Hello I am new to linux and I have a few problems. I got a good copy of linux of Suse. I installed it ok and when I start it up it always has a message of "Your monitor didnt give us your size do you want to configure geometry yourself. Not doing this could result in unreadable fonts." or something like that. What do i do. I can't find my display of my notebook in the list. Also I cant seem to get the 3d support working with my graphics card. It is an ATI radeon mobility 9000 igp. Its not in the list either. Also my speakers don't work. But I have a dual boot of windows and linux and when i turn my computer on i get to pick. Well i typed in acpi=off and then the speakers worked! Well I dont know why they worked. Also I was wondering how to change to text only mode and make it not automatically start with KDE. I was thinking i might want to use gnome instead. Thanks everyone.

hi,
i can help you start in text mode
go to the file /etc/inittab
in there is a line
id:3:initdefault:
yours might say something other than 3
there may be some convention in suse if you change that number you will get text bootup
see if the file is commented and explains what the run levels are.
the old redhat convention is 5 is graphical and 3 in text login..
make sure you don't set default run level to reboot or halt if you do big trouble
if you are unsure about the runlevel number just go to the bootup folder of whatever runlevel you are using
the folder name is rc5.d for 5 rc3.d for 3 and like that
they are in /etc somewhere possibly in another folder like rc.d or init.d or something
in you rc5.d folder (if your default is 5) just put a "_" in front of the link that lookes like S35kdm
(the number will be different)
the command would be
mv S35kdm _S35kdm
this will get you a text login which is alot better to use cause when x is misconfigured you just get dumped back to the command terminal for easy fixing......
beyond that i think give us the exact specs of your laptop
laptops can be a little odd.

Thanks I will try it. Here is my laptop stuff:
HP Pavillion zv5000 series or something laptop.
512 ram
2.8 ghz celeron processor
ati radeon mobility 9000 igp
i forget the sound but I can check
the display is i forgot also but will check
anything im missing besides those 2?

Ok. I found out what my sound card is but I cant find out what my display is. Sound card is Analog Devices Inc SoundMAX integrated digital audio or something like that. I tried doing the thing you said for text mode and I got stuck. I found the inittab file and the line you talked about and it was id:5:initdefault. A little lower in the file was a commented section detailing different run levels but none mentioned anything about text only mode. Then I went to the init.d folder and went into the rc5.d folder and there was a lot of different files but I couldnt find anything ending with 'kdm'. Thanks for the help. By the way, when I first put linux on my computer I went in either Yast or the control center or something and I saw an option for 'Text only mode'. At the time I didnt check it because I was still trying to get used to it. Now I can't find that option. Has anyone ever heard of that and know where it is? Thanks.

Anybody?

I didnt think that making it text mode is that difficult. And I guess thats why I am so confused of why such a popular linux forum cant answer it. Maybe it would have been better if I never posted to begin with.

Excuse me, say huh? Could you please explaing that in plain english, im a linux dummy, lol.
I am also having the same problem.
Thx.

Wow I really thought someone would reply to this. This means to me, that you guys(and girls)don't know as much about Linux as I thought you did, this being a Linux forum. Some of you consider yourself experts but still neglect a few newbies at Linux. This is quite disturbing.

No i meant, could you please explain how to fix the problem in plain english that i can understand.
I am having the same monitor problem on a desktop.

Did you change the 5 to 3?We need to know what graphics card you are using for anyone to help,don't want to give you bad information,we need more information,what is the output of dmesg and lspci you most likely will have to do this as root.Do dmesg | less otherwise the information will fly by.

Pheonix, this entire thread is english. I already said my graphics card. Also I didnt change it to 3 or 5 whatever it isnt even though it is nothing about text only but you *are* the expert so i will try it and let you know. Thanks for replying since I know you people are annoyed at newbies and what not. How do you do it as root and I have no idea about dmesg, lspci and what not. thanks again!

It worked! Thank you so much and sorry I was rude. Now one more question. How can I start kde? I thought maybe it was kde but it said kdeinit failed i think or initkde failed. I am really nervous if i cant change it back. If I can't start kde (i think i have an idea of how i will do it but I will see) how can I change the inittabs file back. I have absolutely almost no experience with linux so you will have to be patient I only know a few commands. ls, cd, and how to log in. take this into consideration when answering. So I would need to go as root and edit a file which i dont even know how to find. For me this was even hard in KDE. Ok thanks. Thanks again for helping. I am really sorry for being rude anyways.

O K try this from the console or text mode su [enter]that means to press the enter key
then your password and then lspci and look for your graphic card or do you have onboard graphics? then dmesg | less [enter] need to know your graphic card your monitor vertical and horizonal frequency range,how is your mouse connected ps/2 or usb after we have this info we can configure xf86config.suse should have something in yast or sax that will do this for you but mayby not in your case,I tried suse once but didn't like all the dependency problems and such.use google if you need to get this fixed pronto.

figured it out. typed startx

Not sure if my graphics is onboard but probably not because it is Ati radeon mobility 9000 igp. My mouse is the touch pad thing on the laptop so i dont know the other thing. Also I will try that stuff but not now but I really need to know the command for powering off my computer from the text only mode thing since i dont want to press the button.