First Linux install -- first problem -- first post.

[apologies for the long post -- but I wanted to offer as much info up front as possible -- the key question is restated at the end for those who want to cut to the chase]

Installing RH 9.0 (rec'd with "RH Enhanced" book) on the following hardware (home-brew PC):

Asus A7V8X
Athlon XP 2200+
512MB RAM
40 GB Western Digital drive
LiteOn CD-RW
Radeon 7500LE video card (by PowerColor)
Apple 17" Studio Display [LCD] (thru CompuCable KVM box)

Set the BIOS to boot from CD (no floppy drive; hard drive empty)
Booted into RH installer without problem
Among scrolling messages is "Display not recognized"
Screen image fine -- but is big -- looks like 1024x780 resolution (native is 1280x1024).
Went thru partition, software selection, and got to hardware configuration. Recognized everything until "Display"

At Display -- posted long list of monitor manufacturers, with "Generic" highlighted. Apple is not a listed display manufacturer (that's reasonable for an Intel-based installation).
The help screen to left has note regarding importance of getting the horiz / vertical freq correct.

Now (in retrospect) my mistake -- I had a perfectly usable display in front of me -- I should have accepted the offered configuration and gone ahead. I didn't -- too easy <grin>.

I adjusted one of the frequencies which was just a little outside of specs that I had.
I expanded the list of Generic monitors -- there was no entry for any "LCD" of any size or resolution.
I chose the entry for Laptop screen (1280x1024 resolution) and went on.

Everything installed without difficulty -- I reset BIOS to boot from hard drive -- and the machine booted into GRUB without any problem -- display exactly as before -- clear, but looks large. Only choice was RH Linux (as expect since only OS installed). Screens of start up messages -- including (I think) another message about "Display not recognized" -- all hardware checks return as "OK".

After last item -- screen goes black -- as if asleep, but APIC is OFF -- and no tapping on keyboard or mouse changes screen.

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My interpretation: setting the display to laptop was an error. The motherboard has no built-in display and it appears the config is turning off/ignoring the video card. I understand that this can probably be fixed by editing a config file, but I don't know which one or how -- the book does not get to that level of detail.

Current options I see:

1) I can reboot into install and could do a full "install" again, accepting the default Display choice. But I am in this to learn so figured I should at least try to learn how to fix this. Also, that will not give me the 1280x1024 native resolution -- although I suspect from the desktop there will be a Display control panel equivalent that will let me do that in GUI.

2) I can reboot into Install disk and enter "rescue" mode -- but don't know what to do next ... that's why I'm here <grin>

Note: at some point during boot from hard drive the screen says "Press "I" to enter installation" -- but when I press "I" there is no response (even when I press "I" in advance on another reboot) -- the boot sequence just goes on to do the hardware checks and then into blackness as described.

--------------

Bottom line question(s):

1) Is there a relatively simple way to fix this from "rescue" mode or should I bite the bullet and do full reinstall?
2) When I do get to Desktop, will I be able to set the monitor resolution using an element of the GUI?

Many thanks for your patience with the length of this post and TIA for your responses.

have you checked the refresh rate? make sure the refresh rate did not exced the vertical refresh rate . it could kill your moniter
did you install in a gui or text base install?

The easiest way would probably be
to add single (or init 3) to the kernel
parameters at your boot prompt ...

And then run the RH configuration
tool for X windows ... what's it called,
again? XConfigurator?

Cheers,
Tink

Thanks for your posts.

n3w27inux -- as I understand it LCD monitors running off DVI output don't have refresh rates -- it is direct address.

tinkster -- I confess I don't fully understand how to add to the kernel at boot prompt.

I did succeed in reloading XFree86 and set the reload boot to text mode not to XFree. From there I could log in as root, run "XFree86 -configure", and look at the new config file, the original config file, and the /var/log/XFree86.0.log

All that sounds great -- but after several hours of looking at files & logs, trying new configs, etc., I ended up with a config file that specified device driver, screen depth and resolution, gave log entries that the Radeon card was seen and the monitor identified and gave no error reports -- but when I ran startx I still got a totally black non-responsive screen. I shut down and went back to another computer to check here and do email, etc.

I confess to being a bit frustrated. After cruising the various forums, I have found how-to files, threads with general and specific advice, but none of the suggestions solve the problem (at least I can't get them to work). All the RH GUI config tools shown in the book require that the graphical display work -- so I can't use them and am stuck at the command prompt. I am not a Windows fan at all, but this exact same hardware (none of which is "cutting edge") was plug'n'play with XP.

My current plan B is that I have Mandrake 9.1 on order. As best I can tell from my reading, sometimes the tools or approach of one distro can get around install / config problems that another distro can't resolve.

I welcome any other suggestions.

Thanks again.

If XFree86 -configure doesn't do the trick,
try xf86config ... it's a bit demanding on
your knowledge of the hardware you're
using but never has failed me ...

As for the other config tool: I know that
RH comes with a home-brew text configurator
for X but for the life of me can't remember its
name ... as root, type a
X<TAB> and see what it presents you with
to chose from ...

The X setup alone shouldn't make you
change distro's ;)

Cheers,
Tink

Try reinstalling,without configuring X or go for default text mode.create a bootable floppy,boot from it.it will ask for kernel params and u can type linux 1(single user mode) or linux 3(text mode) or linux 5(X).
Then try configuring X using xf86config or Xconfigurator.Try lower color(like 16 bit or lower).

bye the bye-no errors in the log file??May be it crashes while loading X.

thanks for following up.

Tinkster
-- I will try xf86config -- I am reasonably comfortable that I have good hardware info

-- as for your other suggestion -- after login as root and have the prompt # are you saying to type "a X<tab>" or "X<tab>" -- my command vocab is very limited and I don't know if the "a" was a command or simply a grammatical element <grin>

-- I won't switch distros until I've tried today's suggestions <grin>

arunshivanandan
-- don't have a floppy -- haven't used one in years and so didn't get one for this machine -- can see that I may need to do that
-- but even tho it is a single OS machine, I have it booting into GRUB which gives me a chance to enter the Kernel -- I will try your approach from there
-- the general interpretation in similar [no display] situations is that the absence of error entires in the log suggests that X _thinks_ everything is fine -- there have been no contrary messages from the video card or the monitor -- but the video card has simply gone into settings that show no display -- sort of "everybody is at home -- but the lights are off" <grin>

thanks again for the support.

To recap: I could not get XFree86 to work with the Apple Studio Display 17" LCD via DVI port on a Radeon 7500 card. The Apple monitor remained blank. I knew the hardware was ok because I could drive a (borrowed) Sony monitor. Note that this hardware combination worked under Windows XP with no difficulty.

I was never able to resolve this despite 2 weeks researching, modifying configs, trying CVS drivers, and very generous help from several people working on XFree86.

Finally, based on other suggestions, I bought a Nvidia card (a lot cheaper than getting a new monitor <grin>). Out of the box with the standard XFree86 driver ("nv") the screen lit up (first time that had happened with XFree86) but showed only hash - no image. As soon as I installed the Nvidia driver ("nvidia" downloaded from their site), the monitor worked gloriously.

I post this for the record and with the hope it will help someone else in the future. But I think the experience also makes another point -- the long-term success of Linux depends in part on active support from the commercial hardware sector.

And I for one, think the Linux community might be more explicit in their support of those companies that are responsive. I built this homebrew PC explicitly to run Linux -- but in all my readings of various forums there was no clear statement that Nvidia cards were more likely to work with unusual monitor situations than Radeon cards. I bought the Radeon card largely by chance. Next time I see a "what hardware is best with Linux" post, my response will be to explicitly recommend Nvidia.

Another obvious -- more important -- example of the importance of corporate support (support, not ownership) is IBM's very clear, forceful response to the OSC "lawsuit" (I may have the corporate ID wrong -- apologies). I understand that IBM is motivated by "enlightened self-interest" here -- but such insight is going to be key to the success of the open-source movement.

Again, many thanks to all those in the Linux community who responded to my posts and offered suggestions.

This thread is more than likely dead, and I have come to know that RedHat uses out of the box 2d accelleration for X. Find some line in your XF86config-4 file I think that says accel on/yes/1 whatever it may use to confirm. Turn that off, then save and reboot. Then using X try to find out how to get 3d working then turn x accelleration on.