I would like to be able to exit X and return to the console (Or hit CTR-ALT-Fn) but the screen gets REAL screwy, like it's decided on a horrificly small resolution. I was wondering if any one else has tried/ wanted to do this. GUI's are nice, but I still like the full text experience when I'm screwing with settings. BUt being a NooB I don't know if this is allowed. umm.. relevent specs I guess would be that I have a Geforce 440 MX video card and an X resolution of 1280x1040x16bpp. Any feedback would be appreciated, Thanks.

FryCarson, professional smoker

ewww... sounds like something is truelly messed up.. by the by... what version of mandrake do you have? And no, you should beable to drop to a comand line on another terminal. On every version.

Blast... thats not good. I'm using 9.1. On an additional note, now movies aren't playing... so this wouldn't be a resolution issue..

Well I'm trying to figure out how to make a working XF86 config now, so any suggestions on where to tind those would be appreciated. I need a good guide on basic editing. I'm scared to screw ti up right now.

Fry Carson, wishes it was colder

I don't know why this would fix it, but have tried a lower resolution? I know 800x600 is icky, but, hey, if it works...

One possibility is that you set the default monitor setting wrong for your monitor. Again, I'm not real sure how to change after install beyond turning the frame buffer off, which you might want to try. That one's real easy, just run the linux-nonfb kernel on start up.

As for the movie playback, you're going to have to be more specific than "it don't work." What exactly is it doing and what player are you using?

As a newbie with a truely messed up computer, you might want to think about the fact that you can re-install mandrake and all packages with destroying your personal files... just tell it to only format the / partition and leave the /home partition alone.

Oh, I'd also like to know what your machine is, specs on your monitor and rough age, blahblahblah...

I tried changing the resolution first, but since it did nothing. I'll have to try turning off the frame buffer, didn't think of that. My monitor, well, didn't come with any useful documentation, but i'm sure there might be something online to get more accruate settings. The movies not playing gives a message of being unable to initialialize the video out, my guess is the overlay is failing. I am going to reinstall to fix that, make good back ups this time before I touch anything.

Comp Specs:

Intel Celeron 1.7GHz
Intel USB, Firewire on board
Realtek AC650 (I think) for sound
Nvidia GeForce 4 MX440 128mb of ram, 4x Agp
realtek ethernet adapter
512megs of RAM

EDIT:

I reinstalled, and before any file editing I can still switch. I am hoping the problem wasn't caused by Nvidia's driver. So, now to see what happens.

Well, time to reinstall and try again.

FryCarson. I write things, and realize i forgot to make a point