URGENT!: No monitor output when Linux Mandrake 9.1 (bamboo) loads
 

Hi

I am a fairly inexperienced Linux user, and have just updated my existing Mandrake 9.0 (dolphin) to Mandrake 9.1 (bamboo).

However, the upgrade didn't go very smoothly and resulted in me having to format my HD and re-install Mandrake completely. When i boot Linux, the monitor quite happily displays the series of screens whilst Linux is loading. But, when the login screen loads, i am just given an error on my monitor: 'No Signal Input' and the monitor goes to standby.

Could this be due to the frequency settings for the monitor within Linux itself? I think its set to 60Htz - though it has worked before at 70Htz. I set it to 60Htz so that both my CRT and TFT monitors would work with it (and also thats what frequency its set at in Windows XP).

If this is the case, any ideas on how to fix it or is there any way i could change the settings without having to load Linux itself?

Thanks,
Brad.

You could just use a system recovery disk, and change the default runlevel to boot to a command line and then change the settings in /etc/X11/XF86Config (is is /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 in Mandrake?

Or, after the boot disk loads, you could mount the hard drive as rw and change the settings then.

~Andrew

RE: Post
 

How can i create a boot disk?

and how can i change it to command line?

I am not familiar with Linux commands as i am only a newbie.

Cheers,
Brad.

Usually all Linux distributions include a "recovery" mode in their CD's. So I'd say to put in your CD 1 and boot up the computer, when you are presented with the options of install, there must be one labled "rescue" or "recovery". That should take you to a prompt, and will also try to detect yuor current installation, so you could make a chroot (change the curren root directory) to the mount point of your system's install. From there you can modify any files on your HDD. In this case you should be looking (as stated above) for the /etc/X11/XF86Config(-4) file, which contains the information necessary to run X.

Anyway you may do it, there is an obligated question for me to ask you: What video card do you have? if I understood correctly, you are using a dual display setup, so you must have a dual display capable video card, like an ATi Radeon or nVidia GeForce... I may be wrong, of course, but it may be your drivers rather than the frequencies what need tuning.

Graphics Card
 

:Pengy:

Hi

No, i'm not using a dual monitor. My graphics card is a GeForce 2 MX 400. I have had Mandrake 9.0 working before, and all of the installation screens, etc work prfectly.

My monitor is a Tandberg TFT screen (strange make, i know!).

The frequency is set to 60Hz @ the moment as i reinstalled linux and changed the settings from 70Hz. Could it be the wrong graphics card nstalled? The options i was given during installation didn't include my card, so i left ivt vvwith the one selected which was a Geforce2 DDR (Generic).

Also, there were two versions vof 'XFree', an older one and a newer one. I didn't know what XFree was, so i left it on the latest one.

Thanks,
Brad

To make the machine bootup to a command line you need to change the default runlevel.

It can be changed in the file /etc/inittab. In Slackware you would change it from 4 to 3, but from what I believe there might be variance from distro to distro.

Ok, since we have clarified the video card mystery, I *really* think you should go with the nVidia drivers instead of the XFree86/DRI ones. Because the official driver set would give more control over your hardware and besides there are tons of configuration options for that card. Heat towards nVidia driver page and make sure you read the README file, there are even a few [i]official[/b] HowTo's and a very complete set of Release Notes.

EDIT:
NOTE

XFree86 is the graphical environment upon which all the Desktop Environments (GNOME, KDE, IceWM, etc) sit. It is the core of the linux (and other UNIXes) graphical system. So it must have display drivers to be able to comunicate to the actual video hardware. The latest version of the Free implentation of the X protocol is 4.3 (XFree86 4.3).