I have a very old Compaq Presairo that I hooked up to my Dell 17" CRT monitor. Strange red lines appeared on the right side of my monitor, so I set the driver to "Generic 1024x768 75hz" or something like that. Now I can't start a graphical interface anymore. How can I configure monitors at the command prompt? I'm very new to linux.

*EDIT*

I actaully managed to fix my own problem with the very useful XFDrake. But the red vertical lines on the right still are there, even though the rest of the display is perfect. Any suggestions?

If you do not know the specs of your monitor, you can use Knoppix and tell it what desire resolution you want to use. After Knoppix has booted, go to /etc/X11 and look for a file XF86Config or XF86Config-4. Open the file in vi or other text editor and scroll scroll down until you see ModeLine. Copy them and mount your Mandrake partitions. Next fine XF86Config on the Mandrake partitions. It should be in /mnt/<device-name>/etc/X11. Then paste (CTL+INS in console) it where other ModeLines are located. You may need to do some editing.

The Generic 1024x768 75hz is not a driver. Its a setting. Drivers in Linux are called modules.

Use XFdrake to setup your video card. If you do not know type /sbin/lspci. Find the video card and try to match it in XFdrake. Make sure you do a test before you exit it.

I am having a similar problem with Mandrake 10.1. Here is information on my system, and what I have done up to now.

Mandrake 10.1
Dell Inspiron 5000
output when running the command lspci 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc. Rage Mobility P/M AGP 2x (rev 64)

This computer previously ran Mandrake 10 Community and 9.2.

I installed Knoppix 8-16-2004 which detects and properly sets the hardware. I copied the file XF86Config-4 file created by Knoppix to a floppy, restarted the laptop with Mandrake 10.1, and then copied the file XF86Config-4 file from the floppy to /etc/X11/.

I have run service dm stop then run XFdrake. I have tried the default settings and configured the monitor using:
1. Dell laptop monitors;
2. Custom with vertical and horizontal refresh supplied by the Knoppix /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 file; and
3. Tried different resolution sizes.

So far I have not been able to configure X for Mandrake 10.1 on the Inspiron 5000.

Any suggestions on configuring X would be appreciated. I have reviewed other posts at Linuxquestions.org, and have tried to follow the suggestions, but have not found a solution.

Sincerely,
Walt

I found a solution - Change the video card to vesa. Here is what I did. I started the laptop, and chose the failsafe option. This brought me to a command line. At the command line I entered:

su -
next I entered the password for the root user. Next I entered

XFdrake

I changed the video card by going to the bottom, and selecting custom. Within custom, I looked for the card called vesa. I selected this card, then I selected Test, and the monitor was detected.