I recently purchased an LCD monitor. On the linux box I have 2 drives that I configured a couple years ago to run Win 98SE and RH 9.0. I used GRUB as the loader which I have tried to nuke several times using FDISK/ MBR but I can never get the Win 98 disk to boot alone without a bios error of some kind, even after resetting the CMOS. I wanted free up the RH disk for a new distro. Sorry tangent there. I would like to get rid of RH though, since I can't update this one anymore at least in the automated way it used to work.

I connected the monitor, RH goes to load gui and I get the "out of scan range" error. I thought it would detect the new hardware, since I once changed video cards and had no problem.

So can I modify the monitor settings before gui boot? How, through GRUB? What steps? Can I stop the gui from loading by holding a key? I thought I could. Then where do I need to go to get the monitor configured and how can I do that?

Would it be easier with a Knoppix live? I have that cd. How do I get to the monitor settings? I can't actually remember if I used gnome or kde. Any help on this appreciated.

Edit:
Ok, I did just see another thread that has this info. I think that will get me close enough but ideas appreciated.

via GRUB, u need to highlight your REd Hat entry in the menu and press 'e'. then highlight the middle line and press 'e' again. here, you'll arrive at a grub prompt. at the end of the line, press the spacebar key and then type 1 or 3. then press enter and then 'b'. this should bring you too a text mode login.

to reconfigure X, run this as root:

redhat-config-xfree86 --reconfig (or --reconfigure? )

You could also edit the grub boot prompt to add something like: vga=791 or vga=792. The first is resolution 1084x780 or there about, and the second is resolution 1280x1024. Most if not all monitors today support those resolutions. That should get you into GUI mode to try RH tools to set the monitor.

Just thinking as I was reading your reply BRD, erm don't all those LCD monitors only work properly when set to their native resolution ??? I seem to recall reading that thats often the problem with LCD laptop screens, but don't know about desktop ones.

Ha! I dream of having the money to buy a nice flat screen, then it would save the hassle of having this bloody great 21inch device that feel like it takes up half my little "office" (and seems to grow, depending on how much I've had to drink )!

regards

John

Thanks for the info all. I haven't had a chance to fix it yet, but I think I can do it now. I've been tied up playing old games. Amazing that some 6 year old CRPGs still look decent and that a 1.3 Duron with a 64 MB video card can still do alot these days.

Bigjohn, I waited a long while to get an LCD and it is well worth it. The one I bought isn't fancy but looks decent. I don't even recognize the desk after taking off the huge 17" Compaq CRT. It will change your room!

Uh. I did buy a decent LCD. And of course it looks ugly with any other resulution but native. And colors ... the color balance is not same in darker areas compared to brighter areas. So I gave it to my wife and bought a new CRT - and boy I am happy now! So is my wife (it seems kids and women must follow trends to keep themselves happy). Not to mention new CRT was half of the price of LCD.