What the? what is up with my screen?

beatupbilly · 11-21-2004, 06:29 PM

Ok, I wiped out my FC3 install to try the highly praised SuSe distro. Install seemed to go find. I got a warning about the alsa package at the end but no details. I restart, go through hardware setup and then bang it tries to startx and I get a weird screen that slowly brightens and looks lie pure plasma. So just a weird blank whitish blue screen. Why? Has any one else had this problem? It told me it had picked up my hardware no problem, so what is the deal?

Hiper · 11-21-2004, 07:36 PM

Sounds a bit like unsupported refresh rate, can you lower it manually?
I'm a bit confused with your description of the screen though

beatupbilly · 11-21-2004, 11:27 PM

It just went crazy. Like the synapticd touchpad moodgraph utility. Like someone was applying pressure to the lcd witht their thumb, but the entire screen. Hard to explain, sorry. Never seen an lcd do that. The refresh rate for this monitor is 60Hz. What I had it set at. I'm using the ATI Rage Mobility chipset. I can't get into any screen to change my settings because I can't see anything. Do you know how under the root failsafe? Thanks.

Hiper · 11-23-2004, 12:36 PM

I'm not going to describe step by step since i've not used Suse for years, but the general idea is:
boot in single user(AKA maintenance) mode or console-only mode
edit xorg.conf or XF86Config in /etc/X11/ and lower / change settings as you see fit
reboot or call init <graphic mode runlevel>
(all this is done as root)

Someone more experienced with suse can help further

beatupbilly · 11-24-2004, 10:57 AM

The only driver that works under SuSe is the vesa/ati driver. The drivers appropriate for the card don't work properly for some reason. Go figure.