RedHat Video Compatibility

noahrei · 08-31-2003, 02:04 PM

Hey well, i'm new and don't know much about computers. I have just Installed Red Hat Linux 9.0 on a four year old computer, only to find that it does not want to display at all. As far as I can see, this is because Gateways 4 year old Vesa Video card is not compatible. I have found a video card on base that I thought would be compatible...when I checked the system requirements it said that this particular card (ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 7500 64Mb) only supports Windows Operating Systems. Will Linux be supported. The obvious answer seems to be no but considering I haven't seen any Linux Specific hardware, something must work.

finegan · 08-31-2003, 02:48 PM

Hardware vendors always say that...

Actually... all cards are Vesa cards, at least all of them manufactured after '99, its a video framebuffering standard, so when RH's installer horks on identifying the card, it defaults down to Vesa, betting that will work. If your machine is 4 years olf, the card probably isn't vesa. Don't sweat it... first let's try and let X configure itself. This is going to be all from the command line, so have patience. Log in as root and type in this command:

X -configure

Then the screen should blink a couple of times and tell you to do the following:

X -xf86config /root/XF86Config.new

That should display, probably in a really crappy resolution, but that's okay. To get out of that X test mode, btw:

ctrl+alt+backspace

Now, if that works for you... more or less... copy that file over to where the system will look for it:

cp /root/XF86Config.new /etc/X11/XF86Config

Now... try to fire up X:

startx

Cheers,

Finegan

noahrei · 09-01-2003, 11:21 AM

Thank you Finegan,
I'll try that right away. By the way how is Atlanta today? As hot as Warner Robins?

finegan · 09-01-2003, 02:02 PM

Probably, I try not to go outside on my days off until the sun goes down though, that big yellow thing in the sky is pretty offensive.

Post about how it works out.

Cheers,

Finegan

noahrei · 09-01-2003, 08:30 PM

Eh, well, as yet not too good, I am not familiar with command line or how to get there. I did login as root and it displayed fine until I tried to run a screen saver. It isn't as big a deal anymore though just found out I am getting a new PC around the middle of September anyway. I'll probably come back around that time to learn how to have LInux and the installed OS on the one computer...I have an idea how but it hasn't worked yet.

Heh Heh, nifty