On Sun, 2008-12-21 at 20:00 +0100, Alain PORTAL wrote:
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Le dimanche 21 décembre 2008, Alan Bartlett a écrit :
<snip> > following is from memory -- from a CLI, you could try this command (IIRC): > > system-config-display --reconfig --set-resolution=1024x768 --set-depth=24 > --set-driver=vesa > > You might prefer to boot the system into single-user mode before invoking > the above command.
The vga= stuff (if you need to use it) should get you get a virtual screen that you can use for command line stuff. Just remember to convert to decimal if you code a value on you grub menu boot. If you use "vga=ask" (no quotes) you shouldn't need to do it IIRC - it's been a long time since I used it.
OK. Let's try some basics. Get into single-user mode (e.g. telinit 1) or when you boot, grub edit the kernel= line and add a space and a "1" (no quotes) to the end of the line.
If you get to single-user with a boot (adding the " 1" in grub edit mode), alternate consoles will have some stuff of possible value. <CTRL>-<ALT>-<Fx> (where the Fx is function key F1, F2, F3, ...) should switch you to other screens. Also, <ALT>-<RIGHT> or <ALT>-<LEFT> can be used to cycle through. If X has not been started, the <CTRL> can be omitted from that first set I mentioned.
Once you are at the root prompt, do the system-config-display with no parameters. Looking at the alternate consoles while the config is running might be helpful.
If the system finds _any_ driver it can use - e.g. vga, svga, vesa - it should bring up a graphical screen that has a computer icon and some tabs for display, multi-head, etc. There's a couple drop-down menus that let you select resolution, color depth, etc.
Select something not too "heavy" and save the settings and exit.
If only part of the screen is visible, maybe the screen is scrollable? Try moving the mouse off the edge (Hmm. Is the mouse working during this process? I forgot to test that).
1) Can you get/see what I described at all? 2) If you can, and if you make and save changes, you should be able to get to a graphical screen later. BUT FIRST ... 3) At a root prompt, type dmesg | less and look for any messages that might give clues. This might be useful regardless of the results of 2).
Also, there might be useful messages in /var/log/messages and /var/log/Xorg.*.
I don't recall what card you have - nvidia? There might be a solution for that in rpmforge (I don't know how new his latest is - but we can investigate that later if we get a basic operation going for you. Also, nvidia usually has drivers for linux on their site but they don't work as we want for an "enterprise class" system. No rpms, IIRC).
Anyway, back to the main task. If step 2) above seems to have worked, try
telinit 5
if you have anything at all that is working, you should get a graphical login screen running in an X environment. That will give you a working environment, at least, and you can pursue other things.
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