Compaq Presario 2500 Series Monitor Problem

cybercullen · 06-16-2004, 02:22 AM

I have installed Fedora Core 2 on my Compaq Presario 2580US Notebook and shortly after it goes from the "command-line" booting to the gui booting sequence, my monitor goes black. I can't see anything (it stays black indefinitely) let alone figure out what it may be doing wrong. On install I set the monitor settings to the generic default and have tried reinstalling using different monitor settings for Compaq monitors. These don't seem to work either. The computer seems to still be processing during this. Any ideas?

linuxmarc · 06-17-2004, 03:32 PM

I got this same setup working on a Presario 2475 at home.

When you get the black screen, you may want to try pressing the left CTRL+ALT+F1 and see if you get a command prompt login.

Once logged in, you may try to run XFree86 -configure ; this should bring up a gray screen with the mouse cursor (an X) on it. You can CTRL+ALT+F1 back to your console and CTRL+C out of that. This creates a file name XF86Config. If the test was successful you may copy this file to /etc/X11 and try to launch X using startx .

Hope this helps.

cybercullen · 06-18-2004, 12:41 AM

I tried the Ctrl-Alt-F1 but nothing happened. Any further ideas?

linuxmarc · 06-18-2004, 10:54 AM

Did you use the left CTRL-ALT keys?

You may need to boot with the CD using linux rescue, then follow the steps as listed previously, though you may not be able to test using startx in this mode. The other option, once in rescue mode, is to change the runlevel to 3 in /etc/inittab and reboot. Then you should be able to run through the steps and test before switching back to runlevel 5.

Oh, and be sure not to go above 1024x768 in your resolution selection.

cybercullen · 06-20-2004, 11:12 PM

I changed it to 3 (directly after it states what each runlevel meant) and now it doesn't go black at all. It takes me directly to a command line login. When I got there and logged in I typed "XFree86 -configure" and it gave me "-bash: XFree86: command not found". What am I doing wrong?

I also noticed that if I additionally changed the runlevel at the very bottom of the inittab file, it took me to the kde login screen and I could actually log in that way.

linuxmarc · 06-21-2004, 10:11 AM

XFree86 is found at /usr/X11R6/bin/, which should be in the path and be found by simply typing the command. You can try running it with the full path.

You said that with runlevel 3 entered at the bottom of the file you're able to log in graphically, do you then get in to X windows or not?

cybercullen · 06-21-2004, 10:43 PM

Even after entering the full path, XFree86 does not do anything for me. I could not find it in the directory either. A whereis doesn't seem to show it being anywhere.

When I get to the graphical login I seem to be able to get to the full linux graphical environment. Everything seems to work fine that way (although I haven't really messed with much once I am in linux).

What display and graphic card type have you chosen for your setup?

linuxmarc · 06-22-2004, 12:22 AM

I selected the default laptop display 1024x768 (not sure of the exact name for it, though).

It's strange that it would launch at runlevel 3 but not 5. Runlevel 3 is supposed to be command line and 5 is graphical. When you changed the last line in the inittab you told it to launch xdm (or gdm) at that runlevel, which automatically launches X following the successful login.

Weird.