OK. It's been a long, hard, day. I'm tired, short-tempered, and just generally PO'd.

I've tried several times to find a link to the LQ HCL to add to the hardware list (specifically LCD monitors) only to find that monitors are apparently not an item of concern.

What gives? Are all monitors (CRT and LCD) supposed to be usable on all Linux distros? I missed that somewhere.

How do add my latest acquisition to the LQ HCL, including which distros worked with the LCD out of the box, and which required tweaking to get it to work?

For anyone who cares: SourceMage 0.9.3 with Xorg and KDE worked flawlessly. SuSE 8.2 Professional with XFree86 and KDE required tweaking (runlevel 3; no probs. runlevel 5; had to tweak). I'd like to let folks know the Make and Model of the LCD, and what tweaks were required to get it to work.

What gives? Are all monitors (CRT and LCD) supposed to be usable on all Linux distros?

Short answer: Yes

Long answer: It's not the monitor or LCD (as long as they are functioning), it's the video card. Different distributions include different video drivers (open source vs. proprietary), or just different versions of the driver (with unique issues). They also include different software for figuring out the proper configuration of the video card and monitor.

So the issue isn't that the monitor or LCD is incompatible, it's that the video card and video configuration support is better or worse in a given distribution. You can always manually correct the problem (install the driver, manually update the configuration).

So. Basically, you're saying that SourceMage (little known and little used) has better drivers that a powerhouse like Novel/Suse. Awesome! Gotta spend more time with SourceMage.

I say this 'cause, the video card didn't change, only the monitor. Yet one distro worked without probs, 'out of the box', yet the other distro required tweaking.

I've tried the Novel/Suse website to try to add to their HCL. Their site designer/manager ought to be shot at dawn, without trial, with extreme prejucide.

Moved: This thread is more suitable in Website Suggestions and Feedback and has been moved accordingly to help your thread/question get the exposure it deserves.

Titanium_Geek asked the very same question in WS&F.

Items such as routers and monitors are not in the HCL as there is no concept of one being "incompatible". If there is a way that a monitor could not work with a certain OS, we'd certainly consider adding them.

--jeremy

Just to toss in my 2 cents, monitors are to computers what speakers are to stereos. They simply accept the input signal, and compatibility issues just don't enter the equation. That being said, if you are connecting an LCD to your system and the monitor does not display an image, there's a good chance that the cause may be incorrect horizontal or vertical refresh rates in the xorg.conf or XF86Config file - most LCD's won't attempt to render an image if the input signal is out of tolerance. Editing the xorg.conf or XF86Config file (depending) and replacing the correct rates for your particular model should resolve the problem. Good luck with it -- J.W.