"Letterbox" problem on IBM NetVista and RH7.2
 

I am installing Red Hat 7.2 onto an IBM NetVista (Model 6643). It has a 15" TFT flat panel (active matrix) monitor that generally works at 1074 x 768.

When I boot the machine up with the CDrom, there are no problems with resolution or with any amount of the screen being distorted. I allow the installation program to select its own values for the monitor and video card. (These are usually generic selections).

Once the installation is complete, I boot the machine up off its own hard drive into a text log-in (not KDE or Gnome). *Even* in text mode, there are black bars that run horizontally across the screen. These bars persist if I switch into KDE and they even persist in Xconfigurator. If I just run ls and pipe it into more, I can see the space that the monitor is not using.

I have tried multiple, multiple settings in Xconfigurator and have tried forcing the computer to load into 1074x768 by setting vga=791 in the lilo.conf file. None of this has worked. The resolution, and the size of the type change, but the black bars do not go away.

One thing that remains strange is that these black bars are not there when the CDrom boots -- nor are they present when the CDrom walks through its graphic installer.

i think this is a bios issue. there should be a setting in the bios labeled screen expand or screen stretch (or words to that effect) that allows a low res. 640x480 to fill the screen. try it with that option disabled.

problem solved
 

Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't end up having to mess with the bios though. Someone else on another board suggested that I run Xconfigurator with the --preferX4 option. I don't know why, but that worked.