LinuxQuestions.org - Error Installing Fedora 4 in Dell 2400 with XP

There is a series of notes on various installation and configuration questions by an apparent fellow who posted his notes. The notes have proven to be effective and relatively simple. One subject covered is "Configuring your Monitor." I thought I had the full web site address but I do not. Let me cover the steps I took to configure my HP pavilion mx90 monitor, which was not recognized by Fedora Core 4. The instructions I about to give you are for "X11" not "Xfree86" server but I think that should not matter; insomuch as you make accominadations for the type X server you are using.

1) Log in as <root> or as <su-> and enter password.
2) Type gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf or the corresponding .conf(igure) file for Xfree86, which I guess would be /etc/Xfree86/xfree86.conf. Again I use X11.
3) In <gedit> scroll down to the "Monitor" section and locate both "HorizSync" (horizontal frequency) and "VertRefresh" (verticle frequency). The enteries should look repespectively something like this: "HorizSync 30.0-70.0" and "VertRefresh 50.0-160.0."
4) You should locate in the user's manual or online the actual values for your Dell monitor. When you do, enter them in the two fields above respectively. That should setup the various refresh rates associated with various resolutions. Because you are using Xfree86, the "HorizSync"and "VertRefresh"might be worded differently, but I think you could probably figure the equivilent file names.
5) After setting up the refresh rates, scroll down to the "Screen" section. Setup three sections, which I list below or follow the format of the script in your configure file, that will correspond to the color depth employed by your monitor. A value of "8" stands for 265 colors, a value of "16" relates to thousands of colors, and a value of "24" setups millions of colors. This screen section in X11 config file looks like this:

#Section "Screen"
# Identifier "Screen0"
# Device "Videocard0"
# Monitor "Monitor0"
# DefaultDepth 24
# SubSection "Display"
# Viewport 0 0
# Depth 8
# Modes "2048x1536" "1920x1080" "1680x1050" "1600x1200" "1600x1024" "1600x1000" "1600x960" "1520x1140" "1440x900" "1400x1050" "1360x768" "1280x1024" #"1280x960" "1280x854" "1280x800" "1280x768" "1280x720" "1152x864" "1088x612" "1024x768" "960x720" "960x600" "800x600" "768x576" "720x576" "720x480" "640x480"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Viewport 0 0
# Depth 16
# Modes "2040x1536" "1920x1050" "1680x1080" "1680x1080" "1600x1200" "1600x1024" "1600x1024" "1600x1000" "1600x900" "1520x1140" "1440x900" "1400x1050" #"1366x768" "1360x1020" "1360x768" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1280x854" "1280x800" "1280x768" "1280x768" "1280x720" "1152x864" "1088x612" "1024x768" "960x720" #"960x600" "848x480" "800x600" "800x480" "768x576" "720x576" "720x480" "640x480"
# EndSubSection
# SubSection "Display"
# Viewport 0 0
# Depth 24
# Modes "1600x1200" "1400x1050" "1280x960" "1280x800" "1280x720" "1280x1024" "1280x768" "1152x864" "1152x768" "1024x768" "848x480" "800x600" "640x480"
# EndSubSection
#EndSection

(The "#" are just turning code into comments).

6.) As you can see with your three sections--8, 16, 24--you have a listing of modalities, or "keywords". I am fortunate in that I am running a dual-boot with Windows XP so that I could go into windows and obtain the modes or keywords that follow the entry "mode". After the entry of the line "mode" you can see that a resolution is given in quotations and then another follows until all VALID modes are entered. Notice too that you start from the largest resolution to the smallest. ---- My user manual for the mx90 monitor listed valid resolutions, though it did not list as many as the advanced properties did in Windows'Display. Use the resolution values from your user manual and correspond the screen size with the color depth. Then, it is really just a matter of tediously entering a listing of numbers under each section for color depth. Make sure that every resolution is in quotes. ---- I would think the Xfree86 will correspond to the X11 screen configure in the same manner. If not, try to smartly, transform this X11 information into Xfree86 infromation.
7.) Save the xorg.conf/xfree86.conf file. Make sure it is in the same place you fould it in.
8.) Then reboot your computer into Linux whatever . . . . Go to the System setting for "Display"and hopefully you will have the option of selecting one of the resolutions that you had previosusly built/entered into the config file.
9.) Next go to Preferences and select Screen Resolutions. That value might be still set at the low resolution value you have been stuck with. Again hopefully you should be able to select a resolution that you just had entered not five minutes ago in the configuration file.
10.) Try to keep your refresh rate at 85 Hz as that is best for the health of the monitor; but do select a higher resolution that meets your needs.
11.) Then all that is left to do is reboot and start up your Xfree86 display server, I believe is the right terminology.
**) If you are like me, you might not have entered every value in correctly. You should get an error identifying a syntext mistake. DO NOT LET LINUX START UP THE XFREE86 SERVER ON ITS OWN; because it will wipe away all the work you have done and put you right back in the same spot as before you started this task. Try to edit--gedit--using a text-mode Linux and open up your xorg.conf/xfree86.conf file. Correct the mistake and reboot. Eventually you will get a clean file.

I hope this helps. It worked for me and I have a lot of troubles getting things to work in Linux. But somehow configuring the monitor came easily to me. Again hope it works. Let me know.

Tim Winchester