help to you.

Zmyrgel · 10-12-2006, 04:14 PM

pico or nano would be easier editors to use than vim, though

... for starters, later you don't know how did you managed to get so long without

arzer · 10-12-2006, 04:32 PM

I think the problem I have is that RH9 doesnt properly recognise my monitor (its a flat panel 1280x1024). Whatever I seem to set it up as it goes tits up when it boots in to the GUI.

Not really sure where to go from here..

I am downloading Fedora Core 5 currently, so I may get more joy with that once I get a change to install it..