I have reinstalled Suse 9.1 via FTP. Found out my cd drive is going bad and it would not install everything. (the resolution was correct before reinstall)

On first boot, I set up users and such and had a GUI desktop. The resolution was 800x600 so I tried to change it. In Sax, I was able to select my monitor, compaq Qvision 172, and the resolution 1024x768. After I rebooted the computer, I had the same resolution of 800x600! I rechecked the settings for the monitor in Sax and it was correct (1024x768)! After reseting and selecting again, I rebooted.

Now I have no GUI! When I type in "kde" in command line, I get msgs of things being aborted and cannot connect.

What do I do now? I am at a loss.



btw I am running:
PII 350mhz
192 RAM
Matrox onboard video

I must have really screwed up since no one has replied yet.

You probably haven't set up your video settings correctly. You could type:

xf86config

from the command line, and go through the setup. This will take you through your mouse, keyboard, and video settings. Before you do this, I would google search your monitor, and make sure you get all the information you can find: refresh rates, power rates, resolution supported, etc. Also, you can choose a "better" driver for your video card as most of the time, default drivers work, but are not the best for your setup.

i had a similiar problem and as mytaylor57 suggests, you need to get the most up to date drivers for you card
If it were me, I would reinstall completely to get the 800x600 gui back, then go to yast and search for "matrox" and see if you can find a better driver.

In your current state, You could try going into sax2 (from command line) and see if you can configure your card.

That is what does not make any sense. I had the 1024x768 res. on the prevous install. I will do what you and mtaylor57 said and google for all the rates and updated drivers.



I've tried running sax2 and do not get anything to change and the last time I only got the command line.

I will post what I find. Thanks!

OK, I googled my monitor and video card and got the specs on them.

I ran xf86config and went through it setting up everything. When it went to write the xf86config file, it returned a "Failed to open filename for writing." I tried to do this a couple times and got the same return.

I am searching out drivers for these items. Will it even matter if I can't write to xf86config? I really do not want to install everything again like allelopath said.

BTW I did run the online update for Suse 9.1 before I started on this adventure.

Thanks for all your help.

i know the SuSE 9.2 uses Xorg, not XFree86, so the confile is /etc/X11/xorg.conf.
This may also be true for 9.1...

I got xf86config to save. I am still working in command line. This is not the black screen though. I have a color screen with Suse logo in the upper right.

I have to log in and then I type in KDE and receive:

xset: unable to open display""
xset: unable to open display""
xset: unable to open display""
xsetroot: unable to open display' '
xset: unable to open display""
xset: unable to open display""
ksplash: cannot connect to x server
kdeinit: Aborting. $DISPLAY is not set.
Warning: connect() failed: : No such file or directory
Error: Can't contact kdeinit!
startkde: Running shutdown scripts...
startkde: Done.

If I say that it sill cannot read my monitor settings, would I be right?
How would I check to see if it has it and then run it? If I have to download it, that will open another question. I still am in the dark on downloading and running programs, especially from command line.

I got to go to work to get some rest. I will check back tomorrow.

what happens when you type 'startx'?

I was going to say that 'Startx' starts xfree86. As i read what i can see on the screen, I a not sure this is correct. It is giving me some different things.

(EE) VGA(0): Given depth (16) is not supported by this driver.
(EE) Screen(s) found but none have a usable configuration.
"fatal server error: No screens found"

I am looking for newer drivers for my monitor. This brings up a new question. When found, how do I download them to my Linux box in command line and get them installed properly?

I have found the problem!!

First though, I need to thank allelopath and mtaylor57 for their help. I have definitely learned off of this.

I was searching for drivers on google (which I didn't find much) and made my way to the Suse site. There I found the specs they had for my monitor. What I had found previously was only half right it seems. This LINK for their site show the verticle freq. at 50-90Hz. I had been using 50-110Hz per 2 other sources. I changed this via 'xf86config' and rebooted. When the computer got going it not only loaded KDE but had the monitor set at the highest resolution of 1280-1024!

I am now looking at the beautiful snowy mountains.

Thanks all. I hope this will help someone else in the future.