cant see the desktop

[jader2toesbumpy]

im sorry i know this is a noob question but when i boot up the cd everything gose fine and loads ok untill the desktop...i cant see the desktop its like in gosht mode or somthing becasue i can make out the backround and some icons at the bottom but is to dark for me to read or do any thing... can some one help me please.... if you need my comp. spec. then ask and ill post them...

thank you

[Harry Kuhman]

Sounds like a monitor mode issue, although such things are not usually represented by a display "too dark". I would suggest following the Documentation link near the top of this page and reading the Cheat Codes section of the wiki to see if there isn't a video option that will bring Knoppix up in a better mode for you.

[jader2toesbumpy]

i tried adjusting the color and contrast and other on the monitor and i looked and could not find any cheat codes to help me and it is still is too dark to see it looks like the contrast is way down but its not...

[Harry Kuhman]

I'm wondering if Knoppix is trying o run the monitor at scan rates that it is unable to operate at or if the monitor may have individual brightness/intensity settings for different scan rates and the rate that Knoppix is using just happens to be set very dark, although you seem to have ruled out the second guess. Does the monitor have "on screen display"? If so does that look good when you bring it up? Does it show what frequencies Knoppix it running it at? Have you tried cheat codes to force these setting to whatever it is when you run Windows?

[UnderScore]

Try this:
knoppix vga=normal screen=800x600 xvrefresh=60

Then try increasing the resolution and/or refresh:
knoppix vga=normal screen=1024x768 xvrefresh=85

[jader2toesbumpy]

ok in window i run my screen at 1024x768 and idk the refresh rate. I tried the code knoppix vga=normal screen=800x600 xvrefresh=60 and after detecting my hardware i saw the knoppix screen for a couple secounds then my monitor went into sleep mode. then i tried knoppix vga=normal screen=1024x768 xvrefresh=85 then it loaded the desktop and went into sleep mode. when i run it with out any codes everything works fine i just cant see it.
when detecting my hardware this is what it said:
video is nvidea corparation : unknow divise 0391 using xorg(nv) server
monitor is: hwp2594 h:30-83khz v:56-76hz

i have an hp pavilion f1703 monitor

thanks in advance

[Harry Kuhman]

ok in window i run my screen at 1024x768 and idk the refresh rate. I tried the code knoppix vga=normal screen=800x600 xvrefresh=60 and after detecting my hardware i saw the knoppix screen for a couple secounds then my monitor went into sleep mode. then i tried knoppix vga=normal screen=1024x768 xvrefresh=85 then it loaded the desktop and went into sleep mode. when i run it with out any codes everything works fine i just cant see it.
when detecting my hardware this is what it said:
video is nvidea corparation : unknow divise 0391 using xorg(nv) server
monitor is: hwp2594 h:30-83khz v:56-76hz

i have an hp pavilion f1703 monitor
The highlighted parts should point out one problem. The monitor went to sleep because the signal was out of range. The is good, some destroy themselves instead. Try a lower refresh like 60 for the 1024x768. But I have no idea why the monitor went into sleep mode for the 800x600 settings.

[jader2toesbumpy]

i tried the 60 refresh rate for 1024x768. my moditor gave me a message that it was setting configurations to 1024x768 and 60hz then it started to load up the desktop and the screen went into sleep mode...

[jader2toesbumpy]

this is a crappy cell phone camara but just to give you guys an idea of what im dealing with
knoppix
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c324/baritoneboy11/Image016.jpg
compared to windows
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c324/baritoneboy11/Image020.jpg

[Harry Kuhman]

i tried the 60 refresh rate for 1024x768. my moditor gave me a message that it was setting configurations to 1024x768 and 60hz then it started to load up the desktop and the screen went into sleep mode...
Your monitor sure seems to like going into sleep mode. Any idea why it is doing that, on resolutions and scan rates that should be within spec? Abc to another group of questions that I asked: Does this monitor have an on-screen display? If it does, is the on-screen display dark when the rest of the monitor is dark, or is it normal intensity? And if it has on-screen display, does that display have a page that gives you the resolution and scan frequency information?

[jader2toesbumpy]

yea my monitor dose have an on screen display and it is the normal intenisty when knoppix is dark but there is no diagnostic submenu so it dose not show any info.... the only time it has ever showed me any info on resolution and refresh rates is when i set it manually before boot up with knoppix then right before it loads the desktop a onscreen display menu box pops up at normal intensty showing the resolution and refresh rates in hz's...

[Harry Kuhman]

.... the only time it has ever showed me any info on resolution and refresh rates is when i set it manually before boot up with knoppix then right before it loads the desktop a onscreen display menu box pops up at normal intensty showing the resolution and refresh rates in hz's...
A monitor built this way makes no sense to me, as one wants the OSD to tell them what the display parameters are after a system has changed them, not before. I really expect that there is some way to get the OSD to give you this information after Knoppix has gone ito "dark mode" if it can give you the information other times. Try whatever you do to get it other times, or if you are telling me it only displays this information when first powered on them power it off for a minute and then power it on again. ..... But the other part of your response makes it seem less likely that this is even the issue


yea my monitor dose have an on screen display and it is the normal intenisty when knoppix is dark but there is no diagnostic submenu so it dose not show any info....
Well, if the OSD looks normal at the same instant that knoppix is looking dark (that is, if the OSD takes only a portion of the screen and you can see the rest of the screen still sowing a dark Knoppix at the same time), then I'm inclined to think that it has nothing to do with refresh rates. If it was refresh rate related then I would expect the OSD to also be dark when running at the same rate. This isn't 100% certain, and their could be other issues, but it's a reasonable theory lacking any other information and other theories.

By the way, this brings up another important issue, there isn't anything between your monitor and your vodeo card, is there? Like a KVM switch, 3D glasses interface, or anything else the ideo signal may pass through? If so thak that out of the system and try again with the monitor plugged directly into the video card.

Assuming that the monitor is plugged right into the video card, then the dark screen but normal OSD (if they can both be seen at once) seems to say that Knoppix is not working right with the video card driver. But this would be pretty strange, as you also tried the vga=normal option that Underscore gave you, and it doesn't make much sense that Knoppix would do this with the "normal vga" video driver.

So, here's the next round of questions:

Just what video card do you have iin this system?

What version of Knoppix are you using? If it is 5.0.1 have you tried 4.2 and does it give the same result, or if you are using something other than 5.0.1 I would try 5.0.1, as 5.0.1 uses a different video system (Xorg vs. Xfree86).

I would also suggest trying some other Live CD to see if this is common to Linux and your system or more narrowly limited to Knoppix. I suspect it's just a Knoppix issue but if other Linuxs do it too then we should focus the search for a fix in other areas. DSL would be a fast download (50 meg ISO) that woud be worth trying and is a nice Live CD to have anyway. Katonix is a popular with many Knoppix users and offeres a similar assortment of programs. And Puppy Linux is another small download that you might try. I'm not suggesting that you should go use them and stop caring about Knoppix, and I would certainly try an alternate Knoppix version and see what that tells us first, but if 5.0.1 and some other Knoppix version both fail then knowing how other Linux Live CD distros behave would tell us something (although to be honest I'm not quite sure exactly what it would tell us, but it would be more information to work with).

[jader2toesbumpy]

ok maby i was a little confusing what happens is when the cd boots and you get to the screen where you enter the codes i put in the codes and press enter then it detects the hardware and inbetween the hardware detection and the desktop loading it gives me the pop up of parameters....
i found the the way to get the information when it dosnt pop up curently on windows it says

current mode:1024x768@60hz
recomended mode: 1280x1024@60hz

yes when running knoppix the osd takes up only a small portion of the screen and is at normal intesity when in the rest of the screen knoppix is dark

the only thing in between my video card is a dvi to vga coverter that came with my video card
i cant plug it directly into the video card because my monitor dosnt have a dvi port

i have an nvida GeForce 7600 GT KO

i am using 5.0.1 and have not tried any other versions. how would i get diffrent video systems on there if i dont take your next advise of a diffrent linux cd

i will try a diffrent version and diffrent disdbuter if any of the info above dose not help... i picked knoppix because it seemed the most popular but if you have other recumedations then i will try them

i would just like to say thank you agian for all the help and time

[Harry Kuhman]

I'm still at a loss for what the problem is. No, I don't think the DVI adapter is the issue. I only though of this though because last night I semed to have a problem with my NEC video monitor; the screen took on a very yellow tint. And the OSD was still it's normal color. The problem was finally found to be a KVM switch and not the monitor itself.

If you do have any other monitor available that you could borror just for a few minutes to test how a different monitor acts, particularly a monitor with DVI in, it would be worth doing as a test to help issolate the problem.

It sounds like you are running at 1024x768 while the monitor thinks that you would be happy at 1280x1024. I have not looked up the monitor to see any real information on it. If this is an LCD monitor then you might be better of going to the recommend resolution. If, as I was thinking, it is a CRT based video monitor then I would think either mode would be fine, the 1280x1024 would give you more desktop real estate but I generally like working with the size of icons, text and applications that 1024x768 gives me on my monitor. Your preferences may vary.

I don't know exactly what you mean by different video systems. Underscore gave you some cheat codes in his post for forcing different video resolution. I would at the very least try forcing the 1280x1024 resolution. He also mentioned vga=normal, which bypasses the Nvidia drivers in favor of Generic VDGA drivers. But we have seen no other problems of Nvidia users with your problem that I am aware of, I don't really think it's a Nvidia driver isue, particularly since you already did the vga=normal test. There are also cheat codes that let you use a different GUI than KDE, but I would be very shocked if it turned out to be KDE related.

I certainly don't want to tell you to go away and use a different Live CD. Knoppix is still my favorite, in spite of the the problems that have crept up in 5.0.1 and that some other Live CD's do support more of my wireless NICs than Knoppix does. The overall mix of software in Knoppix still suits me better for Live CD use than other distros that I have found. However, since DSL does have a nice simple klik-like tool for installing new packages right to the Live CD system, it is pretty attractive too. And there are a lot of nice specialized Live discs for special interests such as system security and forensics. But Knoppix is a great general choice. I'm just wondering if we might learn anything from other distros.

On a different track, we now know that your Knoppix display is dim at 1024x768. I don't know what screen resolution your system is running under in Windows. But you should easily be able to change it to 1024x768 (and should be able to specify 60 hz refresh rate too, although this is some times harder to find). If the screen gets dark when Windows switches to 1024x768 then we instantly know it's not a Knoppix issue.

[Sagan]

I'm having the exact same problem.
Since I have a 7600, too (XFX 7600 GS to be precise) I believe the problem is, that the 7600 is just not supported. When I run knoppix in failsafe it works fine, but since network and internet doesn't work in failsafe that's not a solution. I tried a couple of cheat codes but I'm a linux noob and it didn't get me very far. so right now I just want Knoppix to start normally, but initialize the graphics card as if he was in failsafe mode. Can someone tell me the command for that? That'd be a great help, thx.

edit: OK I've found the cheatcode that does what I want. So in case anyone has got similar problems with a Nvidia Geforce 7600 GT or GS he should try using "knoppix xmodule=vesa"

[jader2toesbumpy]

thank you, thank you, thank you, that code Sagan gave me worked thank you soo much and thank you Harry Kuhman for all your help and general intrest in my problem
agian thank you very much