AussieJohn Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 I am curious about a thing I experience when I install and reinstall Mandriva 2006. The monitor type and model is correctly detected by monitor-edid during install. The Monitor is a 19" Samsung 913v. During the install phase post settings, you can test the Monitor settings but if I do then the screen goes to blue with a wide band of mixed up colours across the screen and nothing other than a hard restart will clear the situation. Needless to say I do not do a test anymore because it means restarting the entire install all over again which is not too much of a problem because I ALWAYS save the packages selections on to a floppy. I then found that when the install was completed successfully and then rebooted that when it reached the GUI stage that once again I got the same multicoloured banded blue screen. This ONLY occurs with the LCD Monitor and never with other CRT Monitors such as LG or Mitsubishi. I found the solution was to select safemode at boot and then at completion of boot, type in init 3, let it do its thing and then type in root and enter password. Because my Nvidia driver is in a known place, I ls and then cd to that place and run the install driver procedure. I type reboot and I have a clear run to my account at last. I now use this solution as a standard part of my install procedure since it only takes a couple of minutes more on the install time. I do not need work arounds since my current solution is short and simple and it works faithfully. I am only curious as to whether other members who use LCD Monitors experience the same or similar. Thanks in advance for any replys. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 I do not need work arounds since my current solution is short and simple and it works faithfully.I am only curious as to whether other members who use LCD Monitors experience the same or similar. Thanks in advance for any replys. John. John, I pretty much always manually edit the xorg.conf from scratch.... you can generate a basic one with startx --configure and then I edit in the timings from the monitor manual when available. I delete the modelines as well they can cause as much hassle ...and color depths I don't use. Even from scratch you can wget the nvidia driver (wget http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x...-8762-pkg1.run) You can also then add a proper monitor color profile (for your photographic work) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ianw1974 Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 I've never had a problem with my flatscreen LCD's be it laptop, or even desktop. I'm just curious, when you get to the install summary screen, did you have a go at configuring the display here, and then changing the monitor settings to see if it made a difference? I know this might be a case of try something and then restart if it really goes bad. There are generic flatscreen options, which haven't affected the way any of my systems work. Although my desktop did auto detect correctly for the monitor I have and worked straightaway. Does seem strange though. I'm just wondering if it's one of the problems with Mandriva 2006 before they fixed all the xorg stuff. Unless of course you've started using the Mandriva One LiveCD, then that completely blows my theory out of the water. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Seriously I have rarely seen the auto probing get it right. If you compare the values with the manual its usually in the range but not spot on and/or it comes up with a non optimal mode .. like my present 1440x900 comes up as 1440x1024 ?? when you check the xorg log you can see it is trying and rejecting lots of modes... or interpolating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coverup Posted July 3, 2006 Report Share Posted July 3, 2006 Like Gowator, I usually configure xorg.conf by hand. During the initial install, selecting generic flat panel usually allows me to go through the setup without hassles. I always install the box to boot into init3 - my answer to the question if I want to boot into X, is a firm NO. I learnt this lesson after receiving a very funny reply from one of the Mandrake Experts on the very same problem as you have - "Why would you test the monitor?" That was few years back, I was installing a new shiny MDK9.x powerpack on my laptop, and had exactly same issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jboy Posted July 4, 2006 Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 (edited) Recently I converted from a CRT which I ran at 1024x768 resolution to a Samsung 930B LCD monitor whose native (and max) resolution is 1280x1024. This machine has an ATI 9200SE video card and I use the provided fglxrconfig to configure xorg.conf. After the switch, Mandriva 2006 booted up ok into KDE without any configuration changes being made to xorg.conf. Since I wanted to get the full 1280x1024 resolution, all I needed to do was execute fglrxconfig and select 1280x1024 resolution and that worked fine. Since I installed and started using the ATI proprietary drivers from ATI's website, I have never had to do anything other than run fglrxconfig to configure xorg.conf. Testing using glxgears and fgl_glxgears always showed good results after that. Edited July 4, 2006 by jboy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted July 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 Thanks everyone. I think there is a slight misunderstanding here. Most of your excellent suggestions would apply after you get into your account or do cli editing at the reboot point. The condition ONLY exists during when doing a reinstall or an install of 2006. Once I carry out the procedure I outlined, I have absolutely NO trouble with my LCD Monitor and have total operation of the NVIDIA driver for 3D acceleration etc. I guess from your responses that no one seems to encounter this situation. I haven't tried this with a Mandriva2005-LE install using this new LCD Monitor so I am wondering if this is a 2006 condition or a Samsung LCD condition. I think I will try that just to find out. Wil keep you posted on this. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coverup Posted July 4, 2006 Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 John, I hope there is no misunderstanding on my side. I had exactly same problem during install. I no longer configure video or test monitors during install. I configure X after the first boot into init3. I use 17" Samsung, it works fine (including test). The problems I had went away since I installed the ATI proprietary driver, so the issue is perhaps Mandriva specific - afterall everything works on the second boot, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSurfer60 Posted July 4, 2006 Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 I can fully understand the problem as this is exactly the situation I get when installing and seems to be the NVIDIA driver. I run dual monitors on an FX card one of which is lcd and the other crt. I always have to boot into safe mode and init 3 to get the screens sorted. If I just allow the complete install onto the LCD monitor the standard driver works fine on just one screen unless I do a test!! that's when the problem arises. Why I don't know and I just don't do the test anymore. Like yourself I never tried it with prior releases as I only had the CRT monitor at the time. I know this isn't an answer I'm just letting you know you are not on your own. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AussieJohn Posted July 4, 2006 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2006 I said I would come back on this. I just did a fresh install of Mandriva 2005-LE and using the LCD Monitor. I actually did the post instal settings test for the monitor and it worked perfectly and booted correctly into my account. Once there of course it was simple to do the Nvidia driver install routine. Therefore the problem is a Mandriva2006 problem, another screwup by some one at Mandriva. Actually when I think about it, running my routine of doing the driver install straight from the first reboot is about the same timewise as doing the full login into account and then installing the driver so I think I will stick to it. The process doesn't cause me any drama as it is now, but I feel sorry for those who encounter the problem in their first experiences with Linux/Mandriva. Newcomers would not know how to deal with it since they would be unlikely have the nvidia driver handy on a prepared partition before commencing the install. Thanks to everyone who participated in this string. The answer seems to be YES to my original question whether others had experienced the phenomena. Cheers. John. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverSurfer60 Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 The process doesn't cause me any drama as it is now, but I feel sorry for those who encounter the problem in their first experiences with Linux/Mandriva. Newcomers would not know how to deal with it Indeed John, this is the sort of thing that will put newcomers off. Unfortunately some things like this don't arise until they are tested by the community at large. As there is such a wide range of equipment that can be plugged into the system it must be virtually impossible to test all configurations. I think boards such as this one play a very important part of the linux community. I have learned from your post that I must start sharing my experiences more and put the results on the board. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted July 5, 2006 Report Share Posted July 5, 2006 Also some of the low end monitors don't actually provide the info for probing.... The main thing is if you are doing this on a shiny new monitor I don't wanna take a risk :D I dunno if its Mandriva specific or not, my monitor setup is a little weird ... monitor 0 1280x1024 LCD, monitor 1 1440x900 and monitor 2 a projector at "1152x864" (seperate mga card) I have yet to find ANY auto tool that can handle this automatically. practically all the auto mechanisms find the suggested modes but usually end up giving interpolated ones. Putting this in context Windows would probably be in safe mode and require X reboots !!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
coverup Posted July 6, 2006 Report Share Posted July 6, 2006 I have yet to find ANY auto tool that can handle this automatically. practically all the auto mechanisms find the suggested modes but usually end up giving interpolated ones. Putting this in context Windows would probably be in safe mode and require X reboots !!!! I searched for such a tool in vain for a long time... 50% of the time, I use my 1440x1050 laptop with a 1280x1024 LCD monitor via port replicator's DVI connection - the laptop has a VGA port only. I want Linux to detect whether it's docked or not, and depending on this start an appropraite layout section of XF86Config - I have given up on getting it switch resolution... Even such a simple thing is a no go Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Julie Posted July 9, 2006 Report Share Posted July 9, 2006 John, I pretty much always manually edit the xorg.conf from scratch.... you can generate a basic one with startx --configure and then I edit in the timings from the monitor manual when available. I delete the modelines as well they can cause as much hassle ...and color depths I don't use. Even from scratch you can wget the nvidia driver (wget http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x...-8762-pkg1.run) You can also then add a proper monitor color profile (for your photographic work) I have the same problem with the screen coloured lines, i have now ticked the NO box for Xorg, could some one tell me how to config it as i am a total novice. I don,t understand why it works ok on my Compag with a LCD and not on my Sony with LCD, both have different Nvidia graphics cards? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iphitus Posted July 9, 2006 Report Share Posted July 9, 2006 I searched for such a tool in vain for a long time... 50% of the time, I use my 1440x1050 laptop with a 1280x1024 LCD monitor via port replicator's DVI connection - the laptop has a VGA port only. I want Linux to detect whether it's docked or not, and depending on this start an appropraite layout section of XF86Config - I have given up on getting it switch resolution... Even such a simple thing is a no go add an init.d script on boot to detect whether the system is docked, then adapt the correct Xorg config, or configure acpid to modify the X config file on boot. to dynamically change it, you could write a script for the acpid daemon to run when a docking event occurs, that calls xrandr to resize the screen. It's possible, but not the sorta thing a distro will setup for you, because it's such a ridiculously corner case, that I doubt anyone has ever even considered implementing it. But the infrastructure IS there (acpid & init) to use and implement it yourself. James Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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