TV-out as only display problems
 

Heya,
I've got a Win98SE/Suse8.2Pro (or RedHat9, I'm not too bothered which) dual boot computer (Duron850Mhz, 256mb sdram, Ati Readon 8500LE, 28gb hd with 8gb to win and 20gb to linux) which I am setting up as a router/firewall for my house at university. I dont have a spare monitor, nor space in my car to take a monitor with me so I want to use a TV for basic use/monitoring of the system (ohh and DVD/divx playback, but i'll work on that later). Everything installs and under win98SE the computer works fine. Installing Linux works through the TV-out, when i boot linux however I can only get to the command prompt. When I try to start XWindows I get an error saying "no screens found". As it works on windows then I'm assuming there isnt any hardware problems so must be a configuration issue under Linux (both Suse and RH have the same problem, so I'm assuming an XFree86 issue)

I've been searching but theres not much simple information on how to fix this problem, as far as I can tell most pages are about using the tv-out as a second display. Can anyone help?

I'd be happy to supply any more information if its needed.

Okay from what i can see, and from reading a few other posts here which i managed to actually miss before I posted... Its a problem with the monitor setup in XFree, can anyone supply working (or theoreticaly working) values for me to put in? all the Hsync and vertical frequency stuff....I hate configuring displays by hand (i dislike emacs and vi too which i'm sure i'll get flamed for lol)

Okay ummm.... I may have sorted it.... by pure fluke.... I got fed up of trying different screen modes during the Suse8.2 installation that i clicked abort installation (at the hardware config stage), and lo and behold it comes up with the xwindows login screen!

I really dunno what made it do this, dont think i'll ever fully know, but hey if it works!!

Restarted the computer, and it comes up fine, going to reinstall to check, tho not tongiht, half 11 and i been at this all sodding day. I guess the automated xwindows setup programs force it to use their screenmodes, and not setting it up leaves it open to autodetect whats best to use (which might mean i'm stuck with 800x600 if i want a smaller res....tho might be able to edit the config file by hand)

Still interested if theres a way to configure it properly, i dont know if this will cause problems in certain programs... Any comments or suggestions are much appreciated :-)