Greetings,

I have a Dell Inspiron 2650, P4 M, 1.7GhZ, 256 MB, 32 MB nvidia card laptop. I have RH9 installed in the machine and it was working fine, except the screen size of the X-windows was not same as the full screen in windows. ( in XP pro that i have the resolution is 1024x768).

I read thru some postings on xf86Config and then changed the "modes" to 1024x768 and deleted 800x600 and 640x480 that was already present . I then rebooted the m/c, but my x windows wouldn't come. Even when i tried to go to shell/command prompt, i am able to only see the xf86config file as a readonly file. I am not able to revert my changes , as its not allowing me to edit the file ( says its a read only file, even if logged in using root).

Pls advise on how to correct the file to have 1024x768 or atleast to an working condition.

any help/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

thanks
laks

XF86Config:
be sure your monitor section's HoizSync and VertRefresh are right. try a entry /Option "DPMS"/ there. choose the right driver to your card.

$ man XF86Config

there is a XFree86.0.log in /var/log. does it report errors?

sl mritch.

I think the problem is he can't change the file. It sounds like the root file system is mounted read only. Not sure why though.

You may have to boot from a bootable CD, like Knoppix, mount the partitions and then change the file back to the way it was. It sounds like you have a lappie, they usually only have one setting and that is it. My brother has one of those things. It's cool looking but I still like a CRT. Anyway, the resolution on those are usually lower. My bros is a 17" I think and it runs at 800 x 600 I think.

Hope that helps, some anyway. Cheeze it's getting cold down here. < shivers >

I'm going to go back to bed. It's warmer, a little anyway.

Later

thanks folks!


I have "dpms" setup already in the xf86config file and also the horiz /vert sync has some def values (may be i need to check this further). The log, that is a good one, let me take a look at that.

The main issue is that I have a bootable floppy drive for RH9 that i use normally to boot my linux, but, even with that, my root file system doesn't allow me to change the contents of the file. If i know /workfaround to make this editable, atleast i can put the old working values and debug the main issue slowly.

pls advise.

thanks and regards
laks

Log in as root go to XF86Config file in a file browser, right mouse click, select properties, permissions, and change settings from read-only.
This should remove the read-only setting. Permissions should be rw-r--r-- for root only access, read only for others.

Thanks!

To login to my linux, i am booting it from a floppy disc. I log using root only, but the file system seems to be still read only. I am not able to update any files or change the contents of XF86Config .

I am sure the probs is with the screen, bec during the booting sequence, it goes till the login prompt/shell window. But, after that it tries to open the X-window mode, but fails and shows nothing.

I even tried to change one of the initd file to not to start in X windows mode, but still not able to do that, as that also appears to be a readyonly. The XFree86 - configure also throws error.

So, i am still stuck.

thanks and regards
laks

When the screen goes blank see if ctrl alt f1 will get you a text login screen. If it does you can use a command line editer to edit the file. Nano is easy but most come with vi. You may want to read the manual before you use that. I would also recommend you make a bcak up copy, in case you boo boo. I knwo I did the first time I used vi.

Post back what you get.

Later

dalek -

clrl+alt+F1 didn't help to bring to text login prompt....

i see. you may try to boot into single user mode with "init 1" passed to your kernel at bootup. there could be some troubles with your filesystem since it's mounted read only. you'll have to fix this first before actually using this partition. check for readerrors / fsck'ing at boot.

"$ mount" and "cat /proc/mounts" will give you an overview of how the fs's are mounted.

"# mount -n -o remount,rw /" will remount your root-fs read&write, but won't correct it if there are errors!

if your system starts up without errors you can go and fiddle around with your XF86Config again.

sl mritch.

Thanks so much mritch!!

This helped me to resolve the problem. The mount worked and i am able to work now fine. Thanks so much again for helping me on this one!

regards
laks