CD/HDD Video difficulty

[dfloyd4]

Configuration:

Compaq 5100 64Mb
Trident PCI VGA
NEC Multisync XV15+

I am able to get Knoppix and X11 running from CD, but it takes about 5 minutes to boot and arrives at what appears to be a 640x480 resolution. Screen goes through several "iterations", including a "skull and crossbones" cursor, but does manage to work finally, using vsync=60. (I realize a 64Mb box is pushing the limit, but it runs from CD!)

I installed to HDA2 and after booting I get nothing from X - just a blank screen. Is it necessary to use a similar cheat code (vsync=60), and if so how is it done???

[rickenbacherus]

Boot the Knoppix cd. Have a look at /etc/X11/XF86Config-4. That is the file that tells the Xserver what to do. If it isn't the same as the one in your /root partition (where you installed Knoppix) then simply copy XF86Config-4 from the cd to your install and replace the exisitng XF86Config-4 file.

Some important things to look for:

The driver. Here's mine:

Driver "nvidia"

Horizontal & Vertical refresh rates:

HorizSync 28.0 - 96.0 # Warning: This may fry old Monitors
VertRefresh 50.0 - 75.0 # Very conservative. May flicker.


Modelines:

ModeLine "1024x768" 44.9 1024 1032 1208 1264 768 768 776 817 +hsync +vsync Interla
ce

There will be many many modelines but if there isn't one that works for your monitor guess what? :)

Screen section:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Card0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultColorDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"

Make sure that the default depth is what you need and that the modes listed below default depth are correct. I would also suggest not running KDE w/ only 64M. Try Fluxbox or XFCE- they are much nicer to system resources.

[m_yates]

An easy fix is to use the working XF86Config-4 file from the CD. Just reboot the computer with the CD using the cheatcode that gives you a working display. Once it is up and running, open a terminal and enter "su" to become root. Mount you hard drive with "mount /dev/hda2 /mnt/hda2". Then copy the working file using "cp /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 /mnt/hda2/etc/X11" It will ask you if you want to overwrite the existing file. Say yes and reboot using the hard drive and the display should work the same as it does with the CD.

[dfloyd4]

Thanks for the response! When I attempted to cp the file I am told: Cannot stat '/etc/x11/xf86config-4': No such file or directory.

[baldyeti]

Unix filesystems are case-sensitive: check m_yates' spelling: that's "/etc/X11/XF86Config-4"

[dfloyd4]

Missed the "C" in "Config"! Do I feel stupid or what?

Thanks!

[dfloyd4]

As a follow-up, after successfully copying the XF86Config-4 file from root to the Debian install I still get blank video after "Starting KDE Desktop". Evidently 64Mb WILL not run KDE! Thanks for the assistance.