# Graphics Problem (Fedora 10)



## intense_one (Nov 10, 2008)

Ok, so I installed Fedora 9 on my Dell Dimension 2400, then installed all updates, bug fixes, etc. I then proceeded to upgrade to Fedora 10 first using preupgrade. Seemed to work fine until I rebooted to actually upgrade the system, a box came up looked fine said something like starting up. Then a white window appeared in the center of the screen, I left it to load and then the screen had pixels of colors all over, and the mouse would not move. I reinstalled Fedora 9 and used yum to upgrade, another problem, when I would boot into Fedora 10 at the ilogin screen a few things were missing lines were over text and nothing could be clicked. Any reason why, or maybe a solution? Thanks.


----------



## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

The graphic problem can be solved by

(1) Press ctrl+alt+backspace to get the terminal mode. No need to do this if you are already in terminal mode.

(2) Obtain root privilege by command su (sudo su for Ubuntu and Debian families).

(3) Edit the configuration /etc/X11/xorg.conf in terminal mode, using say editor vim or vi or nano. Normally the area to look is the "screen" and the video driver. One can try the standard like "vesa", "fbdev", "nv" or "radeon" for the video driver. Make sure the screen display capability matching the vertical and horizontal frequencies. If Fedora 9 works then use its selection for the video and screen settings in Fedora 10. (Not always work especially if the Fedora 10 uses a different version of xorg to Fedora 9).

(4) save the /etc/X11/xorg.conf and start X again using command "startx".

(5) Keep repeating the above until Linux springs into life.

Works for me in all Linux whenever the installer fails to match my video..


----------



## intense_one (Nov 10, 2008)

im not sure i understand terminal mode it just logs me out, and step 3 needs to be explained a little better


----------



## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Your problem appears to be a mismatch of the video card or the refresh rate of the monitor.

Linux is actually still communicating with you but the screen can't show the message. The step (1) is to abort the desktop or graphic user interface (GUI) and so you will get a command prompt or a terminal mode.

If you get a command prompt then you can modify the system settings. The X-Windows has a configuration file called xorg.conf stored in the subdirectory /etc/X11. You can see the content of the file by command "cat" like

```
cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf
```
Since you have no access to desktop you can only change the content of xorg.conf by an editor. The commonly available editors are vi, vim and nano.

It is beyond the scope of this thread to teach you how to use the editor.

The output from my rPath (belonging to Red Hat family) are

```
[[email protected] saikee]# [B][COLOR="Blue"]ls /etc/X11[/COLOR][/B]
applnk  gdm       proxymngr     starthere  twm  xdm    xkb      [COLOR="Red"][B]xorg.conf[/B][/COLOR]   xsm
fs      lbxproxy  serverconfig  sysconfig  X    xinit  Xmodmap  Xresources
[[email protected] saikee]# [B][COLOR="Blue"]cat /etc/X11/xorg.conf[/COLOR][/B]

# XFree86 4 configuration created by pyxf86config

Section "ServerLayout"
        Identifier     "Default Layout"
        Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
        InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
        InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "Files"

# RgbPath is the location of the RGB database.  Note, this is the name of the
# file minus the extension (like ".txt" or ".db").  There is normally
# no need to change the default.
# Multiple FontPath entries are allowed (they are concatenated together)
# By default, Red Hat 6.0 and later now use a font server independent of
# the X server to render fonts.
        RgbPath      "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
        FontPath     "unix/:7100"
EndSection

Section "Module"
        Load  "dbe"
        Load  "extmod"
        Load  "fbdevhw"
        Load  "glx"
        Load  "record"
        Load  "freetype"
        Load  "type1"
        Load  "dri"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

# Specify which keyboard LEDs can be user-controlled (eg, with xset(1))
#       Option  "Xleds"         "1 2 3"
# To disable the XKEYBOARD extension, uncomment XkbDisable.
#       Option  "XkbDisable"
# To customise the XKB settings to suit your keyboard, modify the
# lines below (which are the defaults).  For example, for a non-U.S.
# keyboard, you will probably want to use:
#       Option  "XkbModel"      "pc102"
# If you have a US Microsoft Natural keyboard, you can use:
#       Option  "XkbModel"      "microsoft"
#
# Then to change the language, change the Layout setting.
# For example, a german layout can be obtained with:
#       Option  "XkbLayout"     "de"
# or:
#       Option  "XkbLayout"     "de"
#       Option  "XkbVariant"    "nodeadkeys"
#
# If you'd like to switch the positions of your capslock and
# control keys, use:
#       Option  "XkbOptions"    "ctrl:swapcaps"
# Or if you just want both to be control, use:
#       Option  "XkbOptions"    "ctrl:nocaps"
#
        Identifier  "Keyboard0"
        Driver      "keyboard"
        Option      "XkbModel" "pc105"
        Option      "XkbLayout" "gb"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
        Identifier  "Mouse0"
        Driver      "mouse"
        Option      "Protocol" "IMPS/2"
        Option      "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
        Option      "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
        Option      "Emulate3Buttons" "yes"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
        Identifier   "Monitor0"
        VendorName   "Monitor Vendor"
        ModelName    "Philips 170B"
        DisplaySize  340        270
        [B][COLOR="DarkOrchid"][SIZE="5"]HorizSync    30.0 - 82.0
        VertRefresh  56.0 - 76.0[/SIZE][/COLOR][/B]
        Option      "dpms"
EndSection

Section "Device"
        Identifier  "Videocard0"
    [COLOR="DarkOrchid"][B][SIZE="5"]    Driver      "vesa"[/SIZE][/B][/COLOR]
        VendorName  "Videocard vendor"
        BoardName   "VESA driver (generic)"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
        Identifier "Screen0"
        Device     "Videocard0"
        Monitor    "Monitor0"
        DefaultDepth     24
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     16
                Modes    "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
        SubSection "Display"
                Viewport   0 0
                Depth     24
                Modes    "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
        EndSubSection
EndSection

Section "DRI"
        Group        0
        Mode         0666
EndSection
```
rPath has all the editors of vi, vim and nano.


----------



## intense_one (Nov 10, 2008)

so i change the text you made bigger and colored to match my graphics card?


----------



## intense_one (Nov 10, 2008)

this is what mine has in it


```
# Xorg configuration created by pyxf86config

Section "ServerLayout"
    Identifier     "Default Layout"
    Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
    InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"
# keyboard added by rhpxl
    Identifier  "Keyboard0"
    Driver      "kbd"
    Option        "XkbModel" "pc105"
    Option        "XkbLayout" "us"
EndSection

Section "Device"
    Identifier  "Videocard0"
    Driver      "intel"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Videocard0"
    DefaultDepth     24
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
    EndSubSection
EndSection
```


----------



## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

Your Linux uses "intel" as the video driver which is listed in /usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers. There seems to be missing the display resolution. I would copy and add the relevant line from my post onto your xorg.conf, like this (red bit is the addition)

```
Section "Screen"
    Identifier "Screen0"
    Device     "Videocard0"
    DefaultDepth     24
    SubSection "Display"
        Viewport   0 0
        Depth     24
        [COLOR="Red"][B]Modes    "1280x1024" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"[/B][/COLOR]
    EndSubSection
```
Whenever xorg fails it dumps the log file in /var/log/Xorg.0.log so you should have an idea what hardware it dislikes in your setup.


----------



## intense_one (Nov 10, 2008)

i think ur right ill try it later


----------



## intense_one (Nov 10, 2008)

i got a logo screen but nothing happened, i restarted and i think it happened again


----------



## saikee (Jun 11, 2004)

I think tapping the esc or F2 will trigger the terminal mode when the system is loaded. Your upgraded system may have a problem in booting up even after you solve the screen problem.

Cut the loss. Save your data and do a clean install with Fedora 10. Newer versions by default are unstable and buggy. It is always a bad idea to upgrade it on top of an older version. A clean install is to let the installer format the partition before the installation. The installer can't get everything right if you insist a new system to be inside an old system because the installer has a huge job to see which system file it could or could not overwrite.


----------

