i recently installed Debian on my laptop, and the display is, well, wigged out. i boot up and everything is fine, run the X environment and everything's happy, but when i logout or ctrl-alt-F2 (or whatever the appropriate F key is) out of it, the command line screen that comes up is fscked up--like how a TV screen looks when the cable's on its way out. of course, i need to get to this screen to install the drivers for my nVidia GeForce4 card, which means that right now my max resolution is 800 x 600. is the lack of my GeForce card somehow part of this display problem?

As it's a laptop you've installed on, it probably has an LCD screen - Yes???

If so, wouldn't it be best to set it to whatever the native resolution of the screen is???? As I understand these devices can "throw a moody" if not.

You'd probably have to check your documentation or google for the exact model/screen/chipset etc

dunno whether that'll help any!

regards

John

I had a similar problem with an old computer... I'm supposing that your screen looks normal while X is not loaded. Disable the automatic X startup (I don't remember how to do it) and then try to setup your GeForce and your new X configuration from prompt...