Ballistic

Hey ppl...been a bit since I had a chance to come back in here...

Anyways, in that time, I've had a chance to install Fedora Core 3 on my comp. Having fun playing with that...My first real chance to tinker with Linux....And I managed to botch it pretty quick...(a day or two)...

Anyways, it seems like my monitor's resolution limit is different in Linux than in Windows (it's set up on dual-boot right now, so at least I can still go out and ask questions...) I was trying to bump up the res in linux to 1600*1200*24bpp, same as in Windows....Anyways, it took about a second, but the monitor came back with "Out Of Range" and shut down....

I rebooted and managed to find a command line for a bit(don't ask me how...), and going on a friend's advice, went to /etc/X11/ and tried editing my xorg.conf to add the resolution it should be starting in....To be honest I've got no idea what I'm doing there, but I know the guy knows his stuff, so what the hey... I tried to drop it down to 1024*768*16 to be safe, but the minute I rebooted, that was gone too...

Anyone know why I would still be getting the Out Of Range message after trying that?

And while I'm at it, anyone know how I got that command line?
I was just hitting buttons...I think I can find out how to turn off X Window(been reading up everywhere today), but that doesn't help me fix it...and besides I don't know the DOS-equivalent commands yet...(or at lest not enough of them...I know 'vi' for edit, and './' for run...)

w00t

I had this problem with fedora core 3 in the lab before. I forgot what line it was in xorg.conf but you are editing the right file. I think its the one that says supported resolutions, I think the first one on the list is the one you are currently using. FC3 also has a utility if you bosh the xorg.conf file that will allow you to reconfigure a new one if you mess up so don't worry to much about doing any more damage to that file.

Ballistic

Where do I find that?

batty_professor

Try this: When fedora boots up, and you get the "out of range" message on thee monitor, you should be able to reduce the resolution blindly right there! Hold the control and alt down and press the - (Thats the mathematical minus on the number pad) once, give the system a few seconds to adjust, if it's not enough, press - again. Shouldn't take more than three. You might need to blindly enter your username and password first, I don't remember, but I think this works by default in x server, password or not. Like I said, I'm not for sure. I had to discover this when I got my LCD. Once the system is accessible, get into the system, and in display properties, the top selection should be "custom". Using that allows you to set the H & V Hz, and Res. to the maximum known values for your monitor, if you know what those values are. Might check the specs for your specific monitor at the manufacturers site if you don't know/have manual.

Ballistic

Yeah I wish....monitor came with the other computer, and there's literally no brand name anywhere on it....couldnt tell you what kind of settings it supports if I tried...except for it can't take 1600*1200*24....next time I'll make sure it's a recognizable brand....


Thanks for the other bit, though...I'll try that now...

Ballistic

Well.....I got it fixed...turns out it was refresh rates too....duh...

batty_professor

Well, that should feel better. Did that three-key combo work for you?

Ballistic

hehe...thats the funny thing...it worked long enough for me to see my login screen for a sec, then it went blank again...didnt appreciate that....but i did find out that ctrl-alt-f1 MAY get you a command line...if youre lucky...

batty_professor

The ctrl-alt & - steps down through the available resolutions. If you're at for instance , 1600x1280 (something like that) the first step down then is 1280 x 1024, then 1024 x 768, then 800 x 600. And it reduces refresh rate accordingly. Got to give it time to adjust each time, if you keep clicking down, you'll end up at 600 x 480. Likewise the ctrl-alt & + goes from low to high res.