Dear all,
I'm totally new to Linux and have a pc in my office installed with Linux and we just changed the old monitor with a new LCD one.

After the startx command, the monitor screen goes blank and the adjustment buttons(brightness,contrats,etc)started to flicker.

That is when i came across this site and someone has posted a similar problem. The recommended solution was to edit the configuration file to match the monitor setting.I did that and now when i startx from the shell, the following error message is shown: -

'server already active in display 0'

It seems that the server now cannot be started.

Unfortunately i didn't make a backup copy of the original config file (stupid of me, i know), but is there a solution for this? Do i have to re-install Linux again with the new monitor plugged in?

Thank you very much for your help.

Hi, and welcome to LQ!

You shouldn't have to re-install, that's for sure.

Depending on which distribution you have installed there
may be several varied solutions to your problem.

As for the "already running": you'll have to manually kill
the X-server (potentially also kdm,gdm or whichever login
manager your distro uses).


Cheers,
Tink

Hi Trickster,
Thanks for your reply.

I have Linux Suse 10 installed in the pc.

Ok, i have tried removing the .X0-lock file and the server starts ok, but still with the blank screen problem.

So, i re-boot the pc and startx again. But again, this time the 'server already active in display 0' error came up again.

Does this mean i have to manually kill the .X0-lock file everytime i startx now? Because prior to editing the config file, the 'server already active...' error was not there.

on the issue of blank screen, i have tried what was recommended, i.e. looking at the XFree86.0.log and editing the config file based on it.still it didn't work. any other way to go round it?

so, it seems i now have 2 issues at hand. the manual kill and the blank screen. sigh.

thanks again, much appreciated.

sorry, it's tinkster. not trickster.

my bad.

Removal of the lock is not quite what I meant; I was
thinking along the lines of
skill -9 X kdm kdm_greet
(or gdm or xdm) ... the blank screen means that X is actually
running but that the frequency it's using isn't suitable for the
LCD monitor.

Since you're running SuSE I'd suggest you become root, type
init 1 and once you're in that run-level start sax2 (SuSEs X
configuration tool).


Cheers,
Tink

Hey Tinkster,
I followed your suggestion and it's working fine now!

Thanks a million.

cheers!

:}

Most welcome!